I sent my disciples to get bread and when they came back I told them that I had bread that they knew not of. I wasn’t referring to a snack that I had hidden in my pocket. I had had a spiritual encounter while they were gone and it nourished my soul. You need bread or some other form of calories to sustain you, but that is not all you need. As I also spoke, man does not live by bread alone. What about you? You use the term ‘starving’ to refer to extreme hunger, but the same term is used to refer to other human appetites and appropriately so. What are you hungry for?

What do you consider to be the essence of faith? Theologians develop proportional truth claims concerning me and my birth and life and death and resurrection, and these are propagated as essential truth, with those affirming them being accepted as believers and those who do not as outside the faith. Is faith only about doctrine? I commended a Roman Centurion for having greater faith than anyone I had found in Israel. Consider the magnitude of this statement. Was his doctrine superior to all others? His only expression was that I could heal his servant at a distance.

My word teaches you that in Christ there is neither male nor female, Greek nor Jew, bond nor free, and goes on to mention other categories. Do not think that this list was meant to be exhaustive. It is a starting point from which you can add any other distinction that divides people, including liberal and conservative, and if taken seriously spells the end of racism, tribalism, nationalism and others. The fact that this is such a radically profound statement is an indication of the human propensity for group identification and exclusion. Where are you on the spectrum?

How well do you sleep? Do you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders? Do you find the world to be so full of great injustices that it is detrimental to your wellbeing? Is this beneficial in solving the problems of the world? I came to give you peace. There are burdens that are assigned to you that you are able to carry, and those that are for me or others that you cannot. You can recognize the ones meant for you because they are suited for you and therefore light. One aspect of peace is knowing that you are not in charge, but that someone is.