By Nathan Hosler

Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15, Ephesians 4:1-16, John 6:24-35

This was the 15^th day of the second month. Approximately 45 days since they were liberated from slavery. And they were in the desert wilderness. And they were hungry.

The wilderness has often been a place of testing. Much later, Jesus will go into the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry to fast and pray. Led there by the Spirit to prepare and eventually be tested. With hunger pangs present, the tempter will suggest a solution. A solution that would highlight Jesus’ power and meet a very real need. The passage reads,

² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4).

Though the Israelites are not intentionally fasting, they are hungry. Having fled their captors and traveling by foot or animal, the people, now into their second month of journeying, have run out of food and are hungry. In their distress they complain and romanticize their time of slavery. It says,

^“ The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Years later, after much time in the desert—years of being sustained by God, the text will record God and Moses being angered by such grumbling. However, here, there is no such displeasure noted. We read,

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.”

The instruction was to collect 1 omer per person per day. While the task of collecting flake-like sustenance from the ground may be tedious and liable to make ones’ back sore, an omer was enough.

God will provide but the people must trust that the provision will come daily. They are not to hoard or gather for the future. Only what is eaten on the day is to be gathered, except on the day before the sabbath, when two days’ worth is allowed. God will provide—it will be enough.

This calls to mind the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. “Give us this day our daily bread.” In this prayer, in the center of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches his disciples, and us, how to pray. The prayer is practical and frugal—not a lot of words and not asking all that much. It is for daily bread. Not for the next 2 days…or a comfortable week—or for a month (to make sure we aren’t too stressed).

This also calls to mind Jesus’ admonition to not worry about tomorrow. Which is also in the sermon on the mount, we read,

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In our Gospel passage, the people follow Jesus into the desert seeking bread, a new manna from a new Moses. Moses, the leader who led the people out of captivity is also credited with providing “the bread of heaven.” Chapter 6 opened with Jesus’ feeding “the 5000.” In a place with no food trucks or venders, Jesus multiplies 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. Barley loaves were of lesser quality and the food of poor people. This was a simple meal of a kid who showed up in a crowd around Jesus.

Jesus took what was offered and multiplied this basic food into a feast with surplus. Jesus provided sustenance and provision but not glamor. Not a swanky reception with hors d’oeuvres but the staples of life. The provision of God given in the wilderness.

¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

¹⁵ When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

The disciples then went down to the sea, into a boat and crossed over. While the water was rough and the wind strong, Jesus walked to them on the water.

Not seeing Jesus and not seeing him get into a boat, the people go searching. And this is where our passage officially starts.

²⁴ So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” ²⁶ Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. ²⁷ Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” ²⁸ Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” ²⁹ Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” ³⁰ So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us, then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? ³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” ³² Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is that which^[a] comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴ They said to him, “Sir,^[b] give us this bread always.”

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.

Throughout the Bible and the culture of that time, bread was virtually synonymous with food. It is thought that wheat or barley made up 50% of the calories consumed by ancient Israelites. It would take 2-4 hours a day to grind enough grain for a family (Shafer-Elliot, Economics and Empire in the Ancient Near East, 117). And this grain was consumed primarily in the form of bread.

Some weeks ago, while in Palestine and Israel, bread was included in virtually every meal. At breakfast at St George’s guest house in East Jerusalem—a basket of bread with a little toaster conveyer belt for warming. In a hole-in-the-wall chicken joint in Bethlehem plates of warm bread and snappy garlic sauce were brought out. Bread. The bread of life. Bread—carbohydrates and protein + nutrients often lost by our overprocessing of grain (grain milled to flour also loses significant nutrients when the milled grain sits waiting to be turned into bread).

The people have received bread—the sustenance of life. While well-fed people may appreciate a free meal, they will likely not go too much out of their way for it. These people showed up at a preaching rally with no food (except one well-prepared kid). They then scrambled to locate the strangely disappeared preacher-food provider. While they may not have been desperate, they heartily welcomed the provision of food.

Jesus doesn’t rebuke them but redirects them. One writer notes they didn’t follow for the wrong reason but for insufficient reasons (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18-2/commentary-on-john-61-21-7)

—he said this food that you seek is not the only food, the real food. “I am the bread of life.” While daily bread is important, it is not the only thing needed. God provides, and the provision is for fullness of life. God’s saving power meets them and meets us.

After liberating the people from slavery, God provides in wilderness. The provision is daily and enough. The people, and we, must rely, pray, and trust in God for what we need daily.

The God who provided in the wilderness and continues to sustain through the many provisions of life, also has given the bread of life. Jesus’ words to the people by the sea still echo to us, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”