Of Bread and Treasures (Circuses too, Perhaps)

When Jesus finished fasting for 40 days and was hungry, the devil in Matthew 4:3 said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus, hungry as he was, says to the devil in Verse 4, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Jesus quoted what was from Deuteronomy 8:3. Several inferences might be drawn from that scene alone. One is that the need for something like bread is temporary, lasting as long as you live on earth; but in God’s Kingdom, bread is not necessary for us to exist there, and bread itself doesn’t exist. Which leaves to another inference: Bread, and other things, are a product of the earth which is the devil’s domain. So bread, like other things found on earth, has no place in God’s Kingdom.

Given that, it is useless to accumulate earthly treasures for yourself, since where one hopes you may end up going will have no place to store those treasures. Jesus makes in plain in his parable of the rich fool, when in the story the fool has stored up treasures for himself and was in the act of accumulating more. God in the story, in Luke 12:20-21, says “‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” In the matter of treasures, you are rich toward God when you arrange to have your treasures given to the poor and needy. Variations of this are found in Matthew 19:21, and Luke 12:33-34. Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”

Not that it is necessary to forego eating bread in order to gain favor with the Lord. Rather bread, like other essentials, should be considered as the means to enable you to gain entry in His Kingdom instead of as the end result. There is no doubt that Jesus, whose place in God’s Kingdom was already established, broke his 40-day fast at some point in time and went on to eat with the others, particularly during the Last Supper. There’s little to no doubt he ate before then as well.

What about circuses? Well, man needs to get off the racetrack sometime, even momentarily, in order to rejuvenate before getting back on the track. Circuses, like bread, are earthly things, which are needed for now, and as long as we engage in things that are not unjustifiably harmful to others, no harm is done.

What God wants from us is found in Jesus’ two great commandments specified in Mark 12:29–31. So, you can eat all the bread and attend all the circuses you can, if they help in getting you to God.