What sustains you on the journey?
When, in the First Book of Kings, Elijah journeys into the desert, he is ready to die. Indeed, he prays for death, because he feels as if he has failed in the mission God has given him, and when God sends a hearth cake and a jug of water as food to sustain Elijah on his journey, the prophet, lost in depression, goes back to sleep. Of course, the angel of the Lord comes back a second time, and the prophet is ultimately strengthened by the food God sends. Elijah needs to realize he’s not finished with his work until God says so; the prophet must learn to trust in the Lord, who knows Elijah’s potential far better than the prophet himself does. Elijah has not yet gained the trust we see in Psalm 34, which reminds us to maintain our confidence in God: we are to taste and see the goodness of the Lord, knowing that, in our affliction, God is always there to sustain us.
Jesus wants the Jewish crowds to realize that he himself comes to sustain us on our journey. In John’s Gospel, the crowds lack faith and murmur among themselves, unwilling to believe Jesus when he says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. That bread is God’s revelation, the good news that nothing is stronger than God’s love for us. Jesus comes to reveal that love through his death and rising; he gives us the opportunity to live, providing food for our souls, food to sustain us and strengthen us in our belief. The words he has to share with the crowds will feed them forever – but they are unwilling to open themselves to God’s revelation in their midst. Their barriers are not all that different from those of the Ephesian community, who grieve the Holy Spirit through their bitterness, fury, anger and more. The Ephesians are not filled with the love Jesus came to reveal, the love that will sustain them on their journey; bitterness and like emotions are a barrier to God’s love and forgiveness, isolating those who cannot open to the revelation Jesus came to bring. If their life is in Christ, then it needs to look like Christ’s life: they must be imitators of God and live in love, as Christ loved us. In the end, it is only by taking him into ourselves – his words, his body, his actions, his very self – that we will be sustained on our journey by the living bread that came down from heaven. Only then will we thrive.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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