Thoughts for the Day

John 4:34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

We are still exploring this question of how Jesus grew from a helpless baby to a confident adult, aware of his unique identity as both man and God and filled with such certainty and clarity of purpose.  The context here seems to be Jesus having a bit of a joke with the disciples.  They’ve been off buying food, but when they return and offer Jesus some, he indicates that he has already eaten.  While they are trying to work out who might have fed him, he answers them with this nugget.  Jesus says his mission is his food.  It is a powerful image, suggesting that it sustains him, that it satisfies him and indeed that without his mission he would be starved of purpose.  He also takes the opportunity to remind them (and us) of his clear sense of being sent by his Father, his obedience to doing the will of his Father and determination to finish this work of his Father.  It is so clearly not Jesus’s own agenda!  We are generally familiar with the idea that Jesus came “not to be served but to serve” the people around him, but even more so he came to serve the will of his Father.  And how did he discern the will of his Father?  Certainly, he did not simply adopt the prevailing messianic expectations of his time.  Certainly, he did immerse himself in scriptures, and we may reasonably suggest that therein he found confirmation of his mission and a source of utter confidence in the promises of his Father.