"Invisible Food, Unseen Harvest"

John 4:27-42 Thanksgiving Oct.12/03

Invisible Food: Father's Will & Work

We associate Thanksgiving with stuffed turkeys, pumpkin pies, and heaped tables. But for those who follow Jesus Christ, there is an even more important kind of food. Invisible food.

             Once while travelling through Samaria between Jerusalem and Galilee on the north, John 4:6,8 tell us that Jesus stopped to rest beside a well while the disciples went into the town to buy food. An amazing discussion ensued between a woman who came to draw water; Jesus offered her instead what he called "living water" (4:10). He seemed to know all the secret details about this lady, and answered her most difficult religious objections. She was mystified by Him, and wondered if He might be the long-awaited Christ or Messiah. Leaving her heavy water jug by the well, she ran back into the town to tell others.

             Just before she left, the disciples returned from their grocery shopping expedition. Seeing a crowd starting to head in their direction, they urged the Master to eat something. But for some reason Jesus wasn't interested in bread and fig newtons. V32 He said with a twinkle in His eye, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." What could this mysterious substance be? Had someone slipped Him a slice of goat's cheese when no one was looking? But He'd been all alone except for the water drawer! This set the disciples quizzing each other.

             Jesus solved the mystery by explaining in v.34, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work." While they'd been away, Jesus had been engaged in the thing He loved to do most - soul-winning. That's why He'd come to the planet according to John 3:16, so that people might believe and gain eternal life.

             For believers, satisfaction does not have to do with a meal so big that you have to loosen your belt buckle. It's not about the latest techie toys or an immaculate, well-appointed home, or even having the family home (though these are things we can all be thankful for). If your heart's in the same place as Jesus' is, your satisfaction will come from being about the Father's business, finding how you fit into His plan and will.

             We'll be most thankful when we learn how to exercise our own unique gifts as the special members of Christ's body that we are. When we discover our area of spiritual gifting and begin ministering in that way, it's energizing, ultimately satisfying as no food, no other passing thrill can be. Olympic runner Eric Liddell said, "God made me fast...When I run, I feel His pleasure." God made Liddell to be a runner, one of the fastest in the world, and through exercising that gift with integrity and respect for God's laws such as the Sabbath, Eric pleased His Maker and brought God glory.

             So this weekend, don't just fill up on food you can see. Take time to meditate on what your particular calling may be at this point in time, talk about how God is directing each member of your family, bless one another by celebrating the qualities of Christ and talents for ministries that you notice developing in each other. Savour the "invisible food" as Jesus did - discovering the Father's will and carrying out His projects.

Unseen Harvest

As if the disciples weren't already puzzled enough, Jesus said there was an unseen harvest right in front of them - one they needed to open their eyes to see. V35: "Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? [this was probably mid-December, and the harvest in Palestine is in April] I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." Literally, white, the colour of the grainfields as they ripen, signalling the approach of harvest. But what kind of harvest does Jesus mean? The heads aren't even visible in the grain stalks yet! He continues, "Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together." Perhaps at this point he gestured toward the Samaritans streaming from the town. Oh, now the disciples get it. That "fishers of men" idea again. Just this time it's a harvest of souls. And the disciples hadn't known a thing about it. Last they knew, they'd left Jesus tired out sitting by the well. While they were bargaining for food at the local market, He'd been engaging a lonely bypasser in an encounter of eternal significance.

             With all the rain in the last couple of weeks, it was difficult to see how the soybeans were going to get harvested. The break in the weather has helped that happen. combines have been scuttling through the fields. Forage harvesters have been chopping the corn into silage. People can get into their gardens again to unearth potatoes and gather in the pumpkins. But Jesus is more interested in whether the "people harvest" is being gathered in. Have we prayerfully broached the subject with anyone lately of things that ultimately matter, or do we comment on the weather and keep a safe distance?

             There is a harvest out there waiting to be had. Some people commented after last week's video about the Quebec Project how few evangelical believers there are in that province; while the slides said over a thousand cults and other religious organizations are poised to make inroads in view of the vacuum left by the decline of Catholicism. This populous province needs Jesus, before more suicides and break-ups take place.

             Globally, the fields are just as "white" for harvest. Gospel For Asia director KP Yohannan reports nearly 3 billion people are still unreached with the Gospel. The unreached or "hidden peoples" have only one missionary working for every 500,000 people (compared to the US which has one full-time religious leader for every 230 people in the nation). There are still 1,750 (count 'em!) distinct cultural groups in the world without a single church among them to preach the Gospel. He notes, "These are the masses for whom Christ wept and died."

             While the need for workers is great, the harvest is continuing. Yohannan adds, "Native missionaries are starting hundreds of new churches every week in the Third World, thousands of people a day are being converted to Christ, and tens of thousands of well-qualified, spiritually able men and women now are ready to start more mission work if we can raise their support. In India, which no longer permits Western missionary evangelists, more church growth and outreach are happening now than at any point in our history...[in China] 40-50,000 underground churches reportedly have sprung up during the communist persecution." What a "field"! What a harvest! "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." (Mt.9:38)

             Why was this harvest so unseen, so unexpected for the disciples? V27, when they returned from town it says they "were surprised to find him talking with a woman". In that culture, unfortunately, women were often treated as second-class citizens. This woman who became such an evangelist was probably invisible to the disciples -- they didn't see or notice her, much less consider talking to her. A rabbinic principle of that time cautioned, "Let no one talk with a woman in the street, no, not with his own wife" - as if this was beneath a man's dignity in public. Jesus completely ignored that rule - He saw the woman and treated her with full respect, taking her seriously, addressing her inmost needs.

             A second category in the "unseen" harvest was the Samaritans. V40 notes that when the Samaritans came to him, "they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days." Unheard of! Usually Jews took great pains to avoid Samaritan territory altogether when travelling. Samaritan villages had been known to refuse travellers if it were known they were heading for Jerusalem. Not so here. It's strange that an invitation is given and also strange that a Jewish teacher would accept. The Samaritans probably hadn't even been on the disciples' radar as a potential mission field, but their response was warmer than many areas in Israel!

             Who do we need to "open our eyes" for in order to "look at the fields" and see the harvest? Which of our neighbours or relatives have we unconsciously "written off" in terms of a relationship with God? Towards whom is our community most hostile - vandals? Would we consider them least likely to respond to the Gospel just because they smash signs and steal dipsticks? To what extent might this be a cry for help? In the case of the Samaria revival, Jesus said, "Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour." Who are these hard-working "others" - Himself, the woman? Maybe John the Baptist and the Old Testament prophets, for the Samaritans read the first five books of the Bible. They knew the Law, perhaps as our young offenders do. Paul says even those with no faith background have the requirements of the Law written on their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, accusing or defending them (Rom.1:32; 2:14f). What would be a more redemptive or long-term response to our hooligans than just "make 'em pay!"? The Samaritans knew they needed a Saviour. God's natural law sows that realization deep in people's subconscious; as Paul says, through the law we "become conscious of sin" and its penalty (Rom.3:20; 6:23).

"For Sure" Fact Fulfills

The bins in the combines and grain buggies get filled as they scuttle around the fields, trying not to get stuck. The cold cellar gets stocked with supplies from the garden and orchard. But there is one Provision God Almighty has made that exactly meets the deepest human need. V42, after hanging around with Jesus for a couple days and listening to Him the Samaritans said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world." Hear the certainty there, the conviction? "We believe...we have heard for ourselves...we know [He] really is (literally, in truth) the world's Saviour." Turkey and turnip may fill us for a moment; what we truly hunger to know in life is that God's going to help us with our sin-stuckness, the vandalism of our pride and selfishness, those lustful thoughts, those cutting uncaring words we can't take back. Jesus came as the angel promised, to "save His people (and not just the Jews!) from their sins" (Mt.1:21).

             Several times this past week I heard Dale Lang tell the story of how knowing Jesus personally transformed the violent, tragic loss of his son from a senseless accident and breeding ground for anger and revenge to a means of grace, demonstrating God's power to overcome evil with good. The Lang family believes, and knows Jesus really is Saviour - from a prison of hate, releasing them to love and care and serve others who hurt and are bound up.

Experiment in Eliminating Excess

             Sure, at Thanksgiving we're thankful for all the luxuries we enjoy as one of the most favoured nations on the planet. And we ought to be more thankful. But the most important blessing we have is not our material goods. Maybe our appreciation will be more genuine if we mentally go through the following exercise. Economist Robert Heilbroner describes the luxuries a typical American family would have to surrender if they lived among the one billion hungry people in the Third World:

             "We begin by invading the house of our imaginary American family to strip it of its furniture. Everything goes: beds, chairs, tables, television sets, lamps. We will leave the family with a few old blankets, a kitchen table, a wooden chair. Along with the bureaus go the clothes. Each member of the family may keep in his 'wardrobe' his oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. We will permit a pair of shoes for the head of the family, but none for the wife or children.

             "We move to the kitchen. The appliances have already been taken out, so we turn to the cupboards...the box of matches may stay, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt. A few moldy potatoes, already in the garbage can, must be rescued, for they will provide much of tonight's meal. We will leave a handful of onions and a dish of dried beans. All the rest we take away: the meat, the fresh vegetables, the canned goods, the crackers, the candy.

             "Now we have stripped the house: the bathroom has been dismantled, the running water shut off, the electric wires taken out. Next we take away the house. The family can move to the tool shed...Communications must go next. No more newspapers, magazines, books -- not that they are missed, since we must take away our family's literacy as well. Instead, in our shantytown we will allow one radio...

             "Now government services must go next. No more postmen, no more firemen. There is a school, but it is 3 miles away and consists of 2 classrooms...There are, of course, no hospitals or doctors nearby. The nearest clinic is ten miles away and is tended by a midwife. It can be reached by bicycle, provided the family has a bicycle, which is unlikely...

             "Finally, money. We will allow our family a cash hoard of 5 dollars. This will prevent our breadwinner from experiencing the tragedy of an Iranian peasant who went blind because he could not raise the $3.94 which he mistakenly tough he needed to receive admission to a hospital where he could have been cured."

             Wow! What a reduction -- not much left, is there? Yet that's how a billion people live today. Yet you know what - all those material things that were taken away, all that "stuff", essential as we North Americans think it is - that "stuff" isn't what's most important. The poorest of earth's inhabitants who knows Jesus as Saviour would not trade places for a minute with an unbelieving millionaire. For when the end of our life comes and all is taken away anyway, Jesus is the only name that can save us then.

             The woman at the well could leave behind her heavy water jar - and with it, all her "baggage", the moral millstone that had been pushing her down - because she was excited to find in Jesus someone who finally really loved her, who could save her from her troubles. He's the One we can be most thankful for when hardship arises, when life jars us with its upsets. Jesus challenges us to open our eyes and see what's real food (pleasing the Father), what's worth exerting oneself for (joining in the harvest). He changes our values so we're thankful for what before was overlooked.

             Senator Richard Neuberger once said the experience of contracting cancer changed him. "A change came over me which I believe is irreversible. Questions of prestige, of political success, of financial status, became all at once unimportant. In their stead has come a new appreciation of things I once took for granted -- eating lunch with a friend, scratching Muffet's ears and listening for his purr, the company of my wife, reading a book or magazine in the quiet cone of my bed lamp at night, raiding the refrigerator for a glass of orange juice or a slice of coffee cake. For the first time I think I am actually savouring life. I shudder when I remember all the occasions that I spoiled for myself -- even when I was in the best of health -- by false pride, synthetic values, and fancied slights."

             The Master said, "Even now the reaper...harvests the crop for eternal life." People who are now caught up in materialism or a sinful lifestyle may at any time suddenly awaken to the shallowness of life without the Saviour who came to bring life "to the full" (Jn.10:10). May God give us all a hunger for the satisfaction of serving Him, and grant us eyes to see and invite to the eternal banquet those He would gather to Himself. Let's pray.