No food necessary
Have you ever been so wrapped up in something that you skipped eating? For me, I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever “forgotten” to eat. However, there have been a few times that for work deadlines I’ve pushed off eating a meal so we could get the job done. I was certainly hungry, but the completion timing for task at hand had such a great impact on our customers, that I was willing to shift my eating schedule.
Until I studied Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, I didn’t realize that Jesus had made the same choice.
We pick up the story just after the Samaritan woman believed in Jesus for eternal life and she was leaving Jesus at the well to tell everyone in her nearby town about Him. However, just because the woman had left didn’t mean that Jesus was done teaching for the day. Next up, He had a lesson for His disciples:
If you recall, before the woman arrived at the well, Jesus had sent the disciples into town to buy food. They returned to the well to meet with Jesus just as the Samaritan woman was running back into town. Since they had been successful in their food-gathering mission, they encouraged Him to eat.
John 4:31-34
In the meantime the disciples kept urging Him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
But He said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought Him something to eat?”
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,” Jesus told them.
Think about this scene from the disciples’ perspective: Why would Jesus refuse food from them? He sent them to buy food, they knew He was worn out from the journey. When Jesus refused their purchased food, the disciples wondered if someone else (…the woman, maybe?) had fed Him. You and I also know that He never did get that drink of water He had asked the woman for.
Instead, Jesus delayed eating because of the work at hand. He found sustaining satisfaction in doing the will and work of God the Father. This isn’t the first recorded time Jesus had done something like this, either – check out what Jesus says during His temptation, as documented in Luke 4, Mark 1, or Matthew 4.
Here at the well, Jesus tells them that He has food to eat that they do not know about…after letting them struggle with this concept, He explains that doing the will of God and finishing God’s work was all the food He needed at the moment.
Just like the woman, the disciples also had things they did not know. Also like the woman, the disciples assumed that Jesus was only talking about the physical, as in physical nourishment. They were looking for who got there first and served their tired master. Instead, Jesus was using a physical food example in order to instruct them about spiritual food.
Spiritual food fuels you in ways that physical food cannot. Physical food doesn’t give you purpose. Physical food doesn’t sustain your mind’s focus, attitude, and desire like spiritual food does. Realizing the urgency and opportunity they had right in front of them, Jesus was focused and ready for the task at hand. When we are using our God-given talents and God-granted time to help others see Jesus, we will find our purpose takes precedence over our physical needs.
Does this mean Jesus had stopped eating altogether? Of course not! In just a few verses, we will see Him accepting the hospitality of the Samaritans. But the task at hand was more important, and physical sustainment was found in working His spiritual mission. We can eat lots of earthly food and still feel empty. Jesus shows that we can feast on doing the work God gives us, and we’ll find great satisfaction.
With our observations here, we see that Jesus is the example to follow: He sees spiritual work as food, and He taught others how to eat. Ultimately, this is our challenge – to do the work God gives us to do, and to finish it. As we do His work, He’ll supply the food.
Keep Pressing,
Ken