Daily Bread

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned^(A) and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.^(B) Could this be the Messiah?”^{(C) 30} They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi,^(D) eat something.”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat^(E) that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will^(F) of him who sent me and to finish his work.^{(G) 35} Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.^{(H) 36} Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests^(I) a crop for eternal life,^(J) so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’^(K) is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”