Jesus is a Foodie

Hey everyone.

The boys and I are gearing up to go to New Jersey's first Dads and Lads Retreat.  Awesome.  Before we go I wanted to share a little thought.

I am a foodie.  I will admit to being an unabashed flavor-holic.  I can talk for hours about food.  Jesus is a foodie, but not in the same way that I am.  In my last post, I talked about Jesus and the woman at the well.  I am going to continue that story now.  

If you remember, Jesus had been talking to this woman about "living water," and that she would never be thirsty again.  Then he began to talk to her about her life.  This is where we ended.  After the conversation, the woman runs back into town, leaving her water jar behind. (John 4:28)  She had gotten so excited about Jesus that she had forgotten what she went to the well for in the first place.  Later she brings back the town and many lives are changed.

In the meantime, the disciples who return just before the woman leaves, tried to get Jesus to eat something.  He refuses their offer of food, stating "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."  The disciples did not really understand what Jesus meant by this, and asked among themselves, "Could someone else have brought him food?"  OK, so this is the "Jesus is a foodie" part.  Jesus tells them his food is "to do the will of Him who sent me and finish his work."  Jesus' food is doing God's will. 

I eat food for two reasons.  First, my body requires it for energy.  Second, I eat because I really like food.  When I taste something really flavorful, my eyes light up and I get excited. Either way, you can say that food energizes me.  Jesus, however, was energized by spiritual food.  Talking to this woman, changing her heart and her life, had Jesus so energized that he would not take regular food.  He was already full from doing the will of the Father.  Jesus then goes on to talk to his disciples about the "harvest," (a word that means the gathering of food) but he was not talking about food. He wanted to harvest a crop for eternal life. (John 4:36)  So Jesus is a foodie, but his food is a different food.      

We have to ask ourselves, "What energizes me?'  "What is my spiritual food?"  I would like to think that doing God's will excites me more than actual food.  How awesome, how fulfilling is it when you know that you have been doing God's will?  May we all be full like that.

Tom