So, How is Your Spiritual Nutrition?
Good Morning Friends,
The people who followed Moses and the people who followed Jesus lived on leftovers. In today’s Bible stories we see how the Sabbath declares God’s provision and abundance. We see the Hebrews in the desert in conflict over what they perceive as their own interests and what God demands in obedience. We see the crowds following Jesus to get their next meal. When it comes to food it is the same story of Adam in the garden all over again. It is the same story until the second Adam comes on the scene and becomes our Sabbath… our daily bread…our teacher in gleaning… So, How is Your Spiritual Nutrition?
Scripture: 6After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.* 2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages* would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ 10Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they* sat down, about five thousand in all. 11Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.
John 6:1-13 (NRSV)
35
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
John 6:35 (NRSV)
8This entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase, and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. 3He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.*
Deuteronomy 8:1-3 (NRSV)
4
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. 5On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.’
Exodus 16:4-5 (NRSV)
Message: Sabbath living requires that people put their faith in God, becoming rich in God rather than material self-interests. This is not a once a week taking in of nutrition or even three square a day, but a continual abiding with God. Here God’s promise of abundance for all creation and our desires to claim it for our personal use brings us face to face with the sin of Adam in the garden…It brings us face to face with the challenge of being good stewards of the garden. It is a big job, considering that we have a propensity to act like Adam. The key is to understand that we cannot and should not try to be doing all the work ourselves. Jesus is to by our Sabbath rest. Because of what He did, we no longer have to “labor” in law-keeping in order to be justified in the sight of God. Of course we never could measure up to that standard. We need Jesus’ help to forgive. Jesus was sent so that we might rest in God and in what He has provided. Jesus provides the love, joy, hope we need… Jesus provides the spiritual nutrition we need to hunger and thirst for…It is in this Eucharist we feed the body and nourish the Spirit. Friends, today is a very good day to change the world, one heart at a time.
Pray that we experience God’s provision. Pray we cease the labors of our own works for salvation. Pray that we experience God’s abundance… Pray that we experience the Sabbath as a feast not a fast. Pray that we help feed those who hunger. Pray we not forget God in our prosperity. Pray our thoughts, attitudes, emotions, beliefs and desires feed our soul. Pray we take and eat and believe that Jesus came so we might have life.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 