4:35-38
These verses contain a vital lesson on understanding the times and our place in them. It was probably some time in winter, so there was four months to go till harvesting. This would be a set conception in the disciples’ minds. However,Jesus had not come to give lessons on agriculture. They also had set conceptions on who could be saved, how people could be saved. And we all have similar fixed ideas. Jesus tells us that we need to get rid of these ideas. The Jews had written the Samaritans off, but Jesus had deliberately gone through the Samaritan territory, and people had come to believe, the very same people that the Jews had written off.
Why had this happened? Because God was doing things they knew nothing about. They had seen the compromise of the Samaritans, the rejection of Jerusalem. This was true, but God had also been doing other things. There was, as we saw with the woman, still an expectation of the Messiah, still some form of desire for God. It was hopelessly imperfect, but then that is true of all of us. Seeds had been planted, and now Jesus was reaping the harvest.
The disciples would do likewise. It is not clear what the immediate reference is in v38, but it may be the Galilean missionary trip that we read of in the synoptic gospels. However, the general point is clear. We need to realise that what we do is only a small part of a much bigger plan, and a plan that has been in operation for much longer than we have been around. And we need to appreciate the limit of our vision. Only when we realise how small we are can we do truly great things.
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