Tenth Sunday after Trinity John 6:24-35 Exodus 16:2-4; 9-15

So, the Olympic Games 2024 are in full swing. If we watched some of it on TV, we have seen some wonderful athletics and happy medal winners, but also the near misses and disappointments. For those who love to watch sport in this way, it is a great time and those who don’t like it, well, they can just try to ignore it… I am reminded, though, of a particular quote, that says, ‘Give them bread and games’, as a reference to the notion that that is all that people want to keep them happy. It comes from a fuller quote, attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal, in his 10th Satire, of about 100AD. This quote says, ‘Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt.’ It describes the way that the Roman government began to provide free food and entertainment, in order to keep them happy, after the Roman Republic ended and the Roman Empire began. It was all free and the scheme was based on the idea that bread and circuses were the only remaining interests of the people.

If the Olympics and games in general are not the real topic of today’s readings, bread is a feature in those readings: God’s provision of manna in the wilderness, in Exodus 16, and Jesus talking about food that truly satisfies in John 6. In both accounts, there is a hidden meaning to explore.

After their Exodus, the people who had been led out of slavery in Egypt had begun to grumble at the lack of the food they had in the past. They seemed to have forgotten their time as slaves in Egypt, and were concerned with their stomachs, craving for the food they had before. Their complaint against Moses and Aaron reached the Lord too, and he turned things around by sending them a new kind of bread, ‘manna’ which means ‘what is it?’. This was bread from heaven that was found as a layer on the ground each morning, like dew. There was always enough for all.

In John’s Gospel, too, there is mention of ‘bread from heaven’, when Jesus talks about the bread that the people were looking for since he fed the five thousand from five loaves of bread and two fish. He tells them not to work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give them. In both accounts, then, we find that what people are looking for is feeding; but is it the food that truly satisfies? We know that we don’t live by bread alone, as Jesus has said, ‘but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4).

Today, with the Olympic Games, we are reminded of that other item in the earlier quote: ‘circuses’ or ‘games’; in other words: entertainment in sport. At that level of sport, the stakes are high. Athletes compete to the best of their ability and after a long time of training. Their aim is of course to earn the gold medal, the pinnacle of their success. But only one in each item can be crowned with it.

So what about the hidden meaning in the biblical accounts and references to ‘bread from heaven’ and the things that satisfy? Well, if it is physical hunger that needs to be satisfied, then, surely, physical food is necessary. For food – and bread is a generic reference to it – is what our bodies need to survive and remain healthy. But there is another kind of hunger, a spiritual one, that every person is in need of having satisfied, and that can only be fulfilled by God himself. A loaf of bread will feed us physically for a day; but God’s Spirit feeds us for ever. Our need for forgiveness, for love, for belonging, for comfort and for peace: they are satisfied by God alone. He does that through Jesus, his Son, whose work of reconciliation on our behalf has set us truly free, and allows us to enjoy life for ever. God’s provision is as generous as it is complete: bread to feed the body (as we see in Exodus) and bread to feed the soul (as found in Jesus). We need the former, sure, but we most certainly also need the latter, to truly satisfy and give us peace in our soul. And the Olympics? O well, we may enjoy them for a time, but our true and lasting crown comes from God. Amen.