GETTING STARTED
Have you ever been so wrapped up in something that you forgot to eat? Your adrenaline was pumping, and you were having such a great time that you actually forgot to do something that is so basic and needed. In our passage today, Jesus is so focused on ministering to the woman at the well that he doesn’t eat. He was filled with ministry adrenaline. If he had been a basketball player, the announcers would have said he was in the zone.
- Can you think of a time when you were so into serving Jesus that time and your own needs slipped away?
READ THE WORD: JOHN 4:31-38 (ESV)
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
DIGGING DEEPER
- Did the disciples understand what Jesus meant when he said, “I have food to eat that you do not know about?” Why or why not?
- What type of harvest was Jesus referring to?
- How does sowing and reaping work together, spiritually speaking?
- According to verse 36, what emotion do people who harvest feel?
- How are you sowing and reaping for Jesus?
RESPOND TO GOD
Jesus stated, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” Jesus saw people! When he looked at an individual or a crowd, he saw their spiritual needs. He encouraged his disciples to lift up their eyes. Perhaps we don’t see the harvest and the needs of people because our eyes are down or on ourselves. Jesus was teaching the disciples that he was at work, and if they just looked, they would see a harvest and experience joy. He was more concerned with people’s needs than eating. He lived with eyes wide open, and he was full from doing God’s will.
- Ask the Lord to help you lift your eyes and join him in the work he’s doing in the people around you.