Bread from Heaven

The smell of fresh bread from a clay oven. Warm, simple, the food of every home. Jesus was born in a town whose name means house of bread. And one day he said: I am the bread.

The day before, on a grassy hillside by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus had taken a boy's five barley loaves and two small fish, given thanks, and fed a crowd of five thousand men, besides women and children. Everyone ate until they were full, and twelve baskets of leftovers were gathered. That night Jesus crossed the lake. Now the crowd has tracked him down in Capernaum, on the other side. They want more. And Jesus tells them plainly: you are looking for me because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that lasts for eternal life.

So they challenge him. What sign will you do, so that we can believe you? Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. They are remembering the forty years after the exodus, when every morning the ground around Israel's camp was covered with flakes of food from God. Moses gave us bread from heaven, they are saying. What can you do? Jesus answers: it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.

Lord, they say, give us this bread always. And Jesus says: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” Not bread that fills you for a day. Bread that fills the deepest hunger of the heart: the hunger to be loved, forgiven, to belong to God. And I will never turn away anyone who comes to me, Jesus says. This is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

The crowd begins to grumble. Isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, I came down from heaven? But Jesus does not take it back. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, he says, and they died. Here is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

The name Bethlehem in Hebrew is Beit Lechem, which means house of bread. It sat among wheat and barley fields; the book of Ruth is set there at harvest time. And the manna the crowd remembered is described in the book of Exodus as white like coriander seed, tasting like wafers made with honey. Moses even had a jar of it kept, so that later generations could see the bread God gave.

Bread from Heaven. You'll find it in John chapter six, verses thirty to fifty-one. The baby laid in a manger, a feeding trough, in the house of bread, grew up to say: I am the bread of life. So here is a question to carry with you. What are you hungry for, deep down, that only Jesus can satisfy?