The Disciples and the Harvest

27 And at this point[fn] his disciples came, and they were astonished that he was speaking with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you seek?” or “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into the town and said to the people,[fn] 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I have ever done! Perhaps this one is the Christ?” 30 They went out from the town and were coming to him.

31 In the meanwhile the disciples were asking him, saying, “Rabbi, eat something!”[fn] 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples began to say[fn] to one another, “No one brought him anything[fn] to eat, did they?”[fn] 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is that I do the will of the one who sent me and complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months and the harvest comes’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.[fn] 36 The one who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, in order that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together. 37 For in this instance[fn] the saying is true, ‘It is one who sows and another who reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have worked, and you have entered into their work.”