Do you have a favorite kind of bread? Bread is among my favorite foods – I especially like heavier bread that is dense and flavorful. The kind of bread that is moist and springy when it is fresh and crispy and firm when toasted. Bread is wonderful spread with butter or dipped in olive oil, piled with delicious meats, chesses or spreads as a sandwich, smothered with peanut butter and jelly, or just all by itself.
Bread is a central image of the gospel reading this week (and will be for a few weeks to come, too). Just before this passage, last week’s gospel tells about the miraculous sign when Jesus feeds 5000 people with just five loaves and two fish. This week we find that the crowd who “ate as much as they wanted” is looking for Jesus the next day. When they find him, Jesus (perhaps rightly) suggests that they are looking for him not because of the healings and other signs of God’s loving power they’ve seen from Jesus, but because they would like more bread.
It seems reasonable that a crowd of peasants, struggling each day to feed themselves and their families, would be drawn to a leader and teacher who provides an abundant meal. Jesus, though, wants them to see that he has much more to offer than just full bellies. He begins a conversation that will extend to the end of the chapter, offering a poetic image of bread from heaven that provides more than they were expecting, more than they can imagine. More than the followers (and we) can fully comprehend.
Like the crowd, we seek out Jesus because of our hunger. Hunger to find connection with God. Hunger to be heard and seen and valued as we are. Hunger to truly be in community with others. Hunger to see the ways God is alive and active in the world. Hunger to find peace and justice and hope. Hunger to trust that God truly is love and abundance. Hunger to see the transformation God brings to the world and be part of it.
These and other hungers move us to look for the bread Jesus talks about – to join the crowd as they say to Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Peace,