Seeing that our Real Need is to Eat Jesus and not Asking Him to “Do Things for us”

In the Gospels we see how the Lord Jesus had a wonderful God-man human living, constantly taking the opportunity to reveal Himself as being the reality of every positive thing in the universe.

If we read the Gospels carefully we will see more than 200 aspects of the Lord Jesus; He is the Bridegroom, the Physician, the new cloth, the new wine, the Shepherd, the real David, the greater temple, the Lord of the harvest, the One who is more than Jonah, the One that is more than Solomon (see Matt. 9-12), the life, the vine tree, the resurrection, the bread of life, the living bread, the real food, the I AM, the One greater than Abraham, the way and the reality, etc.

The Lord Jesus took every opportunity to reveal Himself as being everything to us. Particularly, in Matt. 15 we see that He revealed Himself to be the bread for the children to eat on the table, and He is the crumbs for the “Gentile dogs” to eat under the table.

A Canaanite woman came to the Lord and asked Him to heal her daughter, and she persisted in her request until the Lord answered her. He told her, It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs (literally, pet dogs). She replied to Him, Yes, Lord, for even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table (see Matt. 15:26-27).

Here we see a few very interesting principles:

• The Canaanite woman asked the Lord to be her Healer, but the Lord told her that He is the bread for her to eat. He didn’t come to “do things for us” but to be our food, our life supply.
• The Canaanite woman realized that the children (the people of Israel) broke the Lord as the bread on the table, and crumbs fell under the table for the Gentile “dogs” to eat. The Lord was rejected by the Jews, and so He turned to the Gentiles and became their food for their life supply.
• Our problems are solved not directly but indirectly by eating. We may think that our problem is that we are sick, we lost our job, or something bad happened to us; but the real problem is our lack of eating the Lord. The solution the Lord Jesus has for us is: eat Jesus as the bread of life!
• The way God relates to us, the Gentiles, is not primarily by doing miracles for us or by doing anything for us but by becoming our food. He even became small enough for us to eat, and when we take Him in by faith, we are healed, supplied, and enabled to fulfill God’s purpose.

Our Real Need is to Eat Jesus!

The Canaanite woman had a real need: her daughter was sick, and she needed to be healed. She came to the Lord, considering Him the Lord (a divine Person) and the Son of David (of a royal descent, great and high in His reign).

The Lord’s response – as usual – was to turn her from “work and miracles” to life; He unveiled Himself to her as the children’s bread. She then realized: the Lord is not only the children’s bread, but He is also the crumbs falling from the table for her to eat.

Yes, the Lord is the King, but the way He rules in His kingdom over His people is by feeding them with Himself as the bread of life (John 6:35).

The way the believers in Christ as the kingdom people can live a proper kingdom life is only by being nourished with Christ as their life supply. We can be in the reality of the kingdom of God by eating Christ as our supply, taking Him in as food.

From this story, we can clearly see that our need is not what we think we need but it is to eat the Lord, to take Jesus in as food.

We think we need to be healed, or we need a better job, a better house, a better car, etc. But what we actually need is to eat Jesus: we need to take Christ in as food.

We may think we need a better living situation or an improvement in our behavior; we may think that we need to “work on our character”, restrict our outbursts, limit our doing this or that….but what we actually need is to eat the Lord Jesus.

We may come to the Lord and ask Him to heal us or do this or that for us, but if we really listen to Him, He will turn our attention to our need to eat Him more.

We may think we need Him to intervene in our circumstances and change certain things, remove certain problems, and deal with certain people; what we really need is to eat Jesus.

Even after we believe into the Lord, we may still have many expectations that the Lord would do this and that for us; what He wants to do though is to get into us as food, as the bread of life, as our life supply.

Then, after we eat Him, He can operate in us, from within to without, to solve the problems, change our being, and accomplish His purpose. Our real need is for us to eat more of Jesus!

We Don’t Need the Lord to “Do Things for us” – We Need to Eat the Lord!

Our Real Need is to Eat Jesus

Before we believed into the Lord many of us thought that “we can make it on our own”. The worldly people don’t admit they need help; they think they can solve their problems, they can seek counseling if they have to, and they can make it.

Then, when someone believes into the Lord, he now things that the Lord will help him, so he asks the Lord to do this and that for him. However, the Lord Jesus didn’t come to the earth to “do things for us”. He didn’t come to be “an ox” to till the ground for us. He came to be our food and get into us in the form of spiritual food.

The husbands may want to change their wives and help them be according to their standard, and the wives may want their husbands to be more spiritual and more caring. We may pray to the Lord to change our spouse and cause him / her to see their real need.

However, we just need to eat the Lord. When the husband eats Christ, the wife is wonderful; when the wife eats Christ, the husband is wonderful.

By this we understand that we do not need the Lord Jesus to do anything for us; instead, we need to eat the Lord Jesus. Sisters, is your husband ill? Do not ask the Lord first to heal his sickness. The reason your husband is ill is so that you may eat the Lord Jesus. Take the Lord Jesus into you, and then your husband’s illness will be healed. Are you vexed by your children’s disobedience? You often pray that the Lord will perform a miracle to make your children obedient. However, the more you pray, the less effective your prayers are; the more you pray, the more disobedient your children are. Now you have to learn this secret: You have to eat the Lord more. Eat the Lord well, and your child will be healed. (Eating the Lord, p. 22, by Witness Lee)

We shouldn’t pray to the Lord to make so-and-so better or to change his behavior; we should simply eat the Lord and help him eat the Lord. If we lose our job, our real need is to eat the Lord, and then look for a job by being one with the Lord. Don’t ask the Lord to do this or that for you – eat Him!

When we take care of others and are anxious concerning their going on with the Lord, the best thing we can do is to eat the Lord. The best way to care for the matters of the church is to eat Jesus. The best way to care for the saints is to eat Jesus. Eating Jesus is the way.

When the Lord gets into us, there will be a metabolic process going on in us – we will slowly be replaced by Christ, and He will be the One doing things in us, speaking things through us, and living in us.

The main reason we have problems in our family life is because we don’t eat Jesus. The reason we have problems between us and other people is because we don’t eat the Lord enough.

When we eat the Lord by taking Him in as the tree of life, the churches are enlivened, the Body of Christ is built up, and all the problems are solved. The central viewpoint of the New Testament is not God coming in and changing our situation for the better but: eating more of the Lord Jesus again and again.

When we eat Jesus, He can live in us. When we eat Jesus, He can speak in us. When we eat Jesus, He can do everything in and through us. When we eat the Lord, we have no more problems. The situation may not change, but we are at peace.

When we eat the Lord, no matter the circumstance, we are OK. When we eat the Lord even a little bit, we have a turn, and we become children of God eating Christ at the table (not merely under the table).

May the Lord change our view from “asking Him to do things for us” to “eating the Lord”. May we be Christians who eat the Lord in everything.

Thank You Lord for becoming small enough for us to eat. You are the crumbs under the table for us to eat and be inwardly supplied. May we stop asking You to “do things for us” and simply eat You. Cause us to see that Eating Jesus is the Way! What we need is to Eat Jesus. Lord, we take You in as food and as everything. We care only to enjoy You and eat You. You are our supply. You are the bread of life. You are our spiritual nourishment as the living bread, the bread of life, and even the crumbs under the table. Lord, make us Christians who eat Jesus!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Eating the Lord (ch. 2), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem, week 1 / msg 1, The Throne of God and of the Lamb, the River of Water of Life, and the Tree of Life.
• Further reading: see Matt. 15:26 footnote 1 in the Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Some, these days, would tell us that our Jesus is not food, / That we only need to know about Him and do good, / But we’re glad to tell you brothers, it’s just not that way— / Jesus is the bread of life; we eat Him every day. / We love the church life, eating, / drinking, breathing Jesus. / We love the church life, taking / in God’s Word. / We love to hear those “O Lord, / Amen, Hallelujahs!“ / We love the church life, feasting / with the Lord. (Hymn on Eating the Lord)
  # I am the living bread, which came down out of heaven; / If anyone, if anyone eats of this bread he shall live forever. (Hymn on Matt. 6:35)
  # Let us eat Jesus every day, / Eating His flesh in such a way / That in the trials great or small / He as a Man will be our all. / Eat, eat more of Jesus! / Eat, eat more of Jesus! / Why should we undernourished be / When we have His humanity? (Hymns #1146)
  # We are one by eating Jesus! / We’re divine by eating Jesus! / How we shine by eating Jesus! / Hallelujah, eating Jesus is the way! (Hymns #1226)