The Layman Foundations of the Faith
Our daily bread
Robert P. Mills, Posted Friday, Jul 19, 2002
Suggested Scripture Readings: Matthew 6:11; John 6:1-15, 25-35 |
For most Americans today, bread at meals is optional, an enjoyable source of unneeded carbohydrates. In Jesus’ day, bread was essential. At most meals, any other food was an accessory, even a luxury.
The Hebrew word for bread, lehem, comes from a root that means “to make solid,” and indeed, in Biblical times most peasants in Palestine could go for days without tasting any other solid food.
Keeping this distinction in mind helps us appreciate how Jesus’ first disciples would have heard his instruction that when they prayed they were to ask their heavenly Father, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Our daily bread
Our last two studies considered the first part of this petition. We learned that we pray “Give us” not because God is unaware of our situation but because God wants us to ask him to supply all our needs. We pray “this day” because we are asking God only for enough to make it through the day, not for a stockpile that will last us a lifetime.
In praying for “our daily bread” we learn that we are to ask God for essentials, not accessories, and that we are to be concerned about the needs of those around us, not merely for the fullness of our own bellies.
As Patrick Henry Reardon helpfully reminds us, “No matter with how much discipline and industry we labor for our family’s bread, the bread itself is always God’s gift, a truth we acknowledge each day when we pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’”
And while this petition is concerned first and foremost with the food that sustains our physical lives, Christians throughout the centuries have understood it to apply to our spiritual lives as well.
The Bread of Life
From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God is seen as the giver of life. From the Old Testament we learn that life itself comes from God (Gen. 1-2). God has life in himself and he is the Lord of life (Psalm 104:29-30). Human life does not depend on bread alone but on God’s word (Deut. 8:3). Death brings human life to an end.
The restoration of life, particularly the reconciliation of the life-giving relationship between humanity and God, is a central theme of the New Testament, in which two Greek words, bios and zoe are translated “life.” Bios, the root of such English words as biology and biography, refers to natural, physical life. Zoe describes the life God has in himself and gives to those he wills. After he fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread, Jesus declared “I am the bread of life (zoe)” (John 6:35). Jesus does not say that he gives this life-giving gift but that he himself is the true bread from heaven, the food that is essential if God’s people are to have spiritual life. Only Jesus can satisfy our deepest hunger, which is not for physical food but for that which gives life to and sustains the human spirit.
Growing in grace
John Calvin notes the connection between our need for physical bread and our need for God’s grace in Jesus Christ: “When we eat bread for the nourishment of the body, we see more clearly not only our own weakness, but also the power of divine grace than if, without bread, God were to impart a secret power to nourish the body itself.”
Without physical food our bodies will not grow. Without Jesus our souls will perish. Through Jesus Christ (who was born in Beth-lehem, the “house of bread”) we receive the gift of life itself. And while this gift is given to us once and for all, we must also receive Jesus Christ again and again if we are to grow in the grace that he offers us.
The souls of far too many Christians subsist on a self-imposed starvation diet. Those who fail to come to Jesus through daily Bible reading and prayer, through regular participation in Christian fellowship and the sacraments, deprive themselves of a rich banquet. Such self-inflicted deprivation results in spiritually malnourished Christians and congregations.
Perhaps the most visible reminder of our ongoing need to feed on Christ is the communion table. In the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we come together as those who have been given the gift of eternal life and we are nourished for our daily life as the Church in the world. As we come to the Lord’s table, Jesus Christ is truly present and we are strengthened, body and soul.
Whether we celebrate the sacrament once a day, once a week, or once a quarter, it is always our privilege and our duty to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Additional Resources John Calvin, John (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1994); Patrick Henry Reardon, Christ in the Psalms (Ben Lomond, Calif.: Conciliar Press, 2000) |
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