“Just then His disciples arrived, and they were amazed that He was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do You want? ” or “Why are You talking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the men, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah? ” They left the town and made their way to Him. In the meantime the disciples kept urging Him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But He said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought Him something to eat? ” “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,” Jesus told them. “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ready for harvest. The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.” John 4:27‭-‬38

So Jesus’ disciples return to the well after buying food and was surprised to see Him talking to the Samaritan woman. None of them, however, was brave enough to ask Him about it. So after the lady left for town to get the other towns-people and the disciples encouraged Jesus to eat. He responds to them by saying that He had sustainance that they know nothing about. While they wondered about how He could have eaten already, He explains that His food (or sustainance) is to “do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,” (speaking of God the Father). Jesus begins talking and seems to be “off-subject”, but with what, in reality, goes right with what He had just said. He talks of harvest time and about how ready the harvest is. In a parallel passage, He illistrates by pulling the grain seeds away from the stem as He talked, none-the-less, what He was saying is that its harvest time! The reaper is already working and you (the disciples) can harvest too! He was speaking of a spiritual harvest and continued, “I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor”, meaning that they would enjoy fruit in their ministry that others had planted long before they came along. This was the “food” that Jesus had said He had that they knew nothing of-“to finish the work of Him Who had sent Him”!

God has been at work to save His creation long before we ever came along. God invites us to join Him in that work (John 5:17)! We often spend lots of time and even money, trying to figure out what God’s will is when all we really need to do is take a look around and see where God is at work and join Him there (Henry Blackaby, “Experiencing God”).

Jesus was sustained by doing God’s will. I need to copy His model of how to live today-how about you?

Think about it!