Matthew 4:3 “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” and Matthew 26:26 “Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’”
I was wondering, at our Maundy Thursday communion, about these two verses. After 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, Satan addressed face-to-face the One Who is the Bread of Life and tried to exploit His hunger-induced weakness. Satan tempted Him to turn stones into bread, and exchange the role of Messiah for Magician, meeting only His own needs. Jesus refused. Three years later, Satan in the heart of Judas, tried again. For a purse of silver, Judas took a morsel of bread offered to him by the One Who is the Bread of Life and exchanged the Messiah for Mammon.
In our tired vulnerability are we sometimes tempted to reduce Jesus to the role of magician? – “turn my stones into bread.” In our flawed nature are we sometimes tempted to take Mammon’s offer? – “what will you give me if I betray him?” This Easter – as at every Communion – the One Who is the Bread of Life offers us not bread for that day’s hunger but the bread of eternal life.
We don’t need a magician. We don’t need Mammon. We need the Bread of Life.
We don’t offer a magician. We don’t offer Mammon. We offer the Bread of Life.