Pass the Bread
Scripture Reading: Luke 11:5-10
One of my least favorite things about travel is unpacking. I try to be a minimalist when I leave so I don’t have to put away so much stuff when I get home. While unpacking is tedious, unwrapping is exciting. When I started to write about this parable, I was going to being by saying that there is a lot to unpack here, but I think it is more accurate to say that there is a lot to unwrap here.
The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and the second part of his reply is a parable about three friends. You have the friend who has bread. You have the friend who is on a journey and is hungry. Finally, you have the friend who is friends with the first two friends. He has to figure out how to get bread from one and give it to the other.
It is clear that the disciples are to see themselves as the middle friend, the one who has a friend who shows up unexpectedly and in need, and another friend who has bread. Seeing yourself in this parable as this person is of tremendous importance to effective praying.
Previously in this series of devotions on prayer, I noted that while we can and should pray for ourselves, Jesus was very clear that we are to draw a large circle around the people we are praying for. It is “us” and “our,” not merely “me” and “mine.” What is hinted at in Jesus’ choice of the pronouns He uses in The Lord’s Prayer, is made clear in this parable.
The disciples asked Jesus how to pray, and Jesus said to pray like a guy who stands between the God who has bread and the person who needs bread. You are mediating bread between God and others. So, when you ask for things, are you asking, as James said, “to spend it upon your passions?” James explains, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly…”
I wonder if James (the half-brother of Jesus) got this idea from this parable? When the disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray,” they were asking about more than the mechanics of prayer. They were asking about the way to pray effectually, to pray, and receive answers to their prayers. Jesus’ answer, at least in part, is to pray, not solely for your daily bread, but for the bread your hungry friends need as well.