24. God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25. The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will tell us everything.” (Messiah is the one called Christ.)
26. Jesus told her, “I am he, and I am speaking to you now.”
27. At that time his disciples returned. They were surprised that he was talking to a woman. But none of them asked him, “What do you want from her?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
28. Then the woman left her water jar and went back into the city. She told the people,
29. “Come with me, and meet a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could he be the Messiah?”
30. The people left the city and went to meet Jesus.
31. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, have something to eat.”
32. Jesus told them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
33. The disciples asked each other, “Did someone bring him something to eat?”
34. Jesus told them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants me to do and to finish the work he has given me.
35. “Don’t you say, ‘In four more months the harvest will be here’? I’m telling you to look and see that the fields are ready to be harvested.
36. The person who harvests the crop is already getting paid. He is gathering grain for eternal life. So the person who plants the grain and the person who harvests it are happy together.
37. In this respect the saying is true: ‘One person plants, and another person harvests.’