Following up on the story of bread and water.

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But that’s not all we need. Sometimes food and rest are not enough. Sometimes, always, we need a different kind of bread.

We need living bread.

I’m interested, as I read the words of Jesus, that he didn’t offer the people bread. He had done that the day before this story. The day before this story, Jesus had fed fifteen thousand people all the food they could eat, with leftovers. Five small rolls made with barley, and two small fish, the kind of food that would feed a kid, were blessed by God to feed the whole crowd.

But they wanted more food, more tricks with fish and bread.

Jesus said, “Let’s talk about what you really need. You really need God. You don’t need the food in the wilderness, you need the one who can feed you, the one how can offer you hope and a future, the one who can offer you truth and trust. Come to me for who I am, not for what I can do.”

In the wilderness, an angel offers Elijah bread and water because the journey is too much. In the wilderness of life, Jesus offers us bread and water because the journey of life is too much. Living bread, living water. From God, for us.

But people listening to Jesus were offended. “You come from God? You aren’t God. We know you.” And “How can we eat a person?”

What we know now, is that Jesus would take bread and break it and say, “This is my body broken for you”

And then, within hours, his body would be broken.

Believe. Before everything gets better, believe. Before you know the end of the story, believe in the one who writes the story.

We know the story. We tell the story. We can believe the story.

And we can eat.

We read Paul’s words as obligation sometimes, as impossible standards that we are to try to live up to. Don’t be angry. Be kind and compassionate. Don’t be lazy. Work hard.

And we struggle.

May I offer some advice when it’s hard to do those things?

Take a nap. Eat a simple meal. And believe in the one who died and lives and wants to feed us with living bread and water. The journey is too much for us alone. But we are not alone.