Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)
In John 4, Jesus was traveling with His disciples from Jerusalem to Galilee. Normally, Jews traveling that route would avoid the land of the Samaritans, a people they generally didn’t like and didn’t get along with. Yet Jesus was determined to go through Samaria, and on the way, He came to the city of Sychar – also known as Shechem in the Old Testament.
Coming to a well outside Sychar, Jesus sent His disciples into the village to get some food. When the disciples left, Jesus had an amazing conversation with a Samaritan woman. The interaction Jesus had with her is a wonderful example of evangelism.
When the disciples returned with the food, the woman went back to the village to tell them about her amazing encounter with the Messiah. The disciples urged Jesus to eat what they brought back, but Jesus told them that He had food that they didn’t know about (John 4:32). They wondered what Jesus meant, and who could have brought Him the food, but then Jesus explained that He spoke in spiritual sense by saying, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
For Jesus, doing the will of His Father in heaven was like food – it was satisfying and gave strength, just like a good meal does. Jesus didn’t mean to say that food and drink and rest are not important. Instead, He wanted His disciples to know that life was more than those things; that man does not eat by bread alone.
Jesus had a greater source of strength and satisfaction than the food He ate. Jesus explained to His disciples that His true satisfaction was to do the will of His God and Father.
Jesus did not even say, to do the will of My Father. In this case Jesus saw Himself as just a servant, not a son. This is how completely Jesus was absorbed in doing the will of His Master – and it satisfied Him like a good meal satisfies a hungry man or woman.
The experience of countless others through the centuries has proved Jesus true in this statement. There is nothing more satisfying than doing the work of God, whatever that is for the believer. Though this is counter-intuitive and against our natural self-seeking, it is true.
Yet Jesus was also concerned to finish His work. Jesus found satisfaction in not merely starting the work of God but in finishing it. Later when Jesus said from the cross, It is finished (John 19:30), He used the same basic wording. Jesus found ultimate satisfaction in doing the will of His God and Father, finishing that work at the cross.
Give yourself to do God’s will in your life, and you will also find it to be as satisfying and strength-giving as a wonderful meal.
Click here for David’s commentary on John 4
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