Luke 4:1-4
Spiritual Nourishment: Not by Bread Alone – Luke 4:1-4
Luke 4:1-4 (NIVUK)
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.' Jesus answered, 'It is written: "Man shall not live on bread alone."'
Commentary
Revd. Mark Fletcher: So the first is not by bread alone. So we think, along with most of our world, that what is essential for life is physical stuff. We think that material sustenance, that wealth and possessions are what makes life sustainable and what makes life worth living, and we are wrong.
They are not. And the danger is that we spend an awful lot of our life learning that lesson and learning our mistake. Because of course, what makes life living is relationships. And first and foremost, our relationship with God. We are not just bodies. We are minds and souls and spirits, and we need those things to be sustained and given life.
We are very good at recognising our physical hunger and we know what to do in order to satisfy that hunger. But I think we are extremely poor at recognising our spiritual hunger and we all too often try and satisfy that with all sorts of things that are not God. So Jesus quotes from a story and it’s a direct quote from Deuteronomy chapter eight, and it’s one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament.
So the Israelites have been rescued from slavery in Egypt. They’ve been led into the desert and on their way to the promised land. But the question, of course, is how are they going survive this long journey through the wilderness? And you know how they’re sustained. They are sustained day by this remarkable, miraculous food from God, which is called manna.
And it’s interesting that they would often look back on that time really fondly that they would say that, though it was actually really hard, we were so dependent on God that it was like being really alive. As Jesus says humanity, human beings do not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Can I suggest it’s not? It’s a good thing. So get a good breakfast. I absolutely recommend that. But the most important meal of the day is actually the word of God. And without that you are failing to nourish your heart and your soul.
You will become spiritually malnourished. An old preacher once said, if I spend the day without rooting myself in God’s word, I know about it. If I spend two days without rooting myself in God’s word, my family will know about it. And if I spend three days not rooting myself in God’s word, everybody will know about it.
Or the old joke, seven days without prayer, makes one weak. But it’s not seven days, is it? I think one day without prayer makes one weak. We take seriously the fact that we don’t live by physical bread alone, that we need to nourish hearts and soul. Life in all its fullness does not come from the accumulation of material things.
Riches is not measured by possessions. Love, joy, and peace are the things that make a life rich. You want to live well, you want to be sustained in the hard times. You want peace in the midst of the storms, joy in the simple things of every day life. You do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.