You know, I envy my pastor; I like to think that when he gets up in the morning, his goal for the day is to carry out the work and the will of God for our church and in the community; and that's the way his day is planned. But for me, although my day is enterwined with the Lord, most of my effort is put into my secular work in this secular world, and that involves most of my thinking and doing and being. And I think that's the case with most of us.
Well that certainly seemed to be the case with Jesus' own disciples as well, so I guess we're in pretty good company! We're told back in vs. 8 that they had left Jesus at that well curb in Samaria to go into town to buy meat (that is, food), which for a lot of us, is a pretty big priority, thus the reason for our preoccupation with it. But we've already seen from Jesus' conversation with that woman that He can change our priorities; in fact that's His goal! He wants to change our view of the world so that, rather than seeing our waterpots as our greatest burden, the eternal souls of others become the objects of our concern. Jesus changes our mission! Believe it or not, He wants to change our view of grocery shopping, and of being stuck in traffic, and bring us to the point where we see ordinary events as opportunities given to us by our God, just as He had with that woman at the well.
Remember that in vs. 14, Jesus had told her that the water she had come to draw would only meet her need for the rest of the day, and tomorrow she would have to come back for more, when what she really needed was eternal life! Now, look at this, in vs. 31..."Jesus, we are hungry. We've been travelling through some hard country and we need to relax and enjoy our meal; won't You just bless the food so we can all eat?" But His response to them, in vs. 32, is confusing..."I have food to eat that you know nothing-of". You should circle those words, "I" and "you", because Jesus has just defined the parameters of their relationship; that is, the difference between Him and us! Just as He had with that Samaritan woman. Water is good, but you have a greater thirst; food is good, but you have a greater hunger. And even though it's right in front of us, we can't see it! And why is that? Because our eyes are foccussed on the material rather than the spiritual!
Now don't think that Jesus is not concerned about our physical needs...we know better that that. But He is also concerned that we far too often, allow our physical desires to override our spiritual mission. He is concerned that we are missing out on what God wants to accomplish in our lives because we have made other plans. He's concerned about us living our lives as though we had never met! So those disciples were confused; it was almost as though they had no idea that Jesus was teaching them spiritual truth..."Has He already eaten?"(vs. 33) They hadn't caught on that Jesus was talking about more that just physical sustenance...He had an appetite that none of us would know anything about! And that was, first of all...
1. To do the will of God, vs. 34(a)
This is what the strongest desire of our lives should be! We need to learn to manage our appetites; we hunger after so many things that only satisfy us for the moment. And that is not always a bad thing, but we mustn't lose sight of priority number one. Jesus stated it best in Matthew 5.6, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled..."!
We don't find real satisfaction (at least I don't!) in satisfying our material desires. We should all know by now, what the will of God is for each of our lives. If you don't, then what you need to do is re-focus for a second, and "...look unto the fields that are already ripe for the harvest" (vs.35); and that should be enough to inspire us to the second aspect of Jesus' appetite...
2. To finish the work of God, vs. 34(b)
The Lord's meat was not only to do His Father's will, but to finish His work. That's what we see when we stop and look at the fields...the waiting work of harvesting for God, and then, being moved by Holy Spirit to finish what has been started in the hearts of men. And do you realize what that requires of the Christian? An entire lifetime of devotion to the job of sharing with others, why we follow Jesus, and their need to follow Him too! Too many believers stop short of attaining their spiritual goals...we lose interest, we fall away or we get careless about spiritual things. We never quite finish the will and the work of God.
We need to open our eyes to the things of the Spirit of God, and to the opportunity He has placed on our doorstep. We all know that every crop has a cycle...green, ripe and rotten, and Jesus doesn't want any fruit rotting on the vine! So there is a sense of urgency here, as well as a sense of purpose, that not one be allowed to be lost, and the result will be a real cause for rejoicing (vs. 36), that fruit is being gathered for eternity!
It's not about you and me; it's all about Jesus...His seed, His soil and His souls. Jesus knew His mission for His life and we need to get close enough to Him to want to experience that same mission in our own lives, as well!
Mind that your appetite is satisfied by the Truth, and nothing but the truth, as determined by the will and the work of God Himself!
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