Do You Have Any Bread?

M

ealtimes at our home were always wonderful.  My mom worked during the day but she always made sure there was a good, hot meal for us when suppertime came.  I can still hear her as she would call us from play to come home for supper.  It didn't matter where we were or what we were doing, as soon as we heard her call, we came running.

As we sat down to the table, my dad would always ask the same question, "Do you have any bread?"  It didn't matter what type of bread we had, whether homemade biscuits (my favorite), rolls, cornbread, or sandwich bread.  The fact was, the meal was not complete

without it. 

Since my boyhood, I have visited and lived in several different foreign countries and I have found my dad's question to be very common.  Whether in France, Australia, Germany, or Spain, the importance attached to bread is universal.  It seems we can't eat a meal without it and no table is complete until the bread is placed in its center.

There is, however, one great problem with bread.  It is filling but it is not satisfying.  Eating bread for one meal, only means we are ready for more bread at the next one.  Freshly baked biscuits, rolls, or loaves of bread meet an immediate need and desire; but provide no long lasting solution to our problem.  Hence, my father's repeated question at every one of our meals.  It is still his repeated question at the table today.

Jesus used this very idea to teach a great truth about himself and his ministry.  Our scripture reading for today occurs just after Jesus has fed the five thousand.  The people sought to make him king, so Jesus withdrew from them and went across the lake.  The next morning, the time of our scripture, finds the people coming to Jesus, searching for bread.  Essentially, they were interested in Jesus solely for what he could do for them.

Jesus' response is found in John 6:26-35.  Notice that Jesus confronts the people by saying, “The truth is, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you saw the miraculous sign." Jesus always looks for the motives behind our actions.  Why are we following him?   Is it because we want to do his will and be a part of this work? Or, are we interested in coming to Jesus only when we need something? 

Those around him that day were only interested in getting something from Jesus. What they wanted was a quick fix to their hunger.  Moses, they said, had provided food for them in the wilderness.  If Jesus could perform a miracle, then they would believe him.  Doesn't this sound so much like us?  We come to God, asking for solutions to our problems and answers to our questions.    Rarely do we come to him just to relate or converse, yet this is what he wants from us, relationship.

Jesus corrected their misunderstanding by saying, "I assure you, Moses didn’t give them bread from heaven. My Father did." Like so many of us, they failed to recognize that everything in life comes from God's hand.  Moses provided them with nothing, God rained the manna down from heaven.  Jesus continued this thought by saying, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again".  This is what God is truly like.  He sees us in a hopeless situation, eating our fill, only to be hungry again.  His answer is always to surpass our need and give us the best he has, not only to sustain our lives, but to give us eternal life as well.  When we feed on Christ and his word we need never ask the question, "Do you have any bread?"  We have our fill.