Hungry for more
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
Happy are those who take refuge in him. Psalm 34:8
Read Mark 6:35—44
It’s getting late. I’m in this crowd, listening to Jesus, the dark coming on. The teaching has been good, really good. None of us have wanted to leave. If I’m to go and fetch some food it will mean hoping nearby peasants or further off village people have cooked up enough to spare. I’m just thinking about that. I’m concluding that the hunger has been worth it. Even fasting is not as bad as all that. I seem to be in the middle of the story of Jesus now, in fact, in the middle of that central story of Israel, being fed. I’m being fed by Jesus in the wilderness. I’m not just hearing about it now. God’s visitation of his people, God’s freeing of his people, God’s feeding his people: I’m in it! It’s real! That was the promise. This is the fulfilment. Jesus is clothing his teaching. He’s feeding me, all right. He’s really feeding me.
Dear Lord, when I read your word, when I hear you speak, when you teach me, when you promise yourself to me, I must stay. I must remain with you. Then I am fed by you. It is worthwhile to me to let your sayings ring in my ears and be chewed on in my heart. For, as the night comes on when I am communing with you, I have a hunger that only you can satisfy.