What sustains you?
May 4
John 4: 31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.”
I love to read the words that Jesus spoke. When Jesus spoke you always got the unexpected. He tells his disciples that he has food to eat that they know nothing about. It is such a strange thing to say. As usual, the disciples take everything quite literally and they question whether or not Jesus had brought some food with him.
But then Jesus explains himself and says that his food is to do the will of the Father who sent him. It is this that sustains Jesus. And I have to ask myself the question what is it that sustains me? Am I sustained by the activities of life and work and my family and the things that we do? How does one get to the point where you are sustained by doing the will of the Father?
Then Jesus speaks to his disciples about sewing and reaping. Clearly Jesus is speaking here at about guard who is the reaper who is harvesting the crop for eternal life. Jesus then goes on to tell his disciples that he is sending them to reap what they have not even sown. But Jesus explains that some sow and others will reap.
I am sure that you have heard the concept of sewing and reaping many times before. We are called to be witnesses and disciples of Jesus Christ. We are called to tell people about Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples that they would become fishers of men. This has become a purposeful life, to be fishers of men. But in the fishing process not everybody does the catching, some people will bait the hook, others will cast the line into the sea and then finally someone else will come along and haul in the fish. It really doesn’t matter which party you are doing or I am doing so long as we are doing something.