How did the woman know that the Messiah, called Christ, would come? From the writings of Moses. For we have said above that the Samaritans accepted the Pentateuch of Moses. As they received the books of Moses, they knew from them the prophecy about Christ and that He is the Son of God. Thus, the words "let us make man" (Gen. 1:26) were evidently spoken by the Father to the Son; the one who conversed with Abraham in the tent was the Son (Gen. 18); Jacob prophetically spoke of Him: "The prince of Judah shall not fail until he comes, to whom it is delayed" (Gen. 49:10), and Moses himself: "The Lord shall raise up a prophet from among your brethren, as ye shall hear me" (Deuteronomy 18:15), and many other passages proclaim the coming of Christ. That is why the woman says, "I know that the Messiah is coming." When, in this way, the very course of speech demanded, the Lord already revealed Himself to her (the Samaritan woman). If He had said from the beginning that Christ was I, He would not have convinced the woman, and He might have seemed arrogant and proud. And now, little by little, having made her remember the promise of Christ, He has already revealed Himself. Why then does He tell the woman that He is the Messiah, and not reveal Himself to the Jews, who often asked, "Tell us, Are You the Christ?" He said nothing to them, because they did not ask in order to know the truth, but in order to slander more; but to it He clearly reveals Himself, because it is well-intentioned. She asked innocently and with a desire to know the truth. This is also evident from the following. Hearing the revelation, she not only believed herself, but also attracted others to faith, and in all things she is a thorough and believing woman. While the conversation with the woman and the teaching were already over, the disciples came and marveled at His humility, whereby He spoke with such condescension to a poor woman and a Samaritan woman, while He was in glory and fame with everyone. They are surprised, but they do not dare to ask what He is talking to her about. In this way they were trained and retained the respect for the Master due from the disciples! In other cases, they seem to be bold. For example, John falls to his chest (John 13:25); They begin with the question: "Who is greater in the Kingdom of Heaven?" (Matt. 18:1); the sons of Zebedee ask that one sit on the right hand and the other on the left hand (Mark 10:35, 37). In these cases, they ask about what concerned them and what seemed necessary to them at the time. And since the question did not occupy them so much and was not absolutely necessary, they do not use boldness as untimely.

     Then the woman left her waterpot and went into the city, and said to the people, "Go and see the man who told me all that I have done: is not he the Christ? They went out of the city and went to Him.

 At the words of the Lord, the woman's heart burned so much that she left her water pot. So soon she preferred the water of Christ to the well of Jacob, and by the faith that embraced her heart, she was elevated to the rank of an apostle, teaching and attracting the whole city. Go, he said, see the Man Who told me all that I did. Verily, the soul, inflamed by divine fire, does not look at anything earthly, neither shame nor dishonor. So she is not ashamed to reveal her works, but says: Who has told me all that I have done. She could have said in another way: Go and see the prophet who prophesies; but it does not say so, but despises it by its opinion of itself, and has only one thing in mind, namely, to preach the truth. He does not affirmatively say that He is Christ, but, "Is He not Christ?" in order to bring them to the same opinion as Himself, and to make the word more acceptable. For if she had asserted that He was the Christ, some might not have agreed, would not have accepted her opinion as an outcast woman. - Some people understood the "five" Samaritan women to mean five books that the Samaritan woman only accepted. He, he says, whom you now have, that is, my teaching, which you now receive from me, is not your husband; for thou, saith he, hast not yet conjugated with my teaching, the teaching of Jesus, some will say that the Samaritan woman is an image of human nature. Our nature formerly lived on a mountain, possessed a mind full of divine grace. For Adam, before he sinned, was adorned with all divine gifts. He was also a prophet. When he awoke from his sleep, he spoke clearly about the creation of the wife and about the relationship of the husband to her, for he said, "This is now a bone of my bones; and "For this reason shall a man leave his father and mother" (Gen. 2:23, 24). On this mountain, lofty intellect, our nature was, but for offending God we were led into captivity. And the devil, having taken us captive, led the holy seed, that is, every divine thought, to Babylon, that is, to the confusion of this world. Instead of holy thoughts, he implanted coarse thoughts: the lions reigning in us devoured good thoughts, until they persuaded them to accept the words of God. But they did not accept them completely. For malice, having once settled on our mountain, that is, in the mind, although it received the books of Moses, nevertheless did not become wholly good, but was still under a curse. Thus, Jesus, having completed the path, that is, having traveled many paths of economy and ways to our salvation, improving our lives now by threats, now by blows of calamity, now by blessings, now by promises of blessings, and trying to correct us in such ways, labored to correct us. But He also found another dispensation, on which, as satisfactory, He sat down and rested. What is it? The source of baptism, with which He bestowed upon our nature, is like a Samaritan woman. This source of baptism can rightly be called the source of Jacob, that is, the stammerer, for in this source everyone tramples on the devil. In it, too, the Lord destroyed the head of the dragon, which He gave as food to the Ethiopian people (Psalm 73:14). For this dragon is no one who rejoices and eats, like men who are darkened and black in soul, having no part in the divine light, - With this nature of ours entered into a covenant five men, various laws given to him by God: the law in paradise, the law under Noah, the law under Abraham, the law under Moses, the law through the prophets. For after the flood Noah accepted a certain commandment, and Abraham the commandment of circumcision (Gen. 9:1-17; 17:1-14). Having joined with these five laws, our nature subsequently accepted the sixth law of the New Testament, which it did not have as a husband and with which it had not yet been combined. - By the sixth law, which our nature did not have as a man, some may understand the law of idolatry. For this law was not given to him by God for a man, but it was mingled with him as an adulterer. For this reason the prophet also says: "And they committed fornication in the tree" (Jeremiah 2:20) and again: "They committed fornication behind every tree" (Ezekiel 16), apparently he says that they revered images and trees. For our nature has reached such madness that sacrifices have been made to beautiful trees, such as cypresses, sycamores, and the like, for their beauty. And so, when a man has come to love this sixth adulterer and has fallen into idolatry, then the Lord comes and frees us from him, wherefore He says, He whom thou hast now. For by the time of the coming of Christ, indeed, the wise men of the Jews had turned to paganism, as is shown by the heresy of the Pharisees, who believe in fate and stargazing. - The Samaritan woman is also every soul that has unwisely submitted to the five senses, and then accepted false teachings, as if it were the sixth adulterer, but to whom Jesus does good either by baptism or by the fountain of tears. And tears can be called the well of Jacob, that is, of our mind, which tramples on malice. This water is drunk by the mind itself, and its children are thoughts, and its cattle are the irrational parts of the soul, anger and desire. For tears serve as refreshment for the mind and thoughts, and for the other powers of the soul.

     And the disciples besought Him, saying, Rabbi! Eat it. But He said to them; I have food that you don't know. Wherefore the disciples said among themselves, Who hath brought him food? Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work." 

The disciples asked, that is, they asked the Lord to eat, not out of recklessness, but out of great love for the Teacher, for they saw that He had labored from the path and from the scorching heat. And the Lord, knowing that the Samaritan woman would draw almost the whole city to Him, and that the Samaritans would believe in Him, said: "I have what I have, namely, the salvation of men, because this salvation I desire as much as none of you desires sensual food." The food that I have to eat, you My disciples know not. You are still carnal and cannot understand what I say in secret, and therefore you do not know that by food I call the salvation of people. And in other words, you do not know this food, for you do not know that the Samaritans will believe in Me and be saved. What about the disciples? They are still perplexed whether someone has brought Him food. But they do not dare to ask Him a question out of the usual respect for Him. Yet He, although they did not ask, explains what was said in secret, and says: My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me (for the salvation of men is the will of God) and to accomplish His work. The prophets and the law could not accomplish the work of God, because, while they were images and shadows of future blessings, they themselves were imperfect. And the Lord accomplished the work of God, that is, our salvation and renewal. By the work of God, perhaps, we mean man, whom only the Son of God perfected, since He in Himself revealed our nature to be sinless, and, through the divine life in the flesh, perfected in every good work, showed it to be perfect and conquered the world to the end. - And the law is the work of God, since it is written by the finger of God (Deuteronomy 9:10). The Lord accomplished this law because Christ is the end of the law (Romans 10:4). He stopped everything that was done in the law and raised it from bodily service to spiritual service - the Lord often speaks secretly in order to make his listeners more attentive, to arouse them to the investigation and knowledge of what is said in secret. - Calling the salvation of people food, the Lord teaches His disciples that when they are ordained teachers of the universe, they should not care much about bodily food, but should apply all their diligence to the salvation of people. - Notice also that the Lord took viands when someone brought them. For the disciples say, "Has not anyone brought Him food?"

     Делал же это Господь не потому, будто нуждался в услужении других, ибо Он Сам дает пищу всякой плоти (Пс. 135, 25), но для того, чтобы приносящие имели награду и привыкали питать и других и чтобы показать всем людям, что не нужно стыдиться бедности и тяготиться в случае питания от других. Учителям же свойственно и даже необходимо заботы о пище возлагать на других для того, чтобы самим, не развлекаясь, совершать служение Слова. Посему Он даже и заповедал ученикам питаться на счет наставляемых ими (Лк. 10, 7).

     Не говорите ли вы, что еще четыре месяца, и наступит жатва? А Я говорю вам: возведите очи ваши и посмотрите на нивы, как они побелели и поспели к жатве. Жнущий получает награду и собирает плод в жизнь вечную, так что и сеющий, и жнущий вместе радоваться будут. Ибо в этом случае справедливо изречение: один сеет, а другой жнет. Я послал вас жать то, над чем вы не трудились; другие трудились, а вы вошли в труд их.

 Господь начинает теперь яснее раскрывать ученикам то, что прежде говорил прикровенно. Он говорит: вы говорите, то есть думаете, что в четвертый месяц отселе наступит жатва, то есть чувственная; а Я говорю вам, что разумная жатва уже наступила. Это говорил Он о самарянах, которые уже шли к Нему. "Возведите очи ваши", и разумные, и чувственные, и посмотрите на множество самарян, идущих сюда, и на души их, расположенные и готовые к вере, которые, как побелевшие нивы, нуждаются в жатве. Ибо как колосья, когда побелеют, готовы к жатве, так и они готовы ко спасению. - "Жнущий получает награду и собирает плод в жизнь вечную, так что и сеющий, и жнущий вместе радоваться будут". Смысл этих слов такой: пророки сеяли, но не пожали. Впрочем, чрез это они не лишились удовольствия, но радуются вместе с нами, хотя и не жнут вместе с нами. В чувственных жатвах так не бывает. Там, если случится иному сеять, а иному жать, нежнущий скорбит. А в духовных жатвах не так. Но и пророки, проповедовавшие и предрасполагавшие умы людей, радуются вместе с нами, привлекшими людей к спасению. - "Я послал вас жать то, над чем вы не трудились". Господь говорит это для того, чтобы, когда Он пошлет учеников на проповедь, они не смущались тем, что посылаются на дело трудное. Труднейшее, говорит Он, приняли на себя пророки, а вас посылаю Я на готовое. Справедливым изречением называет поговорку, употреблявшуюся в народе: иной сеет, и иной жнет. - Смотри, как Он говорит все со властью и повелением: Я послал вас жать. Пусть слышат это ученики проклятого Маркиона, и Манеса, и подобных, которые отчуждают Ветхий Завет от Нового. Они и здесь обличаются. Ибо если бы Ветхий Завет был чужд Нового, то как бы апостолы пожали сеянное пророками? Если же апостолы жали сеянное в Ветхом Завете, то он не чужд Нового Завета, но оба суть один Завет. Пусть слышат и ариане, что Христос посылает учеников как Господь и Владыка. Посылает для того, чтоб они жали и отрезывали от земных предметов пристрастившихся к ним язычников и иудеев, и сносили их на гумно, то есть в Церковь. В ней, чрез молотьбу волами, то есть учителями, и подчинение им, они растираются и, освобождаясь от всякой плевы, от всего плотского и пожираемого огнем, складываются чистыми зернами в небесную житницу и потом становятся пищею Богу, радующемуся об их спасении. Так Павел жал, отрезывая нас от земли и научая, что жительство наше на небесах (Флп. 3, 20). - Некоторые же слова: посмотрите на нивы, как они побелели и поспели к жатве, - применяют к старцам, по причине их седин и пожатия смертью.