The Importance of Bread
John 6:24-35
Illustration
by Billy D. Strayhorn

In our country bread is used to round out the meal. Can you imagine having sausage gravy without biscuits? Or spaghetti without a thick slab of garlic bread. Can you imagine going to the Olive Garden and NOT getting breadsticks? The only people I know who eat hamburgers or hot dogs without a bun are those on the Atkin's diet.

Bread is important. You can't have a BLT without the toast. You can't have a sub sandwich without a Hoagie roll. Beans without cornbread just don't seem right. Enchiladas or burritos without tortillas would just be a mess. Lox and cream cheese wouldn't taste right on anything but a bagel. An Egg McMuffin without the muffin would just be an egg. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich would be a sticky mess without the bread. Try and imagine pot roast without rolls; a patty melt or reuben without rye; seafood without hushpuppies; soup without crackers or BBQ without a big old hunk of Texas Toast.

Just the smell of baking bread can evoke all kinds of warm and toastie memories. Now, my purpose wasn't to drive you nuts or get your mouth watering. But to show you how important bread is to our everyday life.

In this passage, Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life, Bread from Heaven. In so doing, He tells us that just as we need the daily staple of bread for our physical bodies, we also need the staple of "Bread from Heaven" for our spiritual lives.

Bread From Heaven, by Billy D. Strayhorn