DAILY BYTE
This week we are considering the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’. I’d like us to work backwards through the phrase, and so today we begin with the last words in the line, which are ‘daily bread’. It seems pretty straightforward as to what this means, but if we take a closer look at the original Greek some fascinating insights emerge.
In the original Greek, the word that is used for bread is the usual word artos. But the word that is translated ‘daily’ is very unusual. It’s the word epiousion. It’s so unusual in fact that it’s called a hapax legomenon, which is a technical term used by scholars to refer to a word that only occurs once in the written record of a language. This word epiousion only occurs in the Lord’s Prayer, in the parallel accounts of Matthew and Luke, but nowhere else in the entire New Testament or indeed in any ancient Greek literature. And so its exact meaning is unclear.
It’s made up of two words – the preposition epi which means ‘over’ or ‘above’ and the word ousion which means essence, or substance. And so one plausible interpretation of the phrase is that the phrase ‘daily bread’ refers to the bread that covers or caters for the very essence of our existence. In other words, the bread that meets our essential needs.
This means, first and foremost, physical food, or perhaps we could say ‘material provision.’ The point is that our physical wellbeing matters to God, and Jesus teaches us to pray for these needs to be met.
But elsewhere Jesus is also clear that our essential needs are not limited to material needs. On one occasion he said, ‘One does not live by bread alone’. In John 6 he distinguishes between the food that perishes and the food that endures for eternal life, and then goes on to say, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.’
The point is this: God has an active interest and deep concern for the things that we need most of all. This includes our material wellbeing - whether we have an adequate roof over our heads, and food to eat, and clothes to wear. But God’s deep concern for us extends way beyond our material wellbeing, to the things of the soul that make for life in all of its fullness.
In the light of this there are two simple questions I’d ask you to reflect on today. The first is this: Do you really believe that God is concerned about your wellbeing, and is able to provide the things that you need most of all?
And the second question: Do you pray in a way that expresses what you believe?
The invitation throughout this week’s devotions, which arises directly out of this phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, is for us to be bold in the way in which we come before God to ask for the very things that we need most of all.
PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Forgive me Lord for the times when I have limited the gospel to narrow religious categories, forgetting that you came so that we might know the fullness of life in every part of our lives. Thank you Jesus that there is no hunger within me that you cannot truly satisfy. Come and fill the empty places within me. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
John 6:35, 48-51
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
