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Jesus and the Woman With Five Husbands
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The Cycle of Gospel Harvesting
“He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life,
that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For
in this the saying is true ‘One sows and another reaps.’” Those who
receive the gospel are to be His living instruments. One scatters the
seed, another gathers the harvest, and both rejoice together in the
results of their labor.
Jesus said to the disciples, “I sent you to reap that for which you
have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into
their labors.” The disciples were entering into other people’s labors.
An unseen agency had worked silently but effectively to produce the
harvest. Christ was about to water the seed with His own blood. His
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disciples were coworkers with Christ and with holy men of old. By
the Spirit’s outpouring at Pentecost, thousands were to be converted
in a day. This was the result of Christ’s sowing, the harvest of His
work.
The Samaritans came and heard Jesus, and they believed. Crowd-
ing around Him at the well, they asked Him question after question,
and eagerly they received His explanations of many things that had
been obscure to them. Their perplexity began to clear away. Anx-
ious to hear more, they invited Him to their city and begged Him to
remain with them. For two days He stayed in Samaria, and many
more believed.
Jesus performed no miracles among them, except to reveal the
secrets of her life to the woman at the well. Yet many received Him.
In their new joy, they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not
because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know
that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
Christ Breaks Down Walls of Prejudice
Jesus had begun to break down the partition wall between Jew
and Gentile and to preach salvation to the world. He mingled freely
with the Samaritans and accepted this despised people’s hospitality.
He slept under their roofs, ate with them at their tables, taught in their
streets, and treated them with the greatest kindness and courtesy.