Ruth 2:1-3:6; John 4:31-42; Psalms 105:8-15; Proverbs 22:26-27
NT: “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. “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”” (John 4:31-38 CSB)
Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well about a well of living water. Then He spoke to His disciples about a source of food/nourishment that they didn’t know about. After the Samaritan woman left Jesus to tell all her friends about her encounter with the Messiah, the disciples arrived from their grocery run and were trying to urge Jesus to eat something. Jesus replied that he had a hunger that was greater than the pangs in His stomach… and His hunger was satisfied by a “food” that they were unaware of. His hunger was to see His Father’s will accomplished, and the only way to satisfy that hunger was to be about His Father’s work. What was that work? Sowing the seeds of the Gospel and reaping the fruits of the Harvest. As the Samaritans in the village began streaming to Jesus because of the testimony of the Samaritan woman, Jesus told His disciples, “Open your eyes and look at the fields… the harvest is ready.” The disciples were focused on feeding the hunger of their flesh and were putting off ministry until their flesh was satisfied. Jesus was focused on feeding the hunger of the Samaritan’s souls and was not about to waste the opportunity to serve His Father for the sake of a few temporary hunger pangs. How many times have we been so engrossed in our work that we forgot to eat? Yet how often are we more committed to our comforts, our desires, our gratification that we ignore the call to love and serve others? If we come to Jesus, our thirst will be quenched and we will never be parched. If we obey Jesus, our hunger will be satisfied. He is the Good Shepherd that leads us to still waters to drink and green pastures to eat. As we come to Him, place our faith in Him, follow Him, and labor with Him, He will give us rest and satisfy the longings of our souls.
Jamie Hicks 