FOOD FOR JESUS
John 4:31-34 NKJV
31 In the meantime 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 to one 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.
Jesus was constantly saying things to His disciples that made them scratch their heads. The problem was not in what Jesus was communicating but rather the perspective that He spoke from compared to the perspective of the disciples.
This chapter contains the story of the woman at the well. Jesus is weary, so He is sitting by a well while the disciples all go into town to buy food. Jesus engages a woman who came by herself to draw water. This woman had been married five times and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. And yet this woman seemed to have a heart hunger for God. This woman with a somewhat sketchy past was looking for the Messiah. And it was this woman that Jesus revealed Himself to as the One she was looking for. Jesus did not make it a habit of revealing who He was. So, the fact that He would reach out to a Samaritan woman of questionable background shows how much God is interested in the heart of a person. God does not look at people from the same perspective that man does.
When the disciples come back from town with the chicken and waffle fries, my add, they are caught off guard that Jesus is talking with a woman. So, skipping over that, the disciples urge Jesus to eat. The journey had been long, and some food would help Jesus. And Jesus shared with them that He had food to eat. But they did not know about His food. This set off another round of bewilderment for the disciples. Did someone bring Him some food? I didn't know that Uber Eats delivers way out here (again, my add). But you get the point. Jesus is speaking from a spiritual perspective, and the disciples are thinking completely natural. In their mind, when Jesus spoke of eating food, of course, they were thinking natural bread and meat.
So Jesus helps them out. He describes the food that He is referring to. His food was to do the will of God and to finish the work God had given Him to do. Jesus was the One who stated that man does not live by bread alone but by the Word of God. This indicated that God's Word is food to our spirit. Now, He was saying that doing the will of God was food to Him. Obeying God and finishing the work God had given Him to do was sustaining to His soul. Jesus is revealing to us that there are things that "feed" us outside of natural food.
APPLICATION
The words of Jesus raise an interesting question for us. What is it that feeds us? What in our lives besides natural food makes up the substance that nourishes our soul?
I believe the food that feeds us is similar to what was food for Jesus. Finding and fulfilling our purpose in life is food for our inner man. This is the reason people look for outward things to satisfy them, but it always comes up short. Living for the praise of man or the accumulation of material things only satisfies for a short time. Living for a good time and enjoying the moment is never quite enough. Mankind does many things in order to feed the hunger of his soul. But true satisfaction comes from pursuing the higher things of God's Kingdom. Jesus told this woman at the well that those who drank from the water that He gives would never thirst again. Hunger and thirst are two of the most basic needs of physical man. Spiritual hunger and thirst are just as real but only satisfied in our connection to Christ.
PRAYER
Lord, show me how to pursue the things that truly satisfy my soul. I want the food and water that comes from You!