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(I’m afraid only a handful of people will appreciate the title of this post. VIPs would, for sure.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about bread lately.
Mostly because last Sunday’s Gospel compared the Kingdom of God to yeast.

This Sunday’s Gospel is about bread again.
Five loaves this time.
While preparing my sermon, I realized I had two completely different ideas fighting for the same passage.
A coin decided which one got preached. This is the one that lost.

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the Spirit drives him into the wilderness for 40 days. At the end of the 40 days, Jesus gets a visit from a little being that we’ll call Satan. …No biggie. (Matthew 4).
He’s hungry.
One of the first temptations Jesus faced was turning stone into bread.
And we know the outcome.

Not today, Satan! (Quite literally….)
Man does not live on bread alone. 

Now, 10 chapters later (Matthew 14 — and, no, I don’t know how many years have passed. I bet if I were a good student, I’d remember what I learned in seminary.) bread shows up again.

Only this time, Jesus isn’t the hungry one.
The crowd is.
Jesus doesn’t tell people that man does not live on bread alone.
By the way, I can’t help but think about how funny that scene would’ve been if the disciples were like, “Heeeeyyy Jesus. Sooooo yea… all the people here… we think all 5000 of them… huh? What? Oh… we were supposed to count the women and children? But why… anyway, at a minimum 5,000 of folks are on the verge of being hangry. So… what should we do?”
“Hah. You know what I told Satan himself? ‘Man does not live on bread alone!’”
Obviously, that’s not how Jesus responds (like, ever).

Maybe “bread” was never the issue.
Jesus’ ability was never brought into question.
The temptation wasn’t about whether Jesus could turn stones into bread. It was about why. 

Satan wasn’t simply inviting Jesus to eat.
He was inviting Jesus to become the kind of Messiah who would use God’s power primarily for himself.
Feed yourself.
Protect yourself.
Prove yourself.
And Jesus refuses.

But with the crowd, he blesses, breaks, and feeds.
Again. This isn’t really about “bread.”
It’s about how we use God’s gifts.
Do we use for self preservation or self-giving?

Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus consistently refuses to use his power for himself.
When Satan tells him to throw himself from the temple to prove God’s protection, he refuses.
When religious leaders demand miraculous signs to prove his authority, he refuses.
When people mock him at the cross and tell him to come down if he is truly God’s Son, he refuses.
Jesus never uses power to protect his reputation, make his life easier, or prove his identity.

Instead, he uses that same power to heal strangers.
To restore outcasts.
To calm frightened disciples.
To feed hungry crowds.
His power always flows outward.
That’s because Jesus already knows who he is.
He doesn’t need miracles to establish his identity.

Satan wanted Jesus to use miracles to prove he was the Son of God.
Jesus used miracles because he was the Son of God.

Now, most of us don’t have the power to multiply bread… or fish.
You know, if a genie were to grant me some wishes, one of the wishes I’d make is to have a $20 bill appear every time I snap my fingers.
Knowing me, I’d probably forget I made this wish while attending a poetry slam.
Let’s just say, drinks on me at the end of the night.

While we may not have superpowers, all of us have some sort of power at our command.
Time.
Money.
Knowledge.
Influence.
Citizenship.
Education.
A platform.
Experience.
A voice.

The question isn’t whether we have power.
The question is what our power is for.
Do we use it primarily to protect ourselves?
To accumulate more?
To prove something?

Or do we use it the way Jesus did?
To serve.
To lift others.
To feed the hungry in whatever form that hunger takes.

One of the things that wasn’t talked about enough growing up was that feeding the 5,000 wasn’t the only miracle.
Part of the miracle was to reveal what power looks like when it is surrendered to love. The kingdoms of this world often teach us that power exists to preserve itself.
Jesus teaches that power finds its highest purpose when it is poured out for someone else.

Perhaps that’s why the miracle begins the way it does.
Before Jesus breaks the bread, Matthew tells us that he looks toward heaven.
He doesn’t simply exercise power.
He receives before he gives.
He depends before he provides.
Even the Son of God refuses to live independently of the Father.
Perhaps that’s what makes Jesus unlike every ruler this world has ever known.
The powerful usually use power to secure themselves.
Jesus used power to give himself away.