The Bread of Life

One of my favorite things to do is to cook with friends.

Following a recipe, while singing songs, chopping vegetables, and sautéing ingredients in mounds of butter makes my heart soar in my best Julia Child's voice, “Bon Appétit!” For a lifetime, our senses of taste, smell, touch, sight, and sound can transport us to memories, communities, and homes in which we shared meals with loved ones. A sweet or savory meal has the power to awaken in us a hunger we didn’t know we had. But of course, we are always left hungry the next day.

“This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat,” Moses spoke these words to a grumbling Israelite community who complained about their hunger after God produced manna from Heaven. These men and women watched God part the Red Sea to ensure their escape and freedom to the promised land. Yet they were still hungry, still looking for a sign. What God did was not enough.

And then right before today's Gospel passage, Jesus fed 5,000 men. They had witnessed a miracle, yet were still hungry, still looking for a sign. In today's Gospel, they asked Him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?” (John 6:30). What Jesus did was not enough. Even though He offered them the Bread of Life, it was not what they wanted.

He offered them His flesh to eat and His blood to drink so they might never hunger or thirst again. Like the Israelites, they had witnessed a miracle of God’s provision, and yet they would rather get a snack to hold them over rather than be satisfied.

How like the people in Exodus and Matthew am I? I hunger for things of this world that leave me empty. Even though I’ve witnessed God’s provision, seen His miracles, and consumed His precious Body and Blood, I still don’t fully receive all He wants to give me.

Lord, help my unbelief and help me hunger and thirst for the Bread of Life, Your precious Body and Blood, more every day till I reach the heavenly banquet. Only then will I be fully satisfied.

Lord, help my unbelief. // @socaltriciatClick to tweet

listen to today’s devotion