Biting the Hand that Feeds You
An Irish policeman and an English astronomer were making their way across Australia. They set out on the journey with enough food for three months, but they ran out of provisions before completing the trek. That’s when help came: the Aborigines living in the area provided the explorers with enough food to move forward.
Granted, some of the delicacies included roasted rats and fern cakes, but, hey, at least it was sustenance. Three times they were rescued by the Aborigines, but then something awful happened. The Irishman shot his pistol at an Aborigine and the whole tribe fled. Within a month after that tragic day, the Irishman and the Englishman lay dead in the Australian wilderness.
The Bible describes a similar scenario. It tells the grand story of a group of people, the Israelites, who were travelling through a vast wilderness with nothing to eat. Then, God steps in to save the day: He provides them with bread from heaven called manna. All they could eat. But, eventually the people complained. They “bit the hand that fed them.” (See Numbers 11:4-6)
In the same way, God sent us, a band of lost travelers in a dry and weary land, His bread from heaven: Jesus Christ. He says:
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry…” John 6:35a
But, sadly, the Bible says that we have responded in the same way as the Israelites by rejecting that Bread:
“But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.” John 6:36
Like the Aborigines, Jesus, who came to help us, was put to death by the very people He was trying to help. Tragically, Jesus was crucified. The ironic, but good news is this: it is that very crucifixion that nourishes our souls. So, unlike the Aborigines, God hasn’t fled and left us to rot in the desert. No, He has given to us more Bread: the body of His only Son, Jesus Christ. Now, we have a choice: to accept and eat this Bread, or to reject and bite His hand.
“Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Matthew 26:26