John 4:27-38 - The Disciples And The Harvest
27 Just about then Jesus' disciples returned [from town], and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. [Note: It was not customary for a Jewish male to engage a woman in extended conversation in that day, much less a stranger, and certainly not a Samaritan], yet no one said [to Him], "What are you looking for?" or "Why are you talking to her?"
28 So, the woman left her water jar and went back into town and told the people [there], 29 "Come [and] see a man who told me everything I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" 30 [So], the people went out from the town and came to where Jesus was.
31 Meanwhile Jesus' disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, [have something to] eat."
32 But He said to them, "I [already] have food to eat that you do not know about."
33 So, the disciples said to one another, "No one has brought Him anything to eat [have they]?"
34 Jesus answered them, "My food is doing what God, who sent me, wants me to, and accomplishing His work. 35 Are you not [always] saying, 'There are still four months before harvest time comes'? Look, I am telling you [disciples], lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white and ripe for harvest [i.e., people are ready to make a spiritual response]. 36 Already the person who is harvesting [the crop] is being paid for his work, and is gathering a crop for never ending life, so that the one planting and the one harvesting [the crop] may rejoice together. 37 So, the saying is true that one person plants and another harvests [the crop]. 38 I sent you [disciples] to harvest [a crop] that you did not work on; other people have done the work and you have reaped the results of their work." [Note: This is probably an allusion to the preliminary work of preaching done by John, the Immerser, with results occurring under the preaching of the apostles].