daily java

Daily Java:

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.” But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.” “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other. (John 4:31-33)

Sometimes you get yourself so involved in something that you lose all track of time. It may be exercise, or music, or painting or reading. Time will pass until you even forget to eat.

Reading does it for me. I can sit down to read for a few minutes and before I know it a fair amount of time has passed.

That can also happen with writing. I tend to write things in a linear fashion. In other words, I start writing and do not quit until I am finished. That means that whether a short Facebook devo or a longer article or anything like that, I will quit when I am finished, no matter how long it takes.

Jesus was like that. He didn’t come to earth to eat or drink or have a good time. He did all these things, yes. He had friends and went to parties, enjoyed food and the like, he even had a piece of clothing that was special. Someone had woven him a one-piece undergarment that had no seams. It was special enough the soldiers gambled for it when he was dying on the cross.

Jesus didn’t come to starve or deny himself. After all, this was the first time that God himself could participate in the human experience personally. He wanted to know what it was like to be human. That is why Jesus came: so God could identify with us.

But at the same time, he didn’t come to have dinner. He came to seek and save those who were lost (Luke 19:10). That meant that he had stuff to do.

And when he started doing the things he came to do, he got really involved.

Here he was talking to a woman while the apostles went into town to get some food. He wanted to sit by himself for a while, but instead, this woman came up. Jesus couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk to her and before long had converted her to the ways of the Lord.

The apostles got back with dinner and Jesus told them that he wasn’t hungry. They tried to get him to eat something, and he said I have  kind of food you know nothing about.

This baffled them. Where did he get dinner? Did one of those trucks come by or something, or at least the first century version of one?

Jesus meant that there is more to life than just eating. And he was right.

That is one of my biggest struggles in life. I eat too much and tend to become fixated on my food. Since I am a cook and the primary cook for our family, I take care to have good stuff. But sometimes I take too good a care.

Life is not in the eating and drinking. It is in the service to God. The eating and drinking are to keep us healthy enough to do that.

But it takes a lot less food to keep you healthy than I eat. So every once in a while, I go on a fast to remind myself of that fact.

That baffled the apostles. They of course saw the physical. Jesus saw the spiritual.

That is what I want to see.