Wednesdays with Grace

Last Sunday’s Bible reading from John 6 reminded me of the most surprising nativity play I’ve ever seen.  It was put on by Christian students at York University in the north of England.   At the beginning, Mary and Joseph stood at the front looking lovingly at the bundle in Mary’s arms.   Then they went up and down the aisle of the church showing their newborn child to certain people—who made all the right noises in response.   Mary and Joseph then returned to the front, accompanied by the people in the audience who’d seen the baby.   At that point Mary unraveled the swaddling clothes, and we all saw that the baby was in fact a large loaf of bread.   Then Mary began handing out chunks of the loaf to the people gathered at the front, who all started eating her baby.

It was certainly an unconventional nativity play, and yet it was faithful to Scripture.  As we heard on Sunday, Jesus compares himself to bread.  Regular bread satisfies and sustains us for a few hours, but Jesus, “the bread of life” (John 6:35), satisfies and sustains us forever: “everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life” (John 6:40). 

It’s easy to focus on the “eternal” side of eternal life.  When I put my trust in Jesus, it was because he offered the solution to death.  I’d come to see that death was a gigantic problem, and I was ecstatic to hear that through Jesus I could live forever.  But Jesus wants us to focus equally on the “life” side of eternal life.  He offers life in all its fullness (John 10:10), and it begins as soon as we enter into a personal relationship with him.  Jesus is bread that satisfies us in this world as we experience the joy of knowing him and serving him.

If we keep feeding on Jesus, we won’t go hungry.  But if we “work for food that spoils” (John 6:27), we’ll be spiritually famished.  There is no better loaf than the Lord.

Bernard Howard