I know when I get serious about the empty calories that can all too quickly add unneeded pounds, the rumbly-tummy and the sense of an inverted abdomen are good things. Knowing too that overeating for me is simply either comfort-feeding or it is indulging in flavors and textures that gratify my sense of pleasure, I recognize I can only blame, as Joanna Weaver calls it in her book, Having a Mary Spirit, that old nature that lives within me, alias, "Flesh Woman." When Jesus sat beside the well in Samaria, He too must have had the rumbly-tummy and the inverted abdomen, because He was both hungry and thirsty. (I also know that His hunger and thirst were based on legitimate needs that He did not attempt to satisfy under the enticements of an old nature.) While Jesus sat, His disciples went into the village to buy some food.

 

A woman comes to the well to draw water, an uncommon thing at the noon hour of the day. The time of day would also have added to its warmth and the need for Jesus to satisfy His thirst. His request for the woman to provide a drink for Him initiates more un-commonality and a discussion and offering of living water, and a discussion of the One who offers it and wants to be worshipped in return. It’s eternal issues versus temporal ones! It’s soul satisfaction versus physical satisfaction! And I see no mention that Jesus ever got the cup of water He initially asked for!

 

The verse that captured my attention says, "Just thenhis disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman ..." They don’t have the nerve to barrage Him with questions, but as the woman hurries off with a newfound understanding that unleashes an excitement that cannot be squelched, and demands to be shared, the disciples keep their focus on Jesus and His physical needs, and urge Him to please, eat something!

Jesus responds very matter-of-factly. "I have a kind of food you know nothing about. ... My nourishment comes from doing the will of God." Jesus could not be sidetracked in His purpose by food or by shock. He was wholly committed to doing the will of His Father.

 

I thought of how easily I can be sidetracked. People don’t like me. It’s really inconvenient. I don’t think I have the ability to do that. I could really look stupid. I’m sure you’ve been there too. Yes, there are times when the lesser still demands attention, but there are sooo many times, we simply choose the temporary over the eternal, physical satisfaction over soul satisfaction, my own needs over the needs of others, my own inclinations over the will of my Father. May we too be nourished by doing and fulfilling what God lays out before us – as close to always as His grace allows.