Albert Barnes Commentary John 4:35

"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and [then] cometh the harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest." — John 4:35 (ASV)

Say not ye. This seems to have been a proverb. You say—that is, people say.

Four months and, etc. The common time from sowing the seed to the harvest, in Judea, was about four months. The meaning of this passage may be thus expressed:

The farmer, when he sows his seed, is compelled to wait a considerable period before it produces a crop. He is encouraged in sowing it; he expects fruit; his labor is lightened by that expectation. However, the reward is not immediate—it is remote.

But it is not so with my preaching. The seed has already sprung up. Scarcely was it sown before it produced an abundant harvest.

The gospel was just preached to a woman, and see how many of the Samaritans are coming to hear it also! There is, therefore, more encouragement to labor in this field than the farmer has to sow his grain.

Lift your eyes. See the Samaritans coming to hear the gospel.

They are white. Grain, when ripe, turns from a green to a yellow or light color, indicating that it is time to reap it. So here were indications that the gospel was effective, and that the harvest was to be gathered in. From this we may learn:

1. There is as much encouragement to attempt to save souls as the farmer has to raise a crop.
2. The gospel is suited to make an immediate impression on the minds of people. We are to expect that it will. We are not to wait for some future period, as if we could not expect immediate results. These wicked and ignorant people—little likely, apparently, to be affected—turned to God, heard the voice of the Savior, and came in multitudes to Him.
3. We are to expect revivals of religion. Here was one instance of it under the Savior's own preaching. Multitudes were excited, moved, and came to learn the way of life.
4. We do not know how much good may be done by conversation with even a single individual. This conversation with a woman resulted in a deep interest felt throughout the city, and in the conversion of many of them to God. So a single individual may often be the means, in the hand of God, of leading many to the cross of Jesus.
5. What evils may follow from neglecting to do our duty! How easily might Jesus have alleged, if He had been like many of His professed disciples, that He was weary, that He was hungry, that it was considered improper to converse with a woman alone, that she was an abandoned character, and there could be little hope of doing her good! How many consciences of ministers and Christians would have been satisfied with reasoning like this? Yet Jesus, in spite of His fatigue and thirst, and all the difficulties of the case, seriously set about seeking the conversion of this woman. And behold, what a glorious result! The city was moved, and a great harvest was found ready to be gathered in! Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.