1st Friday of Lent (February 27). Food for the soul

Prepare to Listen.  In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
 
Prayerfully Read John 4:31-38
31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.”  32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”  33So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?”  34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.  35Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’?  But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.  36The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.  37For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’  38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
 
Prayerfully Wonder
The disciples returned with food.  The woman left without water (v. 28).  They all misunderstood Jesus because they thought too literally.
 
Jesus’ teaching isn’t always easy to follow because he so often uses literal terms—water, food—to teach non-literal truths.  He stretches our minds, urges us to stop thinking literally and to see the bigger picture, search for the spiritual meaning.  The woman received a spiritual lesson about water, the disciples got one about food.  They couldn’t understand why Jesus rejected the food they brought from the village.  Who could have fed him, they wondered.  Did the woman give him food?  Surely Jesus wouldn’t touch food from a Samaritan?  That was unthinkable to their literal minds.  Jesus made them think deeper.  He gave them a spiritual lesson about food.
 
He said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.”  He went on to talk about a harvest ready for reaping, not the harvest in the literal fields, but one in the spiritual field, a harvest of people.  Others had labored to prepare the people.  The disciples would reap that for which they did not labor.  The kingdom of God is about team work, not one-person shows.  “One sows and another reaps.”  Neither is better.  We work together, or the work doesn’t get done.  This is the will of God; this is food for the soul.
 
What challenged you in Jesus’ teaching that looks beyond the literal?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, help me think beyond the literal to discern the spiritual lessons, the food and water for my soul so that I do my bit in the labor to bring in the harvest.  Amen
 
Live obediently.  Search for the spiritual lesson in the literal.