The Feast of Obedience
February 10th, 2022 • by Aimee Joseph
We speak of discerning God’s will. We pray to follow God’s will. We long to understand God’s will. But we rarely speak of eating God’s will. However, Jesus used the powerful imagery of feeding on the Father’s will.
In a typical discipleship moment, the disciples, after having gone into town to get some grub, approach Jesus who has just had a powerful interaction with a searching Samaritan woman at the well. In their care and concern, they urge him to eat, assuming he is as hungry as they are.
Jesus’s response continues to feed us today.
“I have food to eat that you do not know about… My food is to do the will of him who sent me and accomplish his work” (John 4:32; 34).
Just as eating satisfies physical hunger, Jesus indicates here that obedience to God’s will for our lives leaves our souls sated. Eating implies both sustenance and satisfaction, energy provision and enjoyment. Apparently God takes the discussion of his will for our lives further than we do. God’s will is a matter of enjoyment, satisfaction, and sustenance, not merely a matter of rote obedience or mere direction.
When we are filled with either the bread of anxious toil or the bread of self-seeking, we miss the delightful feast of faithful obedience.
“God’s will is a matter of enjoyment, satisfaction, and sustenance, not merely a matter of rote obedience or mere direction. ”
The Bread of Anxious Toil
In a culture that tends to start and end with self, it’s no wonder that we tend to overwork. Our tummies are so full with the bread of anxious toil that we have little time to slowly savor the meat God would have us eat (Ps. 127:2). Frantic busyness is a natural outcome of the widespread lie that you determine your own destiny. While few of us would give verbal assent to such a truth, many of our lives are stained with its logic. If we are not careful to be washing ourselves with the truths of God, then the culture, the needs around us, and the desire to keep up with the Joneses tend to dictate our schedule. With such maxed-out and margin-less schedules, we have little time to ask ourselves if that with which we are busy is indeed what God would have for us.
Even Jesus himself did not meet every need, nor did he fill every minute of his day with back-to-back healings, lectures, and travel. Rather, he made it clear that he did nothing of his own accord. He was careful to do the will of the Father (John 5:19).
Although we are not like Jesus in his constant connection with and perfect obedience to the Father, we have been given the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). We are invited to walk in step with the Spirit who always points us back to the Son (Gal. 5:16). We can honestly admit our limitations and prayerfully approach the 24-hour days allotted to us with intentionality, asking, “Lord, what is mine to do today?”
The Bread of Self-Seeking
Another false-belly-filler is the lie we will be satisfied only when we put ourselves first. Our largely therapeutic culture speaks lies that our flesh is all-too-eager to receive: seek your own good, fill your days with that which makes you happy, choose self over sacrifice.
While there is nothing wrong with healthy sabbath rest (in fact, it was God’s idea in the first place), our culture seeks to make a steady diet out of comfort and self-care. Our culture would tell the wearied Jesus in John 4 to get a massage and buy a latte after all that selfless work he had done. The flesh, the world, and the devil cannot comprehend the Spirit-enabled fueling that comes from trusting obedience to God’s will. Jesus left his encounter with the Samaritan women satisfied because it was the will of the Father.
As believers in Christ, we don’t need to chase after the things the world chases, even basic provision (Matt. 6:33). We don’t have to buy into the lie of scarcity when we have an abundant Father. We don’t have to determine our day by the amount of energy in our tanks, for we know that if God is calling us to something, he will give us all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
“Jesus’s response reveals his heart while exposing our own: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’””
The Feast of Obedience
In the wilderness after fasting for forty days, Jesus was tempted sorely by the enemy of his soul and our souls. The devil, playing upon his physical hunger, tempted him, saying, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (John 4:3). Jesus’s response reveals his heart while exposing our own: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” (John 4:4). Jesus’ food, his sustenance, his feast was to obey the Father entirely. Even in the midst of hunger pangs, he enjoyed the feast of obedience.
Long before Jesus talked about eating the Father’s will, the Spirit spoke an enticing invitation through the prophet Isaiah.
“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” (Isa. 55:2-3).
As Proverbs 27:7 reminds us, “One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.” We need not stuff ourselves with the breads of anxious toil or self-seeking. We have full access to something much better: Jesus Christ himself.
Aimee Joseph is the author of Demystifying Decision-Making (Crossway, 2022) and has spent many years directing women’s discipleship and ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church and in Campus Outreach San Diego. She and her husband are currently in the process of planting Center City Church in their neighborhood. You can read more of her writing at aimeejoseph.blog.
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