Sermon Audio: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ministrybymail

“And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” ²⁸ The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ²⁹ “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” ³⁰ Then they went out of the city and came to Him. ³¹ 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! <sup>36</sup> “And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. <sup>37</sup> “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.” ³⁹ And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of His own word. ⁴² Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."”

The abundance of good food that we enjoy is a testimony to the goodness of our God. He truly provides for us “richly and daily,” as Luther says in his explanation of “Give us this day our daily bread.” We commonly have much more than what we need to keep body and soul together, and we enjoy a great variety of foods.

But the food that we may enjoy isn’t necessarily the same as the food that we find most satisfying. Many of us certainly enjoy sweets and other snacks, depending on our personal tastes. But these are probably not the foods that we find most satisfying. A good, well-balanced meal that is both tasty and nutritious is more likely to satisfy us. After we have eaten it, we feel good, we feel nourished and strengthened. We don’t feel like we have been deprived of anything; we don’t crave anything more.

Here Jesus uses satisfying food as an illustration in His teaching. He says that His food was to do the Father’s will. It is an unusual and striking illustration of His devotion to His heavenly Father. It shows His love for all of us. And it shows us what we will find most satisfying in our own life.

What Jesus Found to Be Most Satisfying

The account that we have before us is an example of Jesus as the constant teacher of His disciples. They were like little children when it came to spiritual matters. They were in need of ongoing instruction, much like little children need to be taught about the simplest and most basic things that an adult does.

To teach His disciples and others, Jesus would often draw on things close at hand. In His conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, Jesus spoke of His gospel as living water (John 4:10-14). With this, He had her attention, because she was engaged in the daily task of drawing and carrying water.

Here Jesus does the same kind of thing with His disciples. His exchange with the Samaritan woman took place while the disciples were in the nearby town buying food. The conversation reached its goal as Jesus revealed His identity as the Messiah: “I who speak to you am He,” He said to her. Just at that point, the disciples returned with the food and urged Jesus to have something to eat. Evidently, Jesus hadn’t eaten for a while; perhaps He had eaten nothing yet that day. It was midday, and Jesus and the disciples had been traveling (John 4:6). The evangelist notes that Jesus was tired when He sat down by the well and talked with the Samaritan woman. Surely He was also hungry, and no doubt He did eventually eat some of the food that the disciples had brought back with them. But to Him, that wasn’t the most pressing thing. First, He used the subject of food to teach something to His disciples and to all of us.

Jesus says to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” The disciples took this at face value, wondering to one another whether someone had already brought Him something to eat. That surely seemed unlikely, given that they were in Samaria. But what then could Jesus mean? What food did He have that they didn’t know about?

Jesus explains His meaning: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” Doing His Father’s will was like food to Jesus. It gave Him pleasure and satisfaction. It strengthened and renewed Him to be doing what the Father wanted Him to do—so much so that when there was work to do, that work would so fill His soul that He didn’t even think about eating. Probably all of us have had the experience of being caught up in doing something that we truly love, when we just want to go on with what we’re doing and don’t want to stop for anything—not even to eat. With Jesus, doing the Father’s will was like that.

Jesus had been doing the Father’s will by giving the water of life to a Samaritan woman, and now He was about to do the same for many of the Samaritans. The woman had gone away into the town, so intent on her mission that she left her water pot behind. She had hurried to tell the townspeople about Jesus and invite them to come out to the well and see Him. “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did,” she was saying to them. “Could this be the Christ?” she asked them.

Even as Jesus was speaking to the disciples about His food being the doing of the Father’s will, the people were on their way out to see Him and listen to Him. This, Jesus took as an opportunity not to be missed—not to be put off. Ministering to these souls in need of salvation was to Jesus not some unpleasant and troublesome task that delayed His dinner. It was as pleasurable and as satisfying to Him as sitting down and enjoying a fine meal.

To Jesus, doing the Father’s will was the most satisfying food. And it wasn’t just the work of preaching and healing that was the doing of the Father’s will. Jesus says that His food was also to finish the Father’s work, by which we understand His passion and death. For it was by the offering of His lifeblood that He finished the Father’s work. This He proclaimed from the cross before He died when He said, “It is finished.” You and I are forgiven. We see in this how completely Jesus was in harmony with the Father’s will. We see how fervently Jesus wanted the salvation of souls—not just His own people, but others like the Samaritans, whom many of His countrymen despised. We see how Jesus desired also our salvation.

This We, His Disciples, Will Likewise Find Most Satisfying

Jesus, who found doing the Father’s will to be His most satisfying food, wanted to instill this same love for God’s work in His disciples. He gave them a part in that work. Especially in the future, after Jesus had ascended into heaven, the disciples would go out into the world with the gospel. It would be their life’s work. It would become their food and drink just as it was now for Jesus. And the disciples’ part in the work of spreading the gospel of salvation was already beginning, for the Samaritans from the nearby town were coming out to see Jesus at the invitation of the woman.

Jesus showed them their part in the ministry to the Samaritans using the illustration of a harvest. These people who were coming to hear the gospel were like a field of grain that was ripe and ready to be harvested. Jesus’ expression, “white for harvest,” is one that strikes a familiar chord with anyone familiar with the change in color in grain that has ripened. When you see it, it conveys a sense of urgency; the harvesting needs to be done without delay, otherwise grain may be lost. The Samaritans that were coming out to them needed to be ministered to. Jesus knew that if He told them to come back later, He might miss the opportunity with some of them. That’s why even eating had to wait.

Jesus encouraged His disciples by telling them that this harvest of souls that was presenting itself to them was a harvest for which they hadn’t labored. They hadn’t done any work to bring those Samaritans out to Jesus. Jesus had been the one who had spoken to the Samaritan woman, and she had then gone to tell her neighbors what she had found and invite them to come out and see for themselves that this was the Messiah. And the preparation for all this went back a long way. The Samaritans had the hope of the Messiah. This had to have come through the writings of the Old Testament prophets. Who wouldn’t be glad to miss a meal in order to reap this harvest?

The harvest that day was a bountiful one. The people were so persuaded by Jesus that they urged Him to stay and teach them, which He was glad to do: He stayed there for two days. The result of Jesus’ preaching was that many of the Samaritans came to believe in Him. John records their statement of faith: “We ourselves have heard Him, and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” They believed that He was the Savior and rejoiced that He was their Savior. He is our Savior and we rejoice that He is our Savior.

You and I likewise have a part in this work of the gospel. We have it in everyday life when we have the opportunity to encourage someone to believe in Christ and trust in God. We have it in the ministry of our congregations that the Lord opens up for us. We sometimes reap what others have sown. At other times we sow and someone else will do the reaping. In every case, the work that we do and support is the work of gathering “fruit for eternal life.”

May the Spirit give us such an appreciation for this work and such joy in doing it that it may be to us what it was to the Lord: like the most satisfying food. Amen.

—Rev. John Klatt

Watertown, SD

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