Bp Miller’s Musings: Third Sunday in Lent

“I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

When the disciples come upon Jesus at Jacob’s well and see him speaking to a woman, they do not ask him why he might do such a thing: Instead, they tell him to eat something.

This curious interchange between the disciples and Jesus can easily get lost in the greater story of the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, but we should not ignore it. The mention of food connects this story with the wandering Hebrews in Exodus, who received the manna, and with the temptation of Jesus to turn stone into bread. In each of those stories, we think about the desire to turn craving into satisfaction—growling stomachs that want to be filled.

I wonder whether the disciples saw Jesus speaking to the woman and thought perhaps he was desperate because of hunger. Or maybe their own hunger clouded their thoughts. In any event, rather than show their curiosity, they immediately tried to divert from what seemed an uncomfortable situation to something they knew: “Rabbi, eat.”

In a response reminiscent of his reply to the tempter in the wilderness, Jesus turns to his disciples and says, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” His food, he says, is to do the work for which he was sent, to accomplish the work of the Father.

“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” It is not enough that we eat our fill, but we must also listen to God and carry out God’s will. When we pray for daily bread, we do not simply ask for food on our plates, but we ask as well that we receive instruction from God along with the will to carry it out. Daily bread includes our study of God’s word, and prayer. With the living waters of baptism, it sustains us as we do the work of the Father.

O God, who grants daily bread to all without their prayer, even to all evil people, we pray that you would cause us to recognize what our daily bread is, so that we may receive it with thanksgiving, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. (Luther’s Small Catechism, adapted by Chris L. Halverson, Read, Reflect, Pray: A Lutheran Prayer Bood (Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2013), 83-84)