Read John 4: 27-38
The disciples have returned from the town bearing food (vs. 8). Upon their arrival they see their Rabbi conversing with a Samaritan woman. Suddenly she takes off towards the town, leaving her water jar behind. They have their questions on what is going on, but no one voices them. Instead, they turn their focus on the food and urge Jesus to eat some.
Now it’s time for the disciples to learn another lesson. Jesus tells them that He has food that they don’t know anything about.
What? Where did He get it from? That woman couldn’t have possibly brought some when she came to the well. Jesus’ statement had them so intrigued that they no longer kept the question to themselves. They started asking each other where Jesus could have gotten this food.
We, the readers know that Jesus just had this intense conversation with a Samaritan woman where He offered Living Water. Now the topic of food is brought up. Coincidence? For us? I think not. For we know that we must have both water and food to sustain our lives. We just got part one of a spiritual lesson of what we need to sustain us. Now we can listen in on the next conversation for part two—the food we need.
Jesus comes right out to explain what His food is.
- To do the will of the Father
- To finish the work He was given
How often I have breezed past these words and got caught up in the next section of verses? This was His food, right? He’s not talking about food for me, is he? Thus, I don’t need to stop and focus here because there are other words to focus on.
But when we stop to reflect and desire not only His Living Water but want to taste His food, what is on the plate? To do what the Father wants us to do. To do the work He has given us to do.
Do we not all have a reason with unique characteristics for God creating us to be here in this time and place? How many of us have heard the following scriptures?
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. Jeremiah 29:11.
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
Our Father in Heaven has a plan for each one of us. We have a purpose—his will for us. There is work He wants us to do for Him. Our food and nourishment come from this journey that we have with Him. He equips us with what we need each day to fulfill His plan for our lives. He provides the sustenance, the food that we need out of our relationship with Him and doing what He created us to do.
There is a spiritual plate of food that is before us. His Word, the opportunity to come to Him in prayer, fellowship with the believers, helping others as we are called, and other places where we are enriched by His Spirit. We need to consume this food by doing. This not only fills us but also fulfills us.
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”. John 6:35
This encounter with the disciples is early in the Book of John. Thus we can assume this is earlier in the time of Jesus’ time with the disciples. He was following a master training plan for these men (and any women that happened to be there). At this point would these disciples have any clue what was their true calling? How early was this in their training that they were learning the building blocks of the ministry the Lord had in store for them?
Jesus started talking about harvest time.
Were they surrounded by some fields that had just been sown? Were plants starting to rise from the ground giving promise of future food and nourishment? Were there also fields that were ready for harvest as well? Doesn’t verse 35 also mention fields that are ripe for harvest? Yes, food.
There are different harvests to be reaped at different times of the year. Each has its own special qualities and tastes. When Jesus was teaching His disciples this lesson, was He pointing to the various fields around them?
Did they see workers in the fields? Were there fields in the season of being planted? Who was doing the sowing? Who was providing the seed to be sown? Were there carts of sorts out in the fields for reaping the harvest? How many men and women were out gathering the crops? What were the rewards or wages for them? Whose field did the harvest belong to?
When Jesus taught, He drew on visuals of tasks that the people around Him were familiar with. Can we picture this along with His disciples?
Let’s zero in on a specific picture of a field in the springtime that is just freshly plowed and seed-planted. Experience and observation over our years have taught us that in the fall, about four months from then, the harvest would come. There is a planting, then time for growth, and then harvest.
Jesus wanted the disciples and us to look beyond what is seen in the natural. Jesus wanted His disciples to see the spiritual harvest. There has been a planting. The seed they did not plant. And there has been time for it to grow. There is now a harvest and it is ripe. Jesus is telling them that they are being sent out to reap that harvest.
Reapers have work to do. And it is not done for free. The reaper will obtain his wages from his work. But in the spiritual sense, this effort is reaping souls for eternal life. And it is not just about the wages. There is gladness in the outcome. The reaper is glad together with the Sower.
The Sower has plowed the ground. He has cleared the way for the seed to be planted. He has provided the means for the seed to grow. It is His land and His investment in the seed from which the reaper can come when the harvest is ready to share in the benefits.
As the disciples are pondering this teaching, in the distance they see several town’s people heading in their direction. A portion of “food”, a harvest is approaching Jesus, and them. And this is only one course. How many more nuggets, how many more nourishing meals, feasts, banquets, tea times, coffee dates, and lunch encounters are to be planned and ingested? How many more divine spiritual fields of harvest were they to see? How many people is the Lord putting on the path that is approaching us so that we may indulge in the tasteful food of the Father’s will?
