When Bread Alone Won't Satisfy

Matthew 4:1-11 GNT

A sermon delivered by the Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer on Mar. 1, 2020

“Human beings cannot live on bread alone.” Matthew 4:4

Something more important than eating?  More important than good bread?  How could anything be better or more important than Kings Hawaiian Rolls, or Sister Schubert’s yeast rolls, or warm pumpkin-cranberry bread straight out of the oven?  Or better yet, grandmother’s homemade flaky buttermilk biscuits or Momma’s homemade yeast rolls?  How could anything be better?  There is nothing quite like the aroma, taste, and goodness of homemade bread to satisfy our hunger.  And yet, we see Jesus seemingly disdaining bread or refusing bread, and in his great hour of human need.

Fasting alone in the wilderness – such is where we find Jesus as he immersed himself in a spiritual vision quest just prior to commencing his ministry.  For Jesus, “wilderness” did not mean what we might first think of as a wilderness, as in some of those dense laurel thickets in the Great Smoky Mountains where people occasionally get disoriented and lost.  No, for Jesus, “wilderness” meant the dry, arid, barren desert, a place much more dangerous and life-threatening, perhaps, than under a green canopy where one could actually take shelter from the heat and other dangers.

And it was in such a dry, arid, barren place where Jesus grew hungry and started thinking, perhaps, about the homemade bread that he used to eat at his mother’s table.    And in the midst of his spiritual challenge, stones on the ground in the shape of loaves of bread led Jesus to hunger for the bread of home and to think to himself, If only I could turn those stones to bread to satisfy my gnawing hunger!  But no sooner had the thought been placed in his mind, than Jesus recalled the verse of scripture from Deuteronomy that he had learned as a boy in his hometown synagogue: “one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (8:3).

Jesus realized that there are those cravings, there are those longings, there are things greater than the need for physical bread, in spite of how important bread is to us.  There is food or nourishment that the soul requires to survive as well.  And sometimes soul food takes precedence over food the body needs.  And sometimes human hunger is satisfied by means other than food.

American naturalist John Muir, who was an advocate for preserving those sacred places that would eventually become America’s National Parks, preached that “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike” (Hetch Hetchy Valley).  Indeed, there are soul cravings – those soul needs – that cannot be satisfied by physical bread.  For some, like John Muir, immersing oneself in the world of nature is that spiritual food that satisfies the soul’s deepest needs.

We have all heard of scientists, artists, or other great minds who get so caught up in their experiment, research, or work they are engaged in that they forget to eat.  Perhaps you have been there yourself a time or two – you got so caught up in your job or artistic project or hobby or hike in the Smokies that you failed to stop and eat at mealtime.  At the time, what you were doing was the most important thing in the world; more important than physical bread for the body.

And then we have also heard of spiritually-inclined persons who have gone on hunger strikes, fasting for days or weeks for some human or spiritual cause.  Such is where today’s story finds Jesus – fasting alone in the desert as he sought answers, sought to clarify in his own mind and heart his sense of call, and sought guidance for commencing to preach and teach a message that would not be well received by all.  In Jesus’ mind, there was something at stake out there in the desert much more important than bread.  The truths he had come to embrace from his childhood, the spirit of the Hebrew prophets Amos and Micah that now lived within him, the commitment to justice and compassion that were so lacking in the society of his day – these things fed him and held more weight than physical bread.

Consider, for instance, the example of Mohandas Gandhi, who subjected himself to a number of public hunger strikes in order to protest injustices and inequalities in India.  Because of the powerful message he proclaimed, “insistence upon truth,” Gandhi had gained a large and devoted following.  So when he proclaimed a public fast in order to advocate for positive change, everyone took notice.  Gandhi realized that one does not live by bread alone, but one is also fed, one is strengthened, through the commitment to equality and justice.

The question comes, then, To what cause, to what spiritual principle, to what issue am I so committed that it is more important to me than bread, with bread being a metaphor for the basic necessities and comforts of life?  Is there any cause, principle, or issue for which I would be willing to fast, if my fasting would make a difference?  And the point I am trying to make is not to shame all of us to fast.  Rather, the point I am driving at is to push us into a corner, as it were, in order to wrangle from us an answer as to what cause, what principle, what issue is of the utmost importance to us?  We know what it was for Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  But what is it for each of us?  Is it world hunger, human trafficking and modern-day slavery, homelessness, respect for and standing up for the rights of those with physical and mental disabilities, climate change crisis, justice and equality issues, or something else?  Or is it all of the above?  Our answers don’t have to match or agree.  The cause, principle, or issue that might be of ultimate concern to me might be totally different from the cause, principle, or issue that is of ultimate concern to you.  But the significant thing is that we have one!

Yes, the reality is there come those times when bread alone won’t satisfy, when bread alone is not enough, when something else is more important.  There are other matters in life, more pressing concerns, that take precedence, and to these we need to lend our support.   But the question for each of us to ponder during this Lenten Season is, What are they?  If we do not live by bread alone, then what do we live by?  Amen.