Fourth Sunday in Lent — White or Wheat?
White or wheat? It’s a common question in sandwich making. Our choice can make the meal, or result in a barely digestible mess. And besides flavor, there are health differences between refined flour breads and whole grains. Life and death exist in our food. What we choose to eat — in both the literal and spiritual sense — will either help us to thrive or lead us to sickness and death. The Israelites encountered a similar choice during their trek through the desert. What bread would they choose, the bread of Egypt, or the bread of God?
The portion of this text that normally gets top billing is the snakes. The people grumble against Moses and God, so God sends poisonous snakes to kill them. Moses solves the snake problem (under God’s direction) by creating a bronze serpent and placing it on a pole so that anyone who was bitten could look upon the serpent and live. But food choice is the instigating issue. The complaint that got them into trouble was “… there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” (vs. 5)
Their complaint gets us back to the question that began this reflection? Other translations of this verse say, “There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this light bread!” It is interesting that the bread which the people crave is the bread of their slaveholders in Egypt, whereas the bread that they reject is the manna given by their deliverer. The bread of Egypt is the food of death and bondage. But it is also easily understood and easily gotten. The bread of God is the food of life and freedom. It appears insubstantial and fleeting, nourishing though it is. How often do we choose the obvious, easy forms of nourishment -the white bread — over the more difficult, and perhaps less appealing forms? How often do we choose that which holds us in mental, spiritual, or physical bondage because it is familiar?
Beyond the people’s choice, the text provides an important commentary on the nature of God. God does not remove the sources of death that we choose, rather, God provides sources of life to give us real choices. The bread of Egypt is still there. The poisonous snakes are still there. Yet God provides manna to feed the people daily and instructs Moses on the construction of the bronze serpent to heal the people when they are bitten. Death — spiritual, mental, physical, social — is, and always will be an option for us. But God also always provides choices that lead to life.
So, which will it be, white or wheat, the bread of the world that leads to death, or the life-giving bread that God provides? The choice is ours.
