What is it that really feeds your soul? During these stressful, lonely days, some seek solace in handicrafts, others in music or painting. Some live for participating in sports, while others love to watch displays of athletic excellence.

But when Jesus told His disciples about His own soul food, when He said, “I have food to eat that you do not know about,” he was talking about the thrilling prospect of introducing people to God’s amazing plan of salvation. And Jesus calls all His followers to eat the same food, to experience the same joy, the same satisfaction.

Yes, just as the Samaritan woman went and told everyone about Jesus (4:28-29), so Jesus challenged His disciples to look upon the fields of people around them as ready for the harvest (4:35). But He promises that all who will labor in His fields, all who will show and share the good news of Christ, will receive wages and gather fruit for eternal life. Moreover, He promises that our evangelistic efforts will bring great joy not only to those who are saved, but to us as well (4:36)

Because Jesus took the time to enjoy His soul food, reaching across racial and cultural lines to share the good news with a Samaritan woman, many people came to believe in Him. Many people were saved. May we receive the same joy from sharing the same good news with everyone today, no matter who they are.

John 4:27-42 (ESV)

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”
28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people,
29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.
36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’
38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.
41 And many more believed because of his word.
42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”