May 17, 2015 – John 4:28 – 43
Download discussion questions: John 4_28-43 My food
At the end of John’s lengthy narrative about Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria he reports that the woman’s report stirred up considerable interest in the town. Then John seems to interrupt the story, injecting a more private exchange between Jesus and His disciples, beginning with the word, “Meanwhile” in verse 31. John picks up the story about the local residents and their interest in Jesus a little later in verse 39. Most of the discussion in our group focused on the portion of the discussion between Jesus and the disciples.
The disciples (like the woman just before them) had a very practical concern. They were engaged in obtaining food. She had been preoccupied with getting water (verse 7). In both cases Jesus engaged them with a provocative and perplexing comment about “living water” or “food you do not know about.” (In the case of the woman, Jesus initiated the conversation since it was impossible she would have done so.) The source of living water and the bread of life used ordinary, practical circumstances to stimulate opportunities to reveal more of Himself. A member of our group pointed out that in other instances not everyone responded positively to the openings Jesus provided. The rich young man (Mark 10:17-22) went away. Later in John’s Gospel we will see even “disciples” who “withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore” (John 6:66). This kind of response never seemed to stop Jesus from offering openings, to have “conversations that matter” with others.
Jesus’ comments to the disciples built on their immediate concern for food, particularly food for Him. Presumably, after a significant journey (verse 3-4) they were all hungry and were highly motivated to find food. Jesus extended the very real sense they had of hunger to illustrate how He viewed His mission. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.” Jesus was not motivated for His mission (the mission that He was sent on, a theme repeated over forty times in John’s Gospel) by a sense of duty or obligation. His mission was as necessary to Him as food itself, giving nourishment, sustaining Him, providing energy for His life. Seeing the will of the Father done and accomplishing the work of the Father gave Jesus energy.
Most things in life (activities, job, relationships) either provide us with energy or drain energy from us. A challenging but rewarding career, a loving family, a refreshing hobby – these often give us energy, make us feel more alive, provide a deep sense of well-being. A dull, boring job or family strive drain energy from us emotionally, physically, even spiritually. We generally understand the idea of being energized by something. Jesus was energized by carrying out the mission that He had from the Father, the one who sent Him.
Several key questions came up in our discussion: How do we have this kind of hunger? How do we know if we have it? If our job is draining energy from us does that mean the job is not God’s will for us? Not all of these questions were fully resolved (naturally!) but a few significant points came out.
On the question of the unsatisfying job, the key may be that our careers (or our marriages or our families or anything else in this life) are not intended to provide the full satisfaction and fulfillment that we hunger and thirst for. In His mercy, God often uses those means as channels of happiness. But He remains the source. We can be gratefully appreciative when our job or family provide us that level of satisfaction, when they give us energy. But when they don’t, when the job turns negative (or is lost), or when the marriage is troubled (or a spouse dies), we are reminded that, like Jesus, we are to find our food, our ultimate source of energy, in God Himself.
During the discussion, someone listed, in order, the various images Jesus used: food, harvest, reaping, sowing, labor. The picture seems to be that Jesus is working backwards: if we want food, we need a harvest. A harvest requires reaping, which requires sowing, which requires labor. He is taking His disciples through the logical progression, step by step, to make sure they don’t miss his point. Food – in His case and hopefully in ours that means drawing energy from our relationship with the One who sends us – starts with the labor. Our desire to know God better must be intentional, not haphazard. If we desire that communion with Him as much as we desire food itself we will invest ourselves into knowing Him better.
The fields white for harvest are the indicator, the clear sign of fruitful fields. Our efforts to do the will and accomplish the work He sends us to do is no more haphazard or indiscriminate than our desire to know Him better. We discussed how being attentive and alert and listening to God’s Spirit is how we can discern a field ready for harvest. This led to a fairly intense conversation as one person in the group shared a difficult and awkward situation where there was a desire to offer help to another person but an uncertainty about what the response might be. We talked about the need to take risks while listening for the Spirit’s prompting, looking for the readiness of the field. This was one of the best, most practical “application” discussions we have had.
Jesus’ perspective was that doing the Father’s will and accomplishing His work was food itself, the source of energy. Finding food (or opportunities to “do and accomplish”) are not random but usually clearly indicated, like fields ready for harvest. That is another freeing idea (like the “blowing wind” of the Spirit’s work in an early passage). Rather than feeling pressure and duty and obligation to “make something happen” our attitude can be one of relaxed attentiveness, looking for (not forcing) indications of where God is at work. Then we can move into those opportunities, even when it involves risk (of rejection, of ridicule, of misunderstanding) or when we are uncertain of our adequacy. If the Spirit prompts us to move into His work in another person’s life, we can become part of the labor-sowing-reaping-harvesting-food process.