EXPLORE IT! - John 4:27-42

While Jesus’ disciples are in town looking for food, Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman at the Well of Jacob. And Jesus tells her the story of her life, and offers her “living water” – water that is greater and better than the well-water of the Patriarch Jacob. And in doing this, Jesus is claiming to be more important than the founding fathers of Israel. In fact, he claims to be the Messiah himself!

When His disciples return from the village, the woman goes back to town, and tells people that Jesus knew everything about her, and she wonders if he is the Messiah. And the people decide to go and see for themselves.

The disciples meanwhile, who are right now feeling a little too awkward to ask Jesus why he was being so friendly with that foreign girl, try to give Jesus some food but he refuses, saying that he has “food they know nothing about.”

And the disciples are confused, and they’re like, where in the world did Jesus go to find food? He’s been sitting around talking with this foreign girl this whole time as far as we know.

But Jesus can see that they’re taking his words literally again, and so he spells it out for them, saying that his food "...is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."

The disciples had a hard time understanding Jesus’ food metaphors. Even though Jesus liked to use food as illustrations for sermons and parables as a way to teach his disciples about the Kingdom of God, they often didn’t get the message. They were a bit slow at times… as all of us often are when Jesus talks to us. Part of the reason for this is that the disciples were hungry and so they often had food on the mind, but purely in the literal sense – the kind you can chew and swallow and savor in your mouth. When they were hungry, they were quick to jump to conclusions, and also quick to forget what they had learned from Jesus.

In fact, later in John’s Gospel, we see the time where Jesus miraculously feeds 5000 people with just a few handfuls of bread and fish, but we learn from the other Gospels that immediately after this miracle, the disciples are still worried about what they’re going to eat.

And another time, Jesus says to them, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Sadducees.” 

The disciples think he is talking about how they had forgotten to bring bread along. 

But that’s not what Jesus is talking about and asks them if they remembered how many basketfuls of bread were left over from the 5000 Jewish people he fed, as well as from the additional 4000 Gentiles he had fed later on.

They tell him that there were twelve and seven, respectfully. 

And the disciples do not immediately understanding what Jesus is trying to tell them, but eventually they realize that he’s not talking about literal bread, but theology. 

The Gospel is for both Jews (the twelve tribes of Israel) and Gentiles (the seven pagan nations surrounding Israel), as the miracles of the bread and fish portrayed, but Jesus is pointing out that the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted God’s blessings all to themselves.

But his disciples were distracted by food… and they just didn’t get it.

And Jesus later says to the folks following him around, “You’re looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Don’t work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” 

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." 

But jumping back to the story of the Samaritan woman at the well... the people from the town come to meet Jesus after hearing the story of the woman, and Jesus talks with them and they convince him to stay for two more days and teach. And His words convince them that he is "...the Savior of the world." And they were quick to believe that Jesus could satisfy their spiritual hunger and rescue them from spiritual starvation. Their hearts ready and receptive to Jesus.