What is your food today? The eternal perspective on sustenance.

I have been away in India, Malaysia and Singapore for the last six weeks. Due to poor access to computers, internet and other factors, I was unable to write for the blog. I hope to compensate by writing a rash of articles in the next few days! No, that’s not true. I will only write, as I feel led by the Spirit to share something. To write from the flesh is to court disaster.

Mission work

We can never compartmentalize our mission here on earth into secular or sacred. This comes out distinctly in the story told in John 4. Jesus and his disciples were going to Galilee via Samaria. They had stopped at Jacob’s well to rest, and while the disciples went into town to buy food, Jesus remained at the well and encountered the Samaritan woman. The whole episode has many lessons for you and I. In summary, Jesus speaks to the woman, she becomes a believer, she goes back to town to tell others about Jesus, the townspeople come to hear from Jesus first hand, and they then become believers too. It is a powerful indicator to all of us that we can share Jesus to others, very shortly after we become a believer. The only prerequisite is a believing heart and willing spirit.

The question we should ask ourselves is:
How willing are we to share Jesus with others?

It is not a question of “how able we are” or “what opportunity we have” or “how doctrinally sound we are”. It is only a question of willingness and enthusiasm.

I want to meditate on what happened after this incident. The rest of the narrative teaches us an important eternal truth.

John 4: 31 -38
In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! 36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

V 32 the disciples now ask him to eat. Instead of eating, he cryptically says, “I have food to eat which you do not know of”. He did not say he had eaten. He was making a statement of purpose.

The disciples, like you and I would, thought immediately of the temporal aspects. He has not eaten, but says he has food to eat! H never said that he had eaten, yet they assumed so. Did someone give him food, they asked.

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, to finish His work”.

What is your food today? Not your temporal food, which we know we all partake of everyday. But what is your food from the eternal perspective?

The key lies in the words “the will of Him who sent me”. Our eternal food is to do the will of God. And what is this?

Many Christians list admirable things when asked what the will of God is for the Christian believer today. Some say that we must pursue holiness. We are to become more Christ-like daily. We are to work to be exemplary if our dealings with others. Or some say we should love God and know Him better. WE should strive to worship Him. Or we should develop the spiritual disciplines.

All of these are good and desirable. They are all in some way required of us when we come to put our faith in Jesus and to ask Him to be Lord of our lives.

But the one thing we cannot do in heaven (in the eternal life), that we can still do till our dying breathe in this temporal world, is to participate in the harvest of souls for the Kingdom.

Jesus makes it plain that the will of the Father was for believers to see that there was a vast harvest of souls. Workers are needed to bring these souls to Christ. That is His overriding will for us today.

Do not think in terms of future service. Four months more? No, says Jesus. The harvest is ripe now! It is a mystery as to the relationship between our sharing Jesus with others and the work of the Spirit in the hearts of unbelievers that makes them responded to the message. However it is not useful to speculate on the matter, if it leads to inaction. Everyone has apart in the harvest. Some may sow, others will reap.

I have ministered to men who have been primed by others. They had heard the message in other settings. But when I broached the subject of Jesus, at that point in time, they were ready to believe. I was the harvester. But I know that I have also sowed a lot. I do not know whether others have harvested. I believe God sometimes does not show this to us, to prevent us becoming spiritually proud.

The car on the assembly line starts out as a shell. By the time the finished product rolls out, it would have been the collaborative effort of hundreds of workers. Some would have only put in the door hinges. Others the wiring system. But they all feel satisfaction when the fully assembled car rolls out. Oftentimes, the worker will not know which car he worked on.

Similarly, it is only in heaven that we may know how much and how many people we helped reach for Jesus. What God wants now is for us to just share Jesus with others.

“Come see a Man” was the simple line the Samaritan woman used. If you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour, and if He is your personal friend and guide, you too can tell everyone that you meet “Come meet my friend, Jesus”.

What is your food? Your food is to do the will of Him who sent Jesus, who looks at the harvest and asks you and me to respond. We are to do the will of God and share the gospel boldly wherever we are.

How will you answer today?

Amen
+Dr. Joshua Raj