Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Everlasting Bread
Last Thursday I went to Kroger to buy some groceries. One thing I needed was a loaf of bread. There were several types of bread from which to choose. I picked one called "Baker's Inn: Sliced Bakery Bread." It is 100% whole wheat. I put in the shopping cart, paid for it at the check-out stand and took it home. Last night I ate a piece of bread with my soup. The bread tasted good.
It is hard for me, as a well fed American, to understand the importance of bread unless I turn on a TV and watch what is going on in some parts of the world today. I wonder how much a loaf of bread would cost today in bombed-out South Beirut, Lebanon. A simple loaf of bread in certain parts of the world means life itself.
The Bible recognizes the importance of bread. The key event in the Old Testament was the Exodus event--the trip from Egypt to the Promised Land. A drought in the land of Israel had led to famine. There was no bread in the land. This lack of bread led the people of Israel to Egypt where there was a surplus of bread. Later, when Moses led the Jewish slaves to freedom in the Promised Land they were facing starvation in the wilderness and God rained down bread from heaven in the form of manna. Manna. Daily bread from God. Daily bread is no joking matter to a starving person. But for well fed people like us an obsession for bread can sometimes seem humorous and perhaps even enlightening.
There is a bit of Jewish humor that goes like this: An old man goes to a diner every day for lunch. He always orders the soup du jour. One day the manager asks him how he liked his meal. The old man replies, "It was good, but you could give a little more bread. Two slices of bread is not enough." So the next day the manager tells the waitress
to give him four slices of bread. "How was your meal, sir?" the manager asks. "It was good, but you could give a little more bread," comes the reply. So the next day the manager tells the waitress to give him eight slices of bread. "How was your meal today, sir?" the manager asks. "Good, but you could give a little more bread," comes the reply. So . . . the next day the manager tells the waitress to give him a whole loaf of bread, 16 slices with his soup. "How was your meal, sir?" the manager asks, when he comes to pay. "It was good, but you could give just a little more bread," comes the reply once again.
The manager is now obsessed with seeing this customer satisfied with his meal, so he goes to the bakery, and orders a six-foot-long loaf of bread. When the man comes in as usual the next day, the waitress and the manager cut the loaf in half, butter the entire length of each half, and lay it out along the counter, right next to his bowl of soup. The old man sits down, and devours both his bowl of soup, and both halves of the six-foot-long loaf of bread. The manager now thinks he will get the answer he is looking for, and when the old man comes up to pay for his meal, the manager asks in the usual way: "How was
your meal TODAY, sir?" The old man replies: "It was good as usual, but I see you are back to serving only two slices of bread!"
Bread. Daily bread. Manna. This was on the mind of the Jewish crowd that found Jesus in Capernaum. Like the old man in the diner, they wanted some more bread. But Jesus does not respond to them like the manager of the diner responded to the hungry old man. Instead of feeling responsible to give them a memorable dining experience Jesus puts the responsibility back on the crowd as he challenges the crowd to make a deeper commitment to him.
The crowd waffles: "Show us what you can do. Moses fed our ancestors with
bread in the desert. They called it manna. It says so in the Scriptures: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' Show us what you can do. Got any manna for us today?'"
Jesus responds, "Forget the manna. Let's get real. The significance of that Scripture is not that Moses gave them bread from heaven but that my Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread. The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world."
They jumped at that: "Master, give us this bread, now and forever!"
Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever."
We are hungry like the crowd that came to Jesus seeking bread. We are starving for security and stability. We are starving for affection and esteem. We are starving
for power and control. We go to great lengths to satisfy our hunger. War. Lust. Greed. Like the old man in the diner who never gets enough bread for lunch we never get enough. We try to satisfy our hunger in various ways. We seek to make the best grades, die with the most toys, or even attend church more than our neighbor. All the while we are grasping for bread that will never satisfy our deepest hunger, the mother of all hungers, which is the hunger for God's approval, God's peace, God's love. Our problem is not a lack of bread but a lack of the experience of God's love.
There is only one bread that can satisfy our deepest hunger -- the hunger for God. That bread is Jesus Christ our Lord. The one who referred to himself as the Bread of Life. This is my body, broken for you. The body of Christ. The bread of salvation. Feed us, Lord, for we are hungry for an experience of God. Feed us Lord, for we are hungry for you. Feed us, Lord, with the Bread of Life -- everlasting bread. And then we shall feel fully accepted and loved by God just as we are in this present moment. This everlasting bread is eternal life. It is available right now. Jesus offers it to us. Let's eat.
