I am the Bread of Life; Advent week three

I am the Bread of Life; Advent week Three

While in the desert the Israelites complained to Moses about having nothing to eat.  “Would that we had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!  But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine  (Ex 16: 3).

God’s promise to them that they would enjoy a new land filled with milk and honey, a sustenance of release from their enemies and freedom to live as God’s children.   Through faith with Moses guiding them, they found more than food, they believed in the blessings God would give to them for all their lives.  (see EX 16: 1 - 19). 

As we go through the motions of also waiting for the promise of God during Advent, a period of anticipation of God saving us from the enemy of sin that always crushes the hope of salvation. We too will  find the Bread of Life, the fulfillment of the promise of the Old Testament prophecies of a Savior from our sins.  This promise is the forgiveness for the sin of Adam to a new Adam, Jesus Christ.

This episode of Jesus feeding five thousand men as well as women and children was more than satisfying the common hunger we all may experience in life.  It isn’t just the nutritional needs that the people needed, it was the fulfillment of the power of God to save us from sin.  (Jn. 6: 1 ff).

A promise to the Israelites in the desert and the same promise to you and me as we journey in hope of a new experience awaiting the birth of our savior begins with being fed with more than bread.  It is the very essence of our creator of all his love, from the desert of emptiness to the desert of our current emptiness without the promise of Christ from the Cross to the Ascension.

That is Advent; a time of looking forward to a long awaited promise which is coming soon and will sustain our hope in the grace of forgiveness for our sins!

Our journey today and tomorrow is a path marked with the blood of saints who also yearned for a bread that promised life; but the life of the Word of God.  “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”  (Mt. 4: 4).

Ralph B. Hathaway