Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1901
“In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, Master, eat. But He said to them, I have meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore the disciples said to one another, Has anyone brought Him anything to eat? Jesus said to them, My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work Do you not say, There are yet four months, and then comes harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, for they are already ripe for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows andhe who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the sayingis true, One sows, and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” John 4:31-38.
THE disciples had gone away into the city to buy meat and for this they cannot be censured. It was necessary that food should be provided and it naturally fell to their lot to perform that duty. Do not say that they were carnal or un-spiritual because of this, for the most spiritual people must eat to live. When they came back from making their purchases, they found their Master sitting by the well, as they had left Him. They naturally expected that He would be as ready to partake of the provision as they were to offer it to Him, but He made no movement in that direction. His mind was evidently far away from the idea of food. He was absorbed in something else and, therefore, His disciples sought to call Him back to a sense of His need. I do not suppose that they had, themselves, eaten. It was hardly like them to do so while their Lord was not with them. They, therefore, wished to eat and they were all the more struck with the fact that He had no care for refreshment. Knowing how weary He had been when they left Him—so weary that He bade them go alone into the city—they were perplexed at His indifference to food and, perhaps, judged that He was over-fatigued and, therefore, they urged Him to eat. Importunately, one after another said, “Good Master, it is long since You have eaten; the way has been weary, the day is hot, You seem very faint. We pray You, eat a little that You may be revived. The woman to whom You spoke has gone. Your good work, for a while, is over, let us eat together.”
Again I confess that I do not agree with those who blame these disciples. If it is true that there is nothing very elevated in providing food, there is certainly nothing unworthy in the act. I admire their care for their Master. I praise them for so lovingly pressing upon Him the supply of His necessities. It is right for the spiritual man to forget his hunger, but it is equally right for his true friends to remind him that he ought to eat for his health’s sake. It is commendable for the worker to forget his weakness and press forward in holy service, but it is proper for the humane and thoughtful to interpose with a word of caution and to remind the ardent spirit that his frame is but dust. I think the disciples did well to say, “Master, eat.” What is more, I will hold them up to your imitation! Jesus has gone from you, now, in actual Person, but His mystical body is still with you and, if you meet with any part of His body in need, make it your earnest care. Still pray to Him, saying, “Master, eat.” If you know any of His people in poverty, ask them to partake of your abundance, lest your Lord should say to you at the last, “I was hungry and you gave Me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink.” Our Lord’s spirituality is not of that visionary sort which despises the feeding of hungry bodies! Look after His poor and needy ones. How can you be truly spiritual if you do not? “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” There is much in the commonplace attentions of charity—Jesus commands our consideration of the weaknesses and needs of others—therefore, I say again, I commend the disciples that they urged Him saying, “Master, eat.”
Having done this justice to the 12, let us do higher honor to the Divine One about whom they gathered. His mind was, at that time, absorbed in spiritual matters and, being so, He wished to lead them into that higher field wherein He was so much at home and, therefore, He transfigured their common words by giving them a higher meaning. “You pray Me to eat,” He said, but, “I have meat to eat that you know not of.” They did not comprehend what He meant. As the Samaritan woman did not understand Him, when He spoke of water, neither did His disciples when He spoke of meat. But you see, the Lord endeavored to use the lower expression as a ladder to something higher and more spiritual. This was the Master’s way from the beginning to the end—always to be making similitudes of things seen to set forth the things unseen—always to take the thing which men had grasped and use it as the means of helping them to lay hold on some great Truth of God which, as yet, was out of their reach. Inasmuch as refreshments were spoken of and His disciples saw the need of those refreshments, the Master turns that thought into a deeper channel and tells them of other refreshments which He, Himself, enjoyed and wished them to share with Him. In effect our Lord’s reply to the request, “Master, eat,” is this—“I have eaten, in the best sense, and I wish you, also, to eat with Me.” He would have them enter into that service which had yielded so intense a satisfaction to Himself—He would have them know His joy in it!