They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." (John 4:30-32)
What is the 'food' they 'know nothing about'?
After Jesus was urged by his disciples to eat something, he tells them he has food they don't know about. What is that food? It is spiritual food.Jesus' statement also confirms the meaning of “give us each day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3) in the Lord’s prayer. The food that Jesus is discussing is the food that feeds the spiritual self.
Our real food is a loving relationship with the Supreme Person, God. Once the spirit-person within - the spiritual being - renews their relationship with the Supreme Being, they want to do the will of the One they love:
Such a person will want to do God's will out of love. This service relationship satisfies the spiritual person, just as physical food satisfies the physical body’s hunger.
And why does Jesus say that his audience knows nothing about this spiritual food? It is because the physical world is where those who don't want to have a relationship with God come to. This is where those who have rejected their relationship with God go.
This issue of internal satisfaction is specifically why most people in the physical world are struggling to become fulfilled with the forms and things of the physical world, yet remain empty and unhappy.
Can we be full yet empty within?
Through media, we have been able to see the most wealthy and famous people become physically full yet remain unfulfilled. Why?We have been able to watch some of the richest and most glorified people in the world descend into depression, drug abuse and suicidal behaviors. Even though they had everything material a person could ever desire: The adoration of millions of people and all the money they could ever spend; their activities indicate a continued emptiness. They have remained unfulfilled despite having practically everything the physical world can offer.
Assuming that happiness results from obtaining these and other physical things, there is a problem. Because the world's most famous and wealthy people have all these things and more. They can have whatever the physical world can offer.
Even the assumption that family brings happiness - the moral of so many movies and shows - is also devoid. If family brings happiness, why are there so many unhappy, depressed people? Practically everyone has family of some sort. Why is there so much unhappiness despite so many large families?
Because not only do physical things like money and fame not bring happiness: Families of this world also do not bring happiness.
Why don't these things bring us happiness?
This points to the reality that we are not these physical bodies. If we were these physical bodies, then why would the things of the physical world not satisfy us?Since the forms and things of the physical world do not satisfy us, we must not be physical. We must have a deeper existence, one beyond the confines of this temporary physical body.
And certainly, we see this at the time of death. A dead body lies there, but without life. The entire body - every molecule and cell - is still there in the dead body. But the body is lifeless. What has changed?
The spirit-person within - who was driving that physical body - has left.
The fact that we cannot see this spirit-person within who leaves the physical body points to the fact that the spirit-person lies within another dimension. It is not perceivable by the gross physical senses.
This is why there are so many clinical death cases where a person whose body was revived reports having left the body and observed things from outside the body. They observed the body from above, and many cases prove the spirit-person could observe things that were not otherwise observed as their physical body lay with closed eyes and a sheet over the head.
Since we are spiritual in essence and not these physical bodies, then we cannot be satisfied by the things of the physical world. It might be compared to a driver of a car being hungry and thinking that if he fills his car's gas tank up with gas he will no longer be hungry. He will soon find that filling the gas tank won't relinquish the car driver's hunger because the car driver is not the car.
For this reason, Jesus, identifying himself as the spiritual child of God and not the physical body, relayed to his students that his food was loving the Supreme Being and serving Him. This is confirmed by Jesus' next statement:
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work." (John 4:34)
