Where’s the White Bread?

John 6:1-14 John 6:1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

So what’s the point? That’s always the question we have to ask when we read these stories about Jesus’ neat tricks (miracles). Because again, the point isn’t just, “Wow look at that guy, he does cool stuff with bread and fish.” There’s always a deeper point to Jesus’ miracles. So to get at that deeper point, maybe I’ll ask this question: what does bread symbolize?

If you can’t come up with anything, you could scroll down to Jon’s devo from yesterday and read what he has to say about the part of the Lord’s prayer that says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bread (especially for people back in Jesus’ day) was just one of those basic essentials of life. So to any ancient reader it would easily symbolize all the basic things we need to survive, and as Jon points out, to grow. Okay…so next question: what might Jesus be demonstrating about Himself when He sees the hungry people and supplies them with more bread than they can even handle?

Well, if you still have no ideas, I suppose I can give my take on it here. This is Jesus showing how He knows exactly what we need and He is quite capable of (and up to the task of) providing for our needs. Right? Wasn’t that the concern of the disciples in the beginning of story? “These people need food. We’ve got nothin’ to feed them with.” Enter Jesus…

So great, Jesus can meet all our needs! When I come to Jesus, everything is honky dory now because Jesus is going to give me everything I need. Ahh, but here’s the problem: yes we’re all about Jesus meeting our needs, but how many of us actually trust Him enough and are willing to let Him determine what it is we need? Personally, I’m not a big fan of wheat bread. Back then, they didn’t have the tasty over-processed white bread I love so much. So I probably would have been the guy in the crowd who said as the bread and fish were passed around, “Ah come one! You mean you got no white bread. How am I supposed to choke down this stuff.”

Sound familiar…even just the slightest? Ever complain about what you have or don’t have? Ever wish your situation in life were different? Ever wonder why in the world you were made to suffer the way you did these past few weeks? You cry out and ask God to fix things, to help you with the hurt or the things you think you so desperately need. And He doesn’t answer…at least it sure seems like He’s not.

Do you trust Him? Sure we trust that God can do anything. He can answer all my deepest needs. No…do you trust Him? Do you trust that He best knows what’s best for you? Do you trust Him to decide the things you need? Will you hand over your expectations, your desires, your “needs” and patiently rely on His perfect care for you? That’s the question.

It’s hard for me to choke down the wheat bread. But then again, all these health nuts keep tellin’ me all that over processed white bread really ain’t all that good for you. So what do I know about bread anyway?