💬 John 4:34 | Food You Know Nothing About

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Yesterday, we looked at what the words meant. Today, we see what they meant to Jesus and how one conversation at a well flipped His disciples’ expectations upside down.

In today’s email…

• ✝️ A conversation over a sermon

• 📲 A text you can send a friend today

• 🔦 Community spotlight!

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MEMORIZE 🧠 

_____ ____ __ ____, “__ ____ is __ __ the ____ __ ___ who ____ __ and __ accomplish ___ ____.”

John 4:34

CONTEXT 📕 

The disciples had gone into town to buy food. They return and find Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman — an absolutely shocking scene for that culture.

It was shocking because:

• He was a Jew. She was a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans had deep animosity that went back centuries. Samaritans were considered “half-breeds” — descendants of Israelites who had intermarried with foreign peoples after the Assyrian conquest. Jews saw them as religiously impure and socially inferior.

• Jesus was a man. She was a woman. Men didn’t talk to women publicly. Jews wouldn’t share water or utensils with Samaritans and yet, Jesus asked her for a drink.

• She was an outcast. Jesus was a rabbi. She was fetching water during the hottest part of the day, alone. She had a painful past and was an outcast amongst her own people. Yet, Jesus chose to reveal himself as messiah to her.

All this to say, by the time she runs off to tell others about Him, Jesus’ disciples are confused.

“Rabbi, eat something,” they say.

And Jesus answers, “I have food you know nothing about.”

While the disciples were focused on lunch, Jesus was focused on lives. They were thinking about consuming, but Jesus was thinking about completing.

This is what He’s flipping upside down. He’s teaching His followers that fulfillment doesn’t come from what we get from God, but from joining in what God is doing.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus repeats this theme:

• In John 5:30, He says, “I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

• In John 6:38, He says, “I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

• In Luke 22:42, He prays this in the garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Every time, He’s teaching us something radical: The goal of life is completion. Not “fill me up with things I want” but “use me for your will and purposes.”

And that’s where this verse lands in His larger story. Jesus is inviting His disciples (including you and me) to trade temporary satisfaction for eternal purpose.

APPLY AND RESPOND 🏃‍♂️ 

The Samaritan woman didn’t hear a sermon. She had a simple encounter with Jesus. Jesus met her right where she was, with honesty and compassion. And that conversation changed an entire town.

Over the next week, look for an opportunity to share one conversation that feeds someone else’s faith.

• Text a friend saying something like, “Hey, I read something today that reminded me of you. Jesus said His food was doing God’s will. I’m trying to live more like that.”

• Invite someone to church or to read John 4 with you.

• Tell someone who’s tired or burned out that there’s a deeper kind of satisfaction available to them.

🙏 Pray

Father, make me bold and gentle like Jesus. Give me eyes to see the people who are thirsty for you even if they don’t realize it, and give me words that point them toward You. Let my conversations feed souls, not just fill time. Amen.

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ANSWER KEY ✅ 

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

John 4:34