Do you have any food??? (John 4:31-38) 080508
I love to eat. Those who know me know that. I even have systematically traced the development of the motif of food and eating throughout the Bible. My classmates call that Abel’s eating theology. I am not too sure how much truth are there in my eating theology, but I don’t think it is totally unbiblical. Even Jesus uses food to describe His mission on earth (v34)!
‘In the woman’s absence, the disciples urge Jesus to eat. Suddenly we find ourselves in a mini-discourse bearing all the features already seen in chapter 4. Jesus’ claim to possess food (4:32) baffles them since their assignment was to acquire food. Could someone (the woman?) have given him food (4:34)? But they are thinking of earthly things, and their misunderstanding enables Jesus to press their thinking to another level. Obeying the Father is Jesus’ more deeply satisfying task. The Father has given the Son work to do (5:30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:50; 9:4; 10:37 – 38; 12:49 – 50) and his mission is to see it to completion. In his final prayer Jesus will say, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (17:4). When Jesus says “It is finished” on the cross, it is not merely his life expiring, but a gratifying expression of the climax of his life of obedience.’ (Burge, Gary M. “The Food of Jesus (4:27 – 42)” In The NIV Application Commentary: John, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 2000, p. 149)
Jesus then points His disciples to look at the harvest field (v35). This text here is widely used to encourage Christians to go and evangelize or into mission work. This is definitely not out of context, and this in fact is the very the very heart beat of God! But I think Jesus is also reminding His disciples (including you and me) that the business of evangelism is a joint venture. None can say that it is the business of the pastor or evangelist or those with special passion for the lost. When Jesus says that He sends us to reap what we have not labored (v38), implies that He has also send others just to labor. But in that agricultural context, the disciples will have no difficultly to understand that the laborer and the reaper share in the joy of the harvest. Likewise, that we are all part of this business of evangelism, reaching out to the lost.
As an eating theologian, I will stretch this text further, but not out of context. The harvest is actually the food Jesus talking about. Jesus says that His food is to do the will of God (v34), the will of God is to reach out to the lost, which is metaphorically harvesting in this text. In other words, if we do not harvest, we are not doing the will of God and we have no food!
What is the food? Food is one of the crucial sustenance for us to live. No food, no live. We eat to live. If we do not have the food which Jesus is talking about, we are not doing the will of God, then our existence becomes a redundancy.
Do you have any food to eat lately? Are there anyone whom you have share the love of Christ? You maybe just a laborer, or a reaper; but whatever we do, we have to bear this in mind: are we part of the will of God by reaching out to the lost?
I will be visiting the hospital also every next week onward as my father begins his cardiac physiotherapy. I am thankful for opportunity as such, so that I will have the opportunity to meet with new people who might not know Christ yet, and share the love of Christ with them. This is my food for the next one month or so. Do you have any food yourselves?
HHS…
Abel…
