“Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, ‘Rabbi, eat!’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples asked one another, ‘Has someone brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? Look, I tell you: lift up your eyes and see that the fields are already white for harvest! The reaper is already receiving his wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.”
 

The expression ‘golden October’ does not merely refer to the foliage turning red and yellow in autumn, but also expresses the abundance of the harvest in this month. It is no coincidence that Harvest Festival, which we celebrate on 6 October, falls during this bountiful season.

The disciples in the Gospel of John passage are concerned for Jesus’ physical well-being. Their Master, however, speaks to them on a spiritual level. He lives on a different kind of food, one they do not know. Promptly, the disciples confirm their ignorance by remaining fixated on the material level and asking whether someone had given him something to eat. Readers then and now know better than the disciples. We understand Jesus and his answer: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work” (v. 34). This corresponds to Jesus’ response during his temptation by the devil at the end of the 40 days in the desert: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4).

It is not the enjoyment of earthly gifts that is problematic, but remaining attached to the earthly and material. Every human being – not just Jesus – is much more than matter. We possess the capacity for spirituality and thus, even on earth, a connection to the world beyond. We may and should give thanks for God’s gifts and take delight in them, but we must not stop there. We are called to perceive and acknowledge the reality behind earthly things – God.

The pericope John 4:31–36 relates to the missionary situation of that time. The ‘harvest’ (in the context of the broader narrative of the Samaritan woman, John 4) is to be understood as ‘proclamation’. Proclamation must not be postponed. Now is the time for proclamation. The Kingdom of God begins in the here and now, and we are its messengers, the ‘reapers’ who bring in the harvest so that it does not go to waste and we do not go to waste.

The popular Christian harvest festival as a church service is not to be viewed merely in material (or nowadays: ecological) terms, however important these dimensions may be; it also points us towards our life before God. We are invited to ask ourselves about the fruit of our lives as Christians (without falling into works-righteousness), and to feel encouraged to live our everyday lives as proclamation.

For example, in a quiet moment, reflect or meditate in prayer: Where do I speak about God or my faith with other people? Where can I do, say, give or organise something for God’s sake?

We are invited to bring in the spiritual harvest; we are encouraged to bring it to life in our daily lives – not at some point in the future, but now: “Lift up your eyes and see that the fields are already white for harvest!” (v. 35)

With this in mind, I wish you personally a golden October.

Barbara Heitfeld