Bread Alone...?

In the Gospel Matthew we read of Jesus saying a strange statement when being tempted by the Devil.

In the story, Jesus has been without food or drink for 40days after being baptised and called into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. I could only imagine the grumble of his tummy and the dryness of his mouth.

Jesus, with a grumbling tummy and a dry mouth, is tempted by the tempter (NRSV translation) to turn a stone into loaves of bread. It is important to note that Jesus has the power to do this amazing act but responds with the following answer, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Matthew 4:4 NRSV

This statement is strange because at this point Jesus is close to starvation. If we meet someone in a similar circumstance and they asked for bread, we would not respond with this type of statement…. We would give them bread.

It is important for us to remember that Jesus is referring to an Old Testament scripture found in Deuteronomy 8:3, where Moses is warning Israel to not forget God. In this OT scripture Moses is pointing to the fact that while the Lord provided manna from heaven, Israel was not satisfied and continually needed to lean on God.

Jesus is countering the tempter by reflecting on the fact that there is more to life than just materialistic satisfaction. True satisfaction is found when we lean into God who is all around us and with us in every moment. We find satisfaction when we continually lean on God and dive deeper with the divine. Knowing that there is more to life than just materialistic needs.

The tempter speaks to us in our here and now. Where we have developed an endless consumeristic nature…. Constantly wanting more but never being satisfied. Let us lean on God and discover the satisfaction that comes from diving deeper into a relationship with God, who is in and around us all the time. Let us breathe in our Omni-Loving God in every moment to discover a satisfaction that pass the materialistic needs around us, because we cannot survive on bread alone.