Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Elisha Makes Some Stew Taste Better

³⁸ Later, Elisha went back to Gilgal, where there was almost nothing to eat, because the crops had failed.

One day while the prophets who lived there were meeting with Elisha, he said to his servant, “Prepare a big pot of stew for these prophets.”

³⁹ One of them went out into the woods to gather some herbs. He found a wild vine and picked as much of its fruit as he could carry, but he didn't know that the fruit was very sour. When he got back, he cut up the fruit and put it in the stew.

⁴⁰ The stew was served, and when the prophets started eating it, they shouted, “Elisha, this stew tastes terrible! We can't eat it.”

⁴¹ “Bring me some flour,” Elisha said. He sprinkled the flour in the stew and said, “Now serve it to them.” And the stew tasted fine.

³¹ While this was happening, Jesus' disciples were saying to him, “Teacher, please eat something.”

³² But Jesus told them, “I have food you don't know anything about.”

³³ His disciples started asking each other, “Has someone brought him something to eat?”

³⁴ Jesus said:

My food is to do what God wants! He is the one who sent me, and I must finish the work that he gave me to do. ³⁵ You may say there are still four months until harvest time. But I tell you to look, and you will see that the fields are ripe and ready to harvest.

³⁶ Even now the harvest workers are receiving their reward by gathering a harvest that brings eternal life. Then everyone who planted the seed and everyone who harvests the crop will celebrate together. ³⁷ So the saying proves true, “Some plant the seed, and others harvest the crop.” ³⁸ I am sending you to harvest crops in fields where others have done all the hard work.