You Hungry?

Last week I made a quick trip to the US. One of my favorite things about visiting the US is the food. This trip was to Texas, which meant Texas BBQ. This was going to be magical—a true Easter miracle.

This particular Texas BBQ restaurant, to my great delight, was cafeteria style. As I stepped into line to meet my meat, the meat man wearing a hair and beard net behind the counter asked me which combo I wanted.

“One meat, two meat, three meat, or all-you-can-eat meat?”

To show the meat man that missionaries to Haiti are no quitters, I told him I had no choice but to get all-you-can-eat meat. It was a matter of testimony. After all, it was the week before Fat Tuesday, so I did what any good Christian would do. I ate until I could eat no more.

Believe it or not, I woke up hungry the next morning. I was reminded, once again, that there is no food that can sustain me forever. Every meal, no matter how tasty and satisfying in the moment, will always leave me hungry again. I could eat until I was filled to the brim, but would be hungry again soon.

This reminded me that everything in this life outside of Jesus, no matter how satisfying, will always leave us hungry again.

There are two occasions in the gospels in which Jesus feeds a multitude of people. In Mark 6, he feeds five thousand people, and then in Mark 8, he feeds four thousand people.

When Jesus feeds five thousand people in Mark 6, it symbolizes that Jesus is a great deliverer in the likeness of Moses of the Old Testament. When Jesus feeds five thousand Israelites in the desert in Mark 6, Mark is telling us that Jesus is a great deliverer just like Moses. Moses delivered the Israelites from physical slavery, but Jesus offers freedom from sins and sinning (and eventually the slavery of death as well through the resurrection).

When Jesus feeds four thousand people in Mark 8 it’s a little different. This time, Jesus isn’t feeding Israelites, he’s feeding Gentiles. The point of this story is that the freedom which Jesus offers isn’t only for Jews, but for all people. A secondary point of the story is that all people—Jew, Gentile, poor, rich, black, white, male, female–have the same problem: sin and death.

There are elements of both stories that remind us of the Last Supper. The Last Supper is the Passover meal that Jesus shares with this disciple just before his crucifixion. In that meal, he explains to the disciples that the bread symbolizes his body and the wine his blood.

The symbolism of the bread and the wine is so robust and multifaceted that we cannot explain it all here. However, one of the points that Jesus is making here is that only a personal relationship with him can satisfy the hunger pangs of the human condition—that only Jesus can offer power for sustaining life. Everything and everyone but Jesus will always leave us hungry.

This is what Jesus means when he says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Similarly, he says in Matthew, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (5:6).

What things, people, or ideas do you cling to in order to find satisfaction? Do we ever replace Jesus with those things? Lent is a time to reflect and evaluate, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to identify areas in our lives that are taking the place of Jesus to give us fulfillment and satisfaction.

Are you hungry? Go to Jesus.