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Thought
for the Week Sunday 2 August – 8th Sunday after Trinity
Turkish delight, Brie de Meaux, halva, peaches
and violet ice cream; mmm, these are just some of my favourite foods. I could
do without them if I really, really wanted to. What sort of list would you
make I wonder? What are your favourite foods? Now to ask an entirely
different question. What food would you class as an essential, a food that
you couldn’t survive without? Survive- not comfort food, we are talking life
and death here. What we need in our diets to survive is a basic
food, bread. Something that we need to keep going, a serious food, the French
certainly take it seriously, we see bakeries up and down the country groaning
with supplies of it. We could substitute bread for other things, for example
pasta or quorn, but bread is still a very good example of a staple, good
food. In many East Asian dialects the word for “rice “
and the word for “food “ is the same. In some Melanesian languages the same
applies for yams. In whatever culture you are in there is always a basic,
staple food, one thing that you need to stay alive? Bread is the biblical metaphor for this because
bread was the staple, basic, bottom line food of Jesus’ time. If Jesus had
been Melanesian then he would have spoken about yams and not bread, but bread
it is. And, it was bread that the crowd was looking for
when they looked for Jesus on the other side of the lake where he had so
recently performed the miracle of the feeding of the crowd of thousands with
only 5 loaves and 2 fish, from the young boy’s packed lunch. Jesus said “I tell you the truth, you are looking
for me, not because you saw the miraculous signs but because you ate the
loaves and had your fill “ It is good to have your fill, isn’t it? We are
all driven by our sense of need, are we not? Maybe we are missing the point
here just like Jesus’ listeners. John’s Jewish listeners would have
understood more than most the theme of chapter 6. Jesus identified with the
Exodus and the way God fed Israel in the wilderness. The manna from heaven
that Israel ate was enough for each day. Day by day God provided so that they
lived. John’s purpose and the purpose of the signs and marvels is to say to
his audience that Jesus is more than a new Moses, He has come to do more than
lead people out of physical slavery into a land of milk and honey. He is the
one with God and has come to deliver people from their bondage of sin and
death and bring them to the kingdom of God, giving eternal life to all. Most of us start getting irritable and short
tempered when our bodies need food. Since we all have bodies which run on the
fuel of food, we all distinctively know the importance of feeding, right from
screaming our hunger soon after birth, food is simply a matter of life and
death. This makes it an ideal image for describing how important Jesus is to
us. When He says, “I am the bread of life “ we understand the life and death
nature of the relationship it implies, Jesus brings us life and without him
we die. But to
come to Jesus only for the bread that satisfies our bodies one day and leaves
us hungry the next, to turn to him only for physical and immediate blessings
of this world is to miss the significance of whom Jesus is and what life is
all about. Jesus wanted the people to think beyond this he said “ Do not work
for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the
son of man will give you “ Now we are talking, the food that endures to
eternal life. Not only is Jesus
satisfying the body and its needs but the soul too. What saddened Jesus in today’s gospel was that
the people were clinging to his every move, but for the wrong reasons. They
were there for what they could get out of it, in their case being fed by
bread and fish. We can sometimes get into the
“ craving” rather than” believing” mode. Jesus is not a restaurant
where we indulge ourselves and eventually get our fill. He is the bread of
life and supplies us with the food we need in order to live out his purposes
for us among the people we are led to. The crowd saw Jesus as a wonder worker as one who
performs signs and fills stomachs. Jesus is that, but Jesus also knew that
the bread on earth does not satisfy in the end there is death and death in
sin if it is without him. Jesus is more than a wonder worker; He is the one
who is able to provide the food that our bodies need and the nourishing
provision of lasting spiritual food leading us to eternal life. What did Jesus say? “I am the bread of life. He
who comes to me will never go hungry, he who believes in me will never be
thirsty.“ Clearly the message is that there are more important things to seek
than the bread of this world which spoils and rots, clearly there is much
more for us. Never go hungry Jesus said, we are called by God
the giver of life, to eat the bread of life that bread provided by Him and
through Him and in Him, Jesus Christ. When we receive Christ by faith, we have life.
What are you looking for? What will make you happy? What will set your soul
at rest? Let go, and let God, then you will be able to
seek the things of God and not of this world. We know what lasts, Jesus gives lasting peace,
enduring happiness and then we can be satisfied. Don’t miss the point like so
many, faith in Christ has satisfied many a person and trusting in God has
quenched the thirst of many. There is a greater world than the physical world
we live in, don’t miss the bread that satisfies for eternity…Receive…. And be
blessed…. Amen. Revd June Hutchinson: Assistant Curate,
Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude To return to main Thought for the Week page, click X at top right to close this window. |