HOW TO BE WELL FED AND SATISFIED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Just then His disciples returned and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward Him.

Meanwhile His disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

Then His disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought Him food?”

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

John 4:27-38

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s devotion, we looked at Jesus’ encounter with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, an encounter where Jesus promised the woman a kind of water that was unlike any she had ever had before, a living water that would become a spring “welling up to eternal life” within the person receiving it (John 4:13-14). Through His words, Jesus also let the woman know that He was no ordinary man but one with the special power to know the lives of anyone He met.

You may also recall from yesterday’s scripture passage that the disciples weren’t with Jesus when He exchanged dialogue with the Samaritan woman. We read that they had “gone into town to buy food” (John 4:8). As they returned, we find in today’s verses that they were surprised to find Jesus talking with the woman at the well but stopped short of interrogating Him about it.

Meanwhile, the woman, after having finished listening to Jesus, left her water jar and ran off to town to tell others about what she had experienced, saying to the people:

“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”

And with that, the people went with the woman, coming “out of the town” and making “their way toward Him”.

Concurrently, the disciples, fresh from their shopping trip and reunited with Jesus, encouraged Him to “eat something”. In response, we found Jesus saying something to His followers that very similar in nature to what He had said to the Samaritan woman. For instead of speaking about the kind of food that the disciples were referring to, we find Jesus talking about a different kind of food as He tells them:

“I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

Now the disciples, not understanding that Jesus was speaking to them allegorically, begin to wonder if someone had brought Jesus some food already, maybe food He had stashed so they didn’t know about what He had. Sensing their confusion, we find Jesus elaborating on His words, explaining to His disciples that:

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Here Jesus tells us how to be well fed and satisfied, not by gorging ourselves with the world’s fares but rather carrying out the Father’s will, a will that will always come around toward seeking the unsaved and helping them find their way to salvation.

In other words, when we hunger for the Lord to use us for His purposes, He in turn will put us to work in such a way that will ensure we always reap a rich harvest, “a crop for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together” as spiritual food is produced that leaves everyone well fed and satisfied.

And so it can be today as well for anyone who has pledged their service to the Lord. For He is just as much ready to use us in ways to further His kingdom here on earth today as He was back in the days of Jesus. All we have to do is remain obedient to His calling and continue to harvest souls who set themselves aside to give Him their everything, just as He gave His everything for us.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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