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The devil said to him, \u201cIf you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.\u201d Jesus answered, \u201cIt is written: \u2018Man shall not live on bread alone.\u2019\u201d (Luke 4:3-4)

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All of us get hungry.\xa0 Jesus no less so.\xa0 The question, is what do we do with our hunger, our appetite?\xa0 \xa0\xa0

It was Adam and Eve\u2019s appetite for fruit that was \u201cgood for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom\u201d that drove them to \u201ctake some and eat it\u201d (Genesis 3:6).

We do the same thing every day.\xa0 We see and seek to take a lifestyle that includes a particular kind of house, a particular amount of income, a particular style of food pleasing to the eye (like a charcuterie board?), and all sorts of other material securities and assets, as well as shows, podcasts, and whatever else we consumers need to consume to feel full of life, secure in our position, and satisfied.\xa0 The picture of our desire here that we hope to find is that of pushing ourselves away from a good meal at a spreading Thanksgiving Day table\u2014warm, full, and satisfied\u2014ready to rest and enjoy all the goodness we\u2019ve just gobbled up.\xa0

Of course, whether we\u2019re consuming food, fashion, fame, finances, or functional improvements to our homes\u2014after we\u2019ve bought and consumed the thing\u2014we get hungry again.\xa0 Enough is never quite enough.\xa0 The hunger pangs return and we need more.

And so we continue grabbing and reaching for more\u2014sometimes more than we were actually created to have, as was Adam & Eve\u2019s case.\xa0 This is the hunger for money that\u2019s at the root of all evil.\xa0 This is the hunger for security that causes us to compete and elbow others out\u2014like in the vaccine ques or the toilet paper line ups.\xa0 This is the insatiable hunger for more that turns a Creation of plenty into an environmental catastrophe of scarcity.\xa0 This is a hunger for life that\u2014when limited by no God-spoken boundaries\u2014succeeds only in bringing death.\xa0

As with all our desires, our hunger for life and its material provision always points beyond itself to something better and lasting.\xa0 Like: every word that comes from the mouth of God, including the word that was made flesh and became for us Jesus, the bread of life.\xa0 He is the God of Creation and all provision who invites us to trust in him and pray to him for our daily bread rather than greedily or gluttonously grabbing it for ourselves.\xa0 The invitation is to trust in God for our provision, rather than to secure it for ourselves.

Jesus knew this, and so with 40 days of hunger built up in his gut from the wasteland of scarcity he faced down the devil.\xa0 And where humanity failed, Jesus prevailed, stating clearly and freely: \u201cman shall not live on bread alone.\u201d\xa0 He satisfied his hunger with something better: with a trust in the God-provided boundaries that Adam and Eve had forsaken.

A deep temptation for us is to believe that we actually do live by bread alone, that our infinite hunger can be satisfied by finite, materials things like a house, a show, or a solid pension, and that we can actually wrangle those things out of the finite stones of this earth.\xa0 But it never works.\xa0 Food (along with the rest of the material world) is not an end in itself\u2014it doesn\u2019t satisfy.\xa0 Rather, it is a means of experiencing, living by, and giving thanks for God\u2019s good gifts, and so deepening the relationship of trust between us.\xa0 The material world always points beyond itself\u2014to something better\u2014lifting the eyes of our hunger and longings up past our plate and pointing them to the Bread of Life instead.\xa0

Trusting in Jesus for our life\u2019s provision, we will find our deepest hungers and thirsts satisfied.\xa0 And out of that contended satisfaction, we may find it much easier to share the abundant provision of God we\u2019ve received with others too.\xa0 When you trust in the word of God for your provision, 5,000 can be fed before you know it from what looked for all the world to be utter scarcity. \xa0Our relationships with God, our neighbours, and the Creation itself can be restored. \xa0So, may God give us today our daily bread and help us to trust in him to do it.

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