WHAT IS YOUR FOOD TODAY?
(This is a 5-minute read)
Today, Christians have a million reasons to be busy. Whether we are starting a new job, a family, a new phase in life, or in retirement, busyness is not only a feeling but also an identity we wear like a hard-won badge. It is a sign of our competence and usefulness.
We will not admit when we are tired, overwhelmed, or discouraged but we will tell people that we are busy. Our lives are highly structured for work, leisure, family matters, and everything to do with our own financial, mental, and physical well-being with little room for surprises and spontaneous human interactions.
We are also habituated to a lifestyle of convenient choices enabled by technology on smartphones that make everything accessible to us without any human interaction. We dutifully indulge in Christian rituals like prayer, sharing Scriptures and testimonies through instant messaging without saying a single word to anyone. We swipe our phones multiple times a day but cannot remember when was the last time we reached out to hold someone’s hand or received a hug. We are so caught up in making life work that we have little room for anything unplanned from crises to conversations.
Jesus knew what it was like to be so absorbed in what He was doing that He would skip a meal. One day, He entered Samaria and sat by a well to catch His breath when a Samaritan woman approached the site (John 4:4-34). Tired and hungry, He was waiting for His disciples to arrive with food and could be forgiven for avoiding small talk with anyone He hadn’t planned on meeting. Moreover, He was entitled to some ‘me’ time - free from all social and relational obligations.
However, sensing an opportunity in the form of an unplanned encounter, He struck up a conversation with the woman by asking her: ‘Will you give me a drink?’ (v7). After all, there was a well and she had the tools to draw water from it. So it was something well within her ability to do.
By the time His disciples returned with their takeout bought from a neighboring town, Jesus was satisfied. When urged to eat, His response was somewhat strange, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” (v32)
What Food Was Jesus Talking About?
Oftentimes, we make busyness a virtue born out of stewardship and calling. When the disciples returned with food for Jesus, they were flustered to find Him in another unplanned engagement at a venue not on their agenda. Concerned about this untimely intrusion, they politely waited for the Lord to finish His conversation with the woman before promptly offering Him some food. But instead of a thank you, Jesus delivered another comment that was a little hard to swallow for the disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)
Remember when you’ve had a big breakfast and felt hungry again at lunch? If only we have the same insatiable appetite to tell others about God the way Jesus did! He didn’t have to wait till the next meal to come around to feel the fire in His belly (so to speak), especially when He saw people around Him who needed an encounter with the Bread of Life.
This was what Jesus hinted at in His cryptic rebuttal. It was His personal mantra. He was always on a mission, always motivated. His food source did not come from eating (what He put into His body) but from what came out of His heart.
Simply put, we could substitute the word ‘food’ with ‘strength’, ‘sustenance’ and ‘satisfaction’.
I have [strength][sustenance][satisfaction] to eat that you know nothing about.
My [strength][sustenance][satisfaction] is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.
Spiritual work needs spiritual strength. As a human, Jesus needed to eat but He did not need to have a full meal before He could touch someone’s life. Likewise, as His followers, we do not need to even be in good health or lead a comfortable life or feel like a ‘strong Christian’ to reach out and touch others. Spiritual strength is like muscles that become stronger when they are used regularly!
The things that we need – a good income, a stable job, material assets - may impress others with the appearance of having it all together but whether we are rich or poor, living for ourselves is selfish. We can always talk about far-flung places we had been to a long time ago where we spent a week or so serving the poor but we would not share our spiritual life with a friend we meet for daily walks. To be sure, no one will blame us if we don’t take the first step to have conversations that matter. No one will accuse us of being anti-social if we send a text once in a while. No one will really notice our small appetite for maintaining a healthy spiritual life and spiritual relationships.
When Jesus was sitting at the well, He, too, would not be blamed if He did not make the first move that would transform an entire village. It was not planned; He was exhausted and hungry; it was just a woman (and a Samaritan); and it would be too ‘woke’ and risky for a godly Christian man to befriend her.
In truth, our spiritual life is diseased if we do not cultivate a healthy appetite to share God’s love, compassion and message of hope regularly with both believers and pre-believers. Others may believe that we are truly busy and unavailable to them but they will not believe that our God truly cares and is always available.
Even when He was hungry, Jesus refused to sit around and do nothing to help the woman He met at the well. He refused to be silent. He refused to ignore her. He refused to miss the chance to give her the turnaround that she needed in her life.
Jesus was led by only 3 C’s in His life: the Call of God upon His life; the Cause that none would perish but all would have everlasting life; and the Commitment to finish His work and the task assigned to Him by God the Father.
John 6:27a reminds us, ‘Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.’
What is your food today?
This article is a summary and reflection on a virtual BIR session held on 30 October 2021.
