The sower and the reaper rejoice together

Jesus was sitting by a well in Samaria, tired from the journey. He had just spoken with a Samaritan woman, and now she was running back into her town, telling everyone she met about the man who knew everything about her. Soon crowds were streaming out across the fields to see him.

As they came, Jesus turned to his disciples: open your eyes and look at the fields; they are ripe for harvest. "Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together."

The disciples had not sown anything in Samaria. Others had prepared the ground long before them. Now they were simply reaping what had already been planted.

That is often how God's work happens. One person sows and another reaps. A parent prays faithfully for years, and a friend is there when the child finally comes to faith. A teacher plants a word in a young heart, and a stranger sees it bloom decades later.

Jesus says both should rejoice together. The harvest belongs to God, and every faithful worker shares in the joy.

Reflect

• Can I think of a time when I reaped something in my own faith, or in someone else's, that another person had faithfully sown?
• Where might I be quietly sowing seeds right now that someone else may one day have the joy of reaping?

Prayer: Lord of the harvest, thank you for the people who faithfully sowed into my life before I ever knew it. Help me to keep sowing your word and your love, even when I cannot see the results, and to rejoice in every harvest, whoever reaps it. In Jesus' Name, Amen.