More than the catering

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,

Feed me now and evermore. William Williams

 

Read John 6:4-14

I wonder why the writer slips in the time note that the Passover was near. All the attention had to be on how to get the people catered for, and there wasn’t much of Passover about fish, say. There was about bread, but that had to be unleavened. There is no lamb, no herbs, no charoset or whatever else you need on the Passover table out in that place. The whole attention of the disciples moves to how to get this number of people fed with whatever they can scrounge. That should be what my attention is on if I am in the disciples’ shoes. But it’s not. As I sit with this story tonight and ask Jesus to feed my soul with it, somehow I find myself among a crowd. How did we come upon Jesus out here? Weren’t we just wandering around? I know, I just know it’s about more than the catering. It’s about Jesus feeding his people in the wilderness. Freeing his people from slavery. Giving himself to us as we follow his lead. Even as I wander. So, in a way, it is Passover, after all!

 

Dear Lord, I may be alone as I pray tonight, but there are many of us. I may be wandering, but it’s no mistake that I have come upon you, and you have come upon me. I may be hungry, but going to the fridge will not satisfy me. I take this time to be quiet with you, and to feed upon you. May I feed upon your words. May I hear them as promise to me. May I know you in freedom, brought out of my slaveries and set free, relationally, you speaking my name, I speaking yours: Jesus, Lord, Master, Friend of Sinners, Saviour, Redeemer.