For the bread of God is He who comes
down from heaven and gives life to the world.
John 6:33
Bread is a complicated concoction made up of precise ingredients, a multi-step process, and time. Flour, yeast, salt, oil, warm water, and flavoring in exact proportions are kneaded together until the dough has a specific consistency. It is covered with a towel, put in a warm place for half an hour, and let to rise. After that, it is punched down, covered again, and let to rise for another half hour. It is then put in a hot oven and baked at the right temperature until golden brown.
Complicated? Yes, but it’s also universal. Every culture has its own recipe for bread, but in all of them, bread is considered a basic staple of life. When I grew up, we had bread on the table for every meal. My dad would say, “Fill up on bread, it’s cheap!”
It’s true that some primitive cultures don’t have grains, flour, or bakeries. In those places, some kind of starchy root vegetable becomes the basic foodstuff of their diet. However, the principle still holds that everyone has some kind of food that is indispensable.
Christ is the bread of God that has come down from heaven. He is our sustenance that provides our spiritual need, just as bread supplies our physical needs. To communicate this to tribal people, some missionaries in New Guinea translate the title bread of God into “Sweet Potato of God” and some African tribes know Christ as the “Cassava of God.”
Jesus doesn’t have to be complicated. He is as simple as a child eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He’s good, satisfying, and meets our needs.
Jesus Himself says, “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die” (John 6:50).
Fill me up, O Bread of God!
June 16
