Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Elisha Purifies the Deadly Stew

³⁸ When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, “Put on the big cooking pot, and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”

³⁹ One went out into the field to gather herbs. He found a wild vine and gathered from it wild gourds, filling his clothes, and came and split them into the pot of stew, but they did not recognize them. ⁴⁰ So they poured it out for the men to eat. But as they were eating the stew, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot.” They could not eat it.

⁴¹ But he said, “Then bring flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it for the people and let them eat.” And there was nothing bad in the pot.

³¹ Meanwhile His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

³² But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

³³ Therefore the disciples said one to another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen! I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. ³⁶ He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit that leads to eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this is the saying true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap a crop for which you did not labor. And you have benefited from their labor.”