One of the things I enjoy doing is making my own bread. I admit to cheating as I use my bread maker to make the dough but the combination of flours and seeds is my own. I also shape the dough and over bake it rather than let the machine create a ‘sponge’. I cheat because I don’t have the strength in my puny wrists to really knead the dough, properly. I am, however grateful, for the machine as I am still able to make organic bread, fresh when I need it. Being a bread maker if I had to choose a phrase from today’s readings it would be the sentence from Luke’s Gospel account, where Jesus answers the devil, saying:

“One does not live by bread alone.”

On the surface those seven words seem to be obvious. A diet consisting of only bread would be pretty sparse and boring, lacking in long-term nourishment, essential minerals and vitamins. It would keep you going but it would  not really sustain you for months on end. 

Bread and water has been used as a traditional punishment meal for centuries and the bread used would have been pretty rough and hard. I don’t think that Jesus means us to take his words literally. If so, why does he use that reply to the Devil, when that malign influence tempts him to turn a stone into a loaf.

Jesus’ reply is, I think, very clever. He is actually answering the Devil’s question on many different and complicated levels. Firstly, he is saying that; ‘Yes’, he could change the stone into bread but why? For bread on its own is not much of a meal and if he really wanted to be could do more than change a stone into bread alone. There are here, echoes of the water into wine at Cana - when Jesus produced something of great quality out of relatively nothing.

Secondly, his reply to the Devil, that ‘One does not live by bread alone’ implies that, even with food that is not enough to really sustain one. for total nourishment one needs something else and that is God. Recognising that God is more important than bread is also to recognise that in God one is fully fed at all levels of one’s being. In his reply to the Devil, Jesus is talking about spiritual nourishment not just physical nourishment. He implies that without God the body would be sustained but not thrive. One can feed the physical hunger but not the spiritual yearning. It is here that we come to the nub of the Devil’s question and Jesus’ answer.

The Devil is being wily. Trying to tempt Jesus into giving into him and all that he offers, rather than remaining true to God. He is offering Jesus’ tired body and soul all that it could desire. It might be a great temptation for a man in a reduced state, as Jesus would have been after 40 days in the wilderness. Yet, Jesus remains true to God. He does not waver in his answer and he in essence basically says:

“You can give me everything but without God it is nothing.”

Without God life is not complete or fulfilling. Even if the Devil offers everything, his gifts would be mere bread and poor bread at that.

Jesus’ comment in the Gospel that without God, we are nothing, alongside the other two readings heard today, seek to remind us that it is God who fulfils our deepest needs. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans tells us that:

“God is generous to all who call upon him.”     Romans 10:12b

God he says is impartial and treats all of his children equally and without distinction. In Deuteronomy the writer encourages us to remember all that God has given to us time and time again. Not just to us but to our ancestors and descendants too. God, the writer implies, never forgets those he loves and as such we are called to be grateful.

Jesus’ seven words this morning are an encouragement to us to remember and to give thanks for all that we are and for all that we are repeatedly given. God does not give us bread alone, he gives us an abundance of life and many life enhancing gifts. Jesus is telling us to remember those truths.

Lent is a good time to spend time reflecting on God’s good gifts to us and to give thanks for them. Part of our Lenten repentance is to acknowledge that we are quite likely to often forget to be thankful and to hanker after bread alone when what we need is something much richer and spiritually deeper; such as love and friendship. 

Try to spend time this Lent pondering on your lives and the good things you have experienced and been given. Give thanks to God for them, be grateful for them and try to be aware of the times when you have perhaps taken God for granted and say; ‘Sorry’; and to say ‘Sorry’ in ways that enable you to share your gifts with others.