The Bread of Life
In my study of discipleship I realized something about the Temptation of Christ (Matthew 4). The first temptation from the devil was to turn stones into bread. Let’s think about that temptation for just a moment.
As God, Jesus could have done this. I think of how hungry He was after forty days of fasting in the wilderness. Could it be possible that this 1st Temptation could have been broader than that? Having seen the hungry in Manila and Antipolo, Philippines, in Israel, and even on the streets of our nation’s cities, I am reminded that all of us have seen the large eyes and bloated stomachs of starving children on our television screens. Could not Christ, as God, turn half of the stones in the world into bread and instantly solve world hunger? Yes He could. However, as the Servant of Jehovah (Isaiah 42:1-9, 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12), His first coming was not about the physically starving and dying, but the spiritually starving and dead. He came to cure the greatest need of all humanity – that spiritual death.
Lest you think I carry this thought too far, recall the 3rd temptation – the kingdoms of this world. Christ is King and the Sovereign of all and could have claimed them. But His plan implements that at His 2nd coming!
Jesus does care about the physically starving even as we should. How it must break the heart of God to see what humanity’s sin has done to the creation that He pronounced as “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Several times we read that Jesus looked on the multitudes and had compassion on them. He saw them as “sheep having no shepherd.” He wept over Jerusalem and at the tomb of Lazarus. He recognizes our frailty and helplessness – but unlike anyone else or any other “religious leader” or “founder,” He can and has done something about it. He is the Bread of Life Who has chosen to give us that Bread – Himself. Now He has granted us “trays” of that Bread (God’s Word and invitation) to take to the multitudes around us. May we see the wide eyes and bloated stomachs of the spiritually starved and dying! May we realize, as His disciples, the opportunity that we have. If we had the cure for world hunger and withheld it would be criminal. To do the same with the “Bread of Life” that will cure all spiritual hunger is sin. – Dr. Joe Olachea is Pastor or Lakes Community Chapel in Medford, NJ and is on the America’s Keswick Board of Trustees
Compass Pointers: We are not to be a terminus point for the gospel, but rather a way station in its progress to the ends of the earth. God intends that everyone who has embraced the gospel become a part of the great enterprise of spreading the gospel. – Jerry Bridges
Anchored to the Rock: Prayer has become as essential to me as the heaving of my lungs and the beating of my pulse. C. H. Spurgeon
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