Tuesday, 6th Week of Easter

Luke 11:1-13

“Give us each day our everlasting bread.”

That’s my translation of verse 3. The truth is that no one is really sure what exactly Jesus meant. The Greek word here appears only in this verse, and in Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. It can certainly be understood in the context of our daily needs. But it could also be understood in a more futuristic context.

In the Palestine of Jesus’s time, Greek was the equivalent of English, the common language that most everyone could speak. Hebrew was like Latin, a religious language that only the religiously trained knew. The Jews of Jesus’s time spoke Aramaic. Many scholars think that the Aramaic word that Luke and Matthew were trying to accurately translate into Greek did not mean “today,” so much as “tomorrow.” And by “tomorrow,” Jesus meant the bread of heaven that we will enjoy for all eternity when Jesus returns to rule in power and love forever.

God knows that we need bread to sustain our physical bodies. But we also need the bread of life to sustain our souls, to open the eyes of our faith to see God at work in the world around us, in the touch of a friend, in the proclamation of justice, in a medical test that bring news of healing, in the reconciliation that brings healing of hearts.

Yes Lord, give us the bread that nourishes our flesh, but also give us the bread of prayer, of fellowship, of learning and of communion. For that is the only way by which we may recognize Jesus in our midst until that day when He comes to us unveiled.