They replied, “So what should we do if we want to do God’s work?” Jesus answered, “The work you can do for God starts with believing in the One he has sent.” They replied, “Show us a miracle so we can see it, and then we’ll believe in you. Moses took care of our ancestors who were fed by the miracle of manna every day in the desert, just like the Scripture says, ‘He fed them with bread from heaven.’ What sign will you perform for us?”
“The truth is,” Jesus said, “Moses didn’t give you the bread of heaven. It’s my Father who offers bread that comes as a dramatic sign from heaven. The bread of God is the One who came out of heaven to give his life to feed the world.” “Then please, sir, give us this bread every day,” they replied. Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life. Come every day to me and you will never be hungry. Believe in me and you will never be thirsty.
John 6: 28 – 35 The Passion Translation
A few months ago, I started to apply myself to the art and science of baking sourdough bread. My journey with home baked bread started when I was a teenager, but it’s only now, as I have matured a lot, that I have cultivated the patience and persistence that it requires to bake sourdough. For those in the know it’s no secret that it takes months and months of trail and error to perfect the technique and it takes patience to wait for the starter to mature enough to achieve a good rise. Even when you have a good, strong, healthy starter it takes at least a week of feeding and nurturing a starter before you can bake another loaf.
In the meantime, you have a lot of discard…each time you feed the starter you have to scoop some out to make room for the fresh flour and water. If you neglect this process, your starter runs out of food and dies. Then there’s the baking process. The loaf is baked inside a cast iron pot, heated to an extreme temperature and the loaf itself is baked fast and hot! I can testify that getting distracted at this point, even for a few minutes, can be disastrous, unless you like your bread charcoaled.
Yesterday, as I pulled a perfect loaf from the oven, Holy Spirit started to speak to me about the process. It’s no different from our Christian walk. No wonder Jesus Himself used the analogy of bread and yeast to teach the people. Sourdough consists of the natural, unseen yeast that float around in the atmosphere. What a powerful picture! We too are bombarded with spiritual “yeast” floating around in the atmosphere around us. How easy it is to get infected by it.
In Matthew 16 we read an account of Jesus’ altercation with the Pharisees and Sadducees, who questioned Jesus in order to trap Him. They demanded a sign so that He could prove His divinity. Jesus and His disciples left by boat and we get an insight into what Jesus taught them: When the disciples reached the other side of the sea, they realized that they had forgotten to bring bread. 6Jesus said to them, “Watch out and be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves that you have no bread? 9 Do you still not understand or remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you picked up? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many large baskets you picked up? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the [false] teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Amplified)
Like a good yeast starter, our character and our walk with the Lord takes a long time to be perfected. There’s process involved and we need patience and perseverance. Like loafs being only as good as the yeast that rises it, we are only as good as the spiritual food we eat. Jesus alone is the Bread of Life. He is the only bread that will satisfy the deep hunger of the human heart. Every other spiritual food will disappoint us. There’s a lot of stuff inside of us that needs to be scooped out and discarded to make room for the good food that will help us to grow healthy and strong.
Through the ages people have tried to feed their souls and spirits with the delicacies of the world, and we are still trying today. Entertainment satisfies for a short while, addiction of every kind tries hard to fill the grumbling spiritual stomach, but soon the hunger for more drugs, more drink, more pornography, more shopping, more gossip, more food, more religion etc. returns. The appetite is never satisfied.
Deep in the heart of man is a hunger and thirst for that which only Jesus can provide. He alone satisfies. This morning He would say to us: “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. (Isaiah 55:2) Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to us today and feast on Jesus, the Word made flesh, the Bread that never disappoints.
I am the bread of life – Jesus of Nazareth (John 6:48)