"31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”
John 4:31-38
The implications of our Lord's words in 35-38 are considerable and merit careful consideration. What was our Lord's point in quoting (to the disciples) the well-known proverb about harvest, with the telling addition of the words 'white already...'? Some think there is a reference to the prophecy in Amos 9:13 about the messianic age in which the ploughman shall overtake the reaper. In other words, Jesus is announcing that the messianic age has dawned and the kingdom has come, for sowing and reaping have been well-nigh instantaneous in the case of the woman of Samaria. Jesus is saying, in effect, 'There is no need to wait any longer for the harvest; the days of eager waiting and expectation are over. I am come, as the great Reaper, to gather My harvest.' If this be the meaning, it becomes clear that there is no contradiction between what Jesus says here and what is recorded in James 5:7 about having long patience waiting for the harvest to be produced. It is a different emphasis in James, and what he says is always true in its own sense. Long-term work is always a reality. But there may also be the suggestion of a rebuke to the disciples, reminding them that postponing the time of harvest to some future date can be an evasion of the challenge of the hour, and an evidence of lack of faith. This may be indicated in 38, in the words 'I sent you to reap'. The disciples had conversed with the people of Samaria in buying meat from them, but apparently had not thought to bear witness to Christ among them - as the woman had done in her own artless, spontaneous way. Perhaps the disciples had decided that Samaria was too hard a place to expect much response from. How wrong they were proved is seen in these verses. Even as Jesus spoke (35), the men of the city could be seen coming towards Jesus (cf. Isaiah 49:18ff. for a striking parallel, and a suggested source for Jesus' words).