14 October 2022 ANNO Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. John 6:31-32 (KJV)
It was their “Our fathers” against Jesus’ “My Father.” It was their “manna in the wilderness” compared with the “true bread out of heaven”: it was Moses set up against Jesus. They were putting their traditions of the elders against Jesus’ consciousness of God; they were thinking of the bread that supplied physical want, while Jesus was offering them the bread that sustained the inner life. They were worshiping the lawgiver, when the one greater than Moses walked among them and they knew him not.
The modern Pharisees do the same. They find more value in a tradition of their own Church Fathers than they do in the unquestioned teaching of the words and life of Jesus. Somewhere in the secret recesses of their hearts they have enthroned some other name than that of Jesus. What matters all else, if I crowd Jesus out of his rightful place, turn aside from his wonderful words to the words of men, set worldly wants before spiritual needs? Would that I might hunger first and always for the true bread which Cometh down from heaven.
Bread of life, broken for me! Let me feed my heart hunger upon thy Word today, and I shall be filled.*
*Foulkes, W. (1914). Living Bread from the Fourth Gospel, Westminster Press, Philadelphia. Pp 133
