One day Jesus and His disciples decided to leave Judea and return to Galilee. Jesus took them through Samaria because He had a supernatural “appointment” to meet a woman by a well. Tired and weary, Jesus rested there while His disciples headed on down to the city to look for something to eat. You all know the story from John 4. Jesus began a conversation with a woman, that alone was very unusual. The conversation turned from well-water to living water and Jesus tells her that He is the Messiah that all have been anticipating.
It is at this point that the disciples return and are shocked that Jesus is talking to a woman. When the woman leaves to tell the town what she has heard, the disciples urge Jesus to eat. But Jesus says to them “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
The disciples are thinking literally, that possibly someone else brought Jesus something to eat. But he clarifies things for them. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
Finish. It means to complete, perfect, accomplish, in both English and Greek. Jesus’ greatest desire was to finish the salvation for which the His Father has sent Him. Paul expressed the same desire in Acts, “if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.” [20:24]
What is our greatest desire? Is it to finish well what God has given us to do?