Help, we're starving

"Do a miracle, and we'll believe in you," a crowd told Jesus. "Moses gave starving people bread from heaven, once. What can you do?" Jesus answered: "Only God gives bread from heaven. God sent me -- I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me and believes in me will never be hungry or thirsty."

You can't wait for dinner. "I'm STARVING!" you complain. But even if it's been a few hours since lunch, you're not really starving -- just hungry. Starving people go without food for days or weeks, or never get enough to fill their stomachs even when they do eat.

In this week's Gospel (John 6:24-35), we hear about another kind of starving: being hungry for God. The people Jesus taught were poor, and their country had been taken over in a war. They were starving to hear that God still loved them and was taking care of them, even in bad times.

When you're really hungry, it's all you can think about. You don't care about waiting to eat a healthy dinner; you want any snack you can get your hands on, just to fill your stomach quickly!

Jesus' followers were like that. They were so hungry for God that they were willing to settle for a "quick fix" from Jesus -- any miracle or trick that might convince them He was God and they could believe in Him.

No matter how "starving" you feel, you know you can't live on snacks and junk food. You have to hang in there until dinner and eat a good meal. That's what Jesus taught: that He loved the people, but He wasn't going to prove it with a miracle or trick.

Jesus wouldn't make bread appear like magic; He wanted people to hang in there and get the "bread of life" -- Jesus Himself. If they believed in Him, He promised, they'd never be hungry for God again.

(7/31/03) [[In-content Ad]]