Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, give us Your love and obedience. Amen.
Text: John 4:30-34
Then they went out of the city and came to Him. In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
Devotion
“Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Jesus said in the Temple and thus wrote the superscription for His whole life and conduct. The Father’s Word was His delight. Obedience to the Father was His life. In our Scripture text today He says: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” He is so devoted, yes, so happy in His Father’s will for the sinner’s salvation, that even His body was restored and refreshed when He fulfilled it, and in this way souls are rescued from death. Hungry and thirsty He sat at the well of Sychar, but to save the Samaritan woman with the Word of life is His food and drink. The work which the Father had given Him to do had to be fulfilled through the bitterest suffering and the deepest pain of death, but nevertheless the Father’s will was His food. How incredibly great, how completely perfect is His loving obedience toward the Father and His loving desire to save us! He goes to death so willingly, that He says of this will of His Father: This is My food. This refreshes Me and gives Me strength.
O what a wealth of life lies before us in this! With what full and complete righteousness we are clothed before the Father, and what a shining example to follow!
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You for everything, but we feel that our thanks are nothing compared with Your boundless love. Blessed and glorious God, praise to You for Your precious name Jesus and all Your salvation for us which is in that name! Give us Your righteousness, and let Your mind be in us. Give us this grace that Your will more and more may be our food, our joy, and our strength, so that we willingly, yes, gladly, take up the cross and carry it after You. Amen.
Hymn
Let me earnestly endeavor
Thy good pleasure to fulfill;
In me, through me, with me, ever,
Lord, accomplish Thou Thy will.
In Thy holy image built,
Let me die, Lord, as Thou wilt.
Jesus, constant be my praises,
For Thou unto me didst bring
Thine own self and all Thy graces
That I joyfully may sing:
Be it unto me, my Shield,
As Thou wilt, Lord, as Thou wilt.
Ludämilie Elisabeth: Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus L 81:4-5 ELH 379:4-5 tr. A. Crull;
tune: Jesus, Jesus, nichts als Jesus