The disciples returned from their shopping trip in Sychar (John 4:8), with food for all of them.  But the response of Jesus took them by surprise, when He said that He already had food to eat.  Had Jesus really got His own food?   And if so, how?  But Jesus was talking about a different sort of food to satisfy a different hunger.

In English we sometimes say things like, ‘I am really hungry for that job!’ It does not mean that we want to eat the job, but that we really want to do the work and would love to be appointed to the role.  That was the sense in which Jesus was speaking.  What satisfied Him most was working to please Father God (John 8:29) and seeing the assignment right through to completion on the cross.  

That is why the opportunity to draw the Samaritan woman to put her trust in Him was better than a good meal.  It was as though Jesus was saying, ‘What keeps me going, is doing all that I have been given to do, and continuing until the work is done’.  So that on the cross, Jesus cried out, "It is finished" (John 19:30).

We have many appetites: a hunger for food, relationship, love, warmth and shelter.  But we are also designed to serve God and look after His world for Him, proclaiming the sovereignty of God and His gospel in a fallen world.  Every person is marked out by their appetites, and the priority which each is given.  For Jesus, loving the lost and preaching the gospel was His first concern and everything else took a lesser place.  Do you have the same priority?