Sustenance

 This week's verses are John 4:31-34:

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did they?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work.

The disciples have just come back from a long hot day in town and see that Jesus is right where they left him. They realize he probably hasn't eaten yet, so they urge him to grab something before it's too late. But Jesus answers them on a different level than they were expecting, and they are confused.

Like us most of the time, the disciples are thinking about things on the flesh level. Our minds readily attend to the needs of our physical bodies, much more naturally than they do spiritual things. When we talk with people, and we share our experiences, and we talk about need, we are almost always operating on that physical level.

So the disciples are confused. Jesus has clearly gone nowhere since they left, but now he's telling them he's eaten? Where did he get food? Does he have any left? Can he get more? Their minds wander further and further away from the point Jesus made for them.

Finally, Jesus spells it out to them: He is here to do the will of God and to complete his work. That is the source of his sustenance. That is what fills him and gives him satisfaction. That is his primary need. Whether he ate or didn't eat that afternoon doesn't matter to him in the way that reaching out to the Samaritan lady at the well mattered.

Where do we get our sustenance? What keeps us going? Is it the same thing that Jesus talks about in these verses, or is it something more fleshy? Are we here to make ourselves available, or are we here just to consume? Do we notice our missed prayer time as easily as we notice a skipped meal? Do we long for obedience like we long for an all-day turkey dinner? What matters to you the most?

I'm not proud to say that food almost always wins the "food versus prayer" smackdown in my daily priorities. If I had a dollar for every time I thought about food during the day, I would make more money than I do in my current profession! If you put my flesh and my spirit on a scale, the flesh would far outweigh the spirit, if the spirit could even stay on the scale long enough to be weighed before the flesh swallowed it. Whether it's food, or TV, or social media, or sports, or whatever, most of us can probably say similar things.

But it doesn't have to be that way for me or for you. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he opened up access for the Holy Spirit to work on us. That tiny part of us that wants to be more obedient, that wants to spend more time with God, that wants to want those things more than it wants what it wants - we should be introducing that part of us to the Holy Spirit, and asking to become more like Jesus.

And we can use these verses to help gauge how far we are from Christlikeness. Next time you're too busy to eat, ask yourself, "Is this more or less distressing to me than being too busy to pray?" Next time you're too busy to watch that series, ask yourself "Is this more or less disappointing than missing a chance to minister to someone's needs?" We stuff ourselves to the point of discomfort on the food our flesh wants, but Jesus has better food we don't even know about that we've barely tasted.