Monday in the Second Week of Lent

Meanwhile the disciples were urging Jesus, "Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work." (John 4:31-34)


The Gospel of John is full of little invitations (and many big invitations, too) to see things with "binocular vision" -- that is, to perceive very ordinary, everyday things in their material presence and also simultaneously in their spiritual relationships. In these verses -- almost a throwaway exchange between Jesus and his disciples in the middle of the extended story of the Samaritan woman at the well -- the material/spiritual nexus is around the offer of food. Jesus has been traveling; he hasn't eaten for some time; he is tired from his journey; and while Jesus rests by the well the disciples go into town to buy food. That's all established in the narrative at the beginning of the chapter. But when the disciples return in verse 27, after Jesus has been talking with the woman about well water and running water and water of life -- another "binocular" conversation -- Jesus, instead of taking the food right away, speaks to them of the nourishment that comes from doing the work God has sent him to do. Jesus is here inviting the disciples to see their food with binocular vision: to see it not only as body-fuel, but also as an access of energy to do God's creative work in their material environment; to perceive the flavor not only as an aesthetic experience of taste, but also as an occasion for gratitude; to enjoy the companionship (literally, "bread-togetherness") of the meal not only as a social exchange, but also as a moment of communion in right relationship with each other and with God. Jesus encourages the disciples to perceive their material food as embedded in a whole web of relationships that carries deep spiritual meaning, and so to be nourished in both body and spirit.


One of the purposes of the Lenten discipline of fasting and abstaining from certain foods is to help us be more mindful of what and how we do eat. Perhaps that discipline can also help us see our food with binocular vision, and be nourished in doing God's work in our lives.