S163P3 – The mind of Christ: better sustenance

Jn. 4:31-34

In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”  But Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”  Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”  Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”

Jesus said many things that many people might think are strange or cryptic.  His disciples in countless instances seemed to be on a different page.  While they might be speaking of something natural, He would respond with something spiritual.  This passage is one of those times.  Jesus had just been speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well, and she had gone back to the city to tell people about this man who knew her life allthough He did not know her.  Those people then went to see who this man was.  As all this was going on, Jesus’s disciples were trying to get him to eat.  The response from Jesus let them know where their greater hunger should lie.

The response from Jesus here really has nothing to do with physical food.  He was not telling his disciples to fast or making any statement about their diet.  Jesus was in the process of doing good spiritual work, which was a more valuable sustenance.  It was the sixth hour, which was lunch time, so his disciples were attending to a practical physical need.  Jesus preferred to let that need wait while He attended to this spiritual work.  Foregoing his lunch to feed on spiritual food was the better choice.  Jesus was not saying that there is anything wrong with eating if one is hungry, but He was saying that satisfying physical needs is less critical than satisfying spiritual needs.

I think this is really about opportunity and availability.  Those people were there with Jesus at that time in that place, and He took advantage of having their audience.  We do not know whether He would have had that opportunity again, but we do know that He would have had plenty of opportunities to eat afterward.  No bread would have filled Jesus the way doing the Father’s work filled him.  True satisfaction is not found in the body but in the spirit.  If one form of sustenance should be our focus, we would be wise to forego the body for the sake of the spirit.  Father, give us a greater understanding of what our more important needs are, that we would navigate the world as Jesus did.