Don’t just look at it, eat it!
August 28, 2025
I enjoy baking. I especially enjoy baking bread. Lately, I’ve been making wholewheat bread in a cast-iron skillet. I smile at the brown, jiggly blob settling into the skillet. I admire the fissures in the crust when I take it out. I enjoy the steam rising when I start slicing just a little too soon. I delight in the texture and taste when I bight off a piece and chew it.
As delightful as it is, though, the bread does me no good if I don’t actually swallow it. I can measure ingredients with care and bake with precision. I can chew it all day long. I can take pictures of my loaves and put them on Facebook. But if I don’t actually ingest it, the bread is doing me no good.
In today’s Scripture lesson, Jesus tells the crowd he is the bread of life. He tells them that his disciples, those who follow him so closely he is their bread, will have loving relationships and do God’s will in both this world and the next.
The crowd isn’t buying it. “Prove it,” they say. “Give us a sign” (vs 30).
Of course, this is impossible. No one can be proven anything when they’re not prepared to believe. The doctor can’t prove the prescribed antibiotics will help us feel better. We have to first trust enough to try.
Too many Christians confuse knowledge with wisdom. They confuse a picture of bread with nutrients in their stomachs. They are wearing a raincoat in the shower. They’re friendly roommates with God, but not lovers.
This month, we have followed John on a brief course in discipleship. In week one, (link to August 7 devo) we realized being a disciple requires learning about Jesus through personal experiences. Our second week (link to August 14 devo) taught us discipleship is not something we can do secretly, under cover of darkness. In our third week, (link to August 21 devo) we saw what good can happen when we are willing to meet Jesus in public where everyone can see.
Today, we circle back to the point we made in the beginning. Being a disciple isn’t something we can do from a distance. We and God have to be as close to each other as food digesting in a stomach, nutrients swirling through blood. From personal experience we know that we can’t prove it, but we can share that if God is as close to us as the bread in our stomachs all our emotional and spiritual needs will be filled and we will never be hungry again.
May we all grow in discipleship.
Pastor Ken.
