“I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.”
'I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have benefited from their labor.' — Jesus' commissioning of the disciples places them in the eschatological harvest. The hard work (kopos) performed by others includes the prophetic tradition and Jesus' own prior ministry. The disciples enter into completed labor.
Church Fathers on John 4:38
Say you not, There are yet four months, and then comes harvest?
Now you are expecting a material harvest. But I say to you, that a spiritual harvest is at hand: lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. He alludes to the Samaritans who are approaching.
And he that reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to life eternal, that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together.
Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!