Charles Ellicott Commentary John 4:37

"For herein is the saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth." — John 4:37 (ASV)

In this that saying is true—that is, true in the deeper sense of the word (Compare to the note on John 1:9)—it finds its realization; it is ideally true. The proverb itself was known both to the Greeks and to the Romans (see examples in Schottgen and Lampe), but the reference is probably to the Old Testament Scriptures.

Those who heard it would certainly think of such passages as Deuteronomy 6:11, or Isaiah 65:21-22. The saying expressed something of the bitterness of human disappointment, which in darker moments all people have felt.

They have sown in hopes and plans and works, which have never sprung above the surface, or have been reaped in their results by other people; or they themselves have passed away before the harvest has come. This is as people see it, but this is not the ideal truth.

The saying is realized in the relation between sower and reaper, which was true then and holds true of every sower who really sows the good seed. He, too, has a daily work and a daily sustenance in the will of Him who sent him. In the inner consciousness of that work being done, and the hope of its completion, he has food no less real than that of him who reaps the harvest.

That he stands alone is the result of his rising above his generation. That he is little understood, or rewarded, by those for whom he works, will be a disappointment to his friends, but, in his truest thoughts, not to himself. His satisfaction will be hard for people to understand. “Surely no one has brought him anything to eat!” I have food to eat that ye know not of.

People smile at this as sentiment or enthusiasm, but this food has been the strength of the best lives, and noblest deeds, of humanity.