Bread is the most basic
food in the
Once my
friend Rev. Manuel Jinbashian went to a restaurant in
The waiter took Rev. Jinbashian’s hand and led him outside the restaurant to
show him a neighboring church. “There, you can find artos.”
Apparently, in modern Greek they use two words for bread: bread for daily eating is different from
bread for the Communion Table.
“Bread” is an important
biblical term used in the Old and New Testament. In the Exodus event: Why did Hebrews go
to
On their journey to the
When Jesus was tempted by
Satan in the desert, the first temptation was to satisfy the hunger of Jesus by
turning stones to bread.
When the disciples asked
Jesus to teach them how to pray, we taught them the famous “Hayr
Mer” prayer.
There too we ask for our daily bread.
In the night of betrayal,
Jesus took the bread, broke it, and gave it to the disciples. Until this day, we celebrate the Last Supper
together as a Church.
Today as we look at this
passage, we realize that it begins with feeding the 5000.
Here we have a boy with
two fish and five loaves of bread.
Now people are gathered
again. They are interested in following
a person who provides “bread”. There is
nothing wrong with that, but Jesus was tired and wanted to teach them more than
“bread.”
Jesus said: “I tell you the truth,
you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you
ate the loaves and had your fill.” (26)
“How long are you going
to stay on this level?”
“When are you going to
move to next level of maturity?”
“There is nothing wrong
in providing ‘bread’; but I am afraid that the only reason that you follow me
is the ‘bread.’”
Unfortunately, many today
do follow Jesus for something to gain. What
is in it for me? What can I gain from
this church?
Let us not forget that
God is provider and He blesses us with His blessings. Listen to Jesus. “Do not work for food that spoils, but for
food that endures to eternal life.” (27)
These days we are
cautious about what we eat. Fast food
restaurants started to change some of their menus and added salads and healthy
food. Some eat only organic food.
Artificial flavors, colors and preservatives are so dangerous, that people do
not buy anything without reading the labels.
If we are cautious about our daily diet, well, Jesus is cautious
about our spiritual diet. Many like
to hear about Jesus. Many are interested
to know something about him. Many like
to know about “spiritual awareness”, yet few prefer to be involved in the story
of Jesus. Few like to experience the
real food.
That’s why Jesus is
saying “come on, grow up, be mature, I would like to give you more than baby
milk, let us move to another dimension.”
We will continue in the
English sermon.