Bread of Life? No, Thank You

It’s brief and it’s fictional.

One night during the Spanish Inquisition in Seville, a cell door swings open and The Grand Inquisitor steps into the doorway. Pausing on the threshold, he lifts his lamp into the small dungeon to cast light on the prisoner’s face. The light reveals what he already knows. The prisoner is Jesus.

There will be no trial. In fact, The Grand Inquisitor has already made his decision. He will burn Jesus at the stake in the morning.

The verdict: What Jesus offers human beings is not enough. Although He offers Himself as the bread of life, it simply is not enough.

Thou has promised to them the bread of life, the bread of heaven; but I ask Thee again, can that bread ever equal in the sight of the weak and the vicious, the ever ungrateful human race, their daily bread on earth?

            (“The Grand Inquisitor” from The Brothers Karamozov by Feodor Dostoevsky http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8578/8578-h/8578-h.htm)

John 6. Non-fictional.

A crowd of people searched and found Jesus – excited about the way He had miraculously provided bread for them. However, Jesus didn’t want to talk with them about miraculous provisions of food.

Instead, He offered Himself to them. He offered Himself as “real food” and “real drink.” Their verdict?

            “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

            From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.

Please Read John 6:25-69. Link to the passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%206:25-69&version=NIV

8 comments

  3. landzek

    I would like to post the link to this here in my blog. I just copied it to my writing page, I don’t know how else to do it where it asks your permission, so I’m asking you here. It won’t be done for a couple days. So if you want to see it first… I don’t know how all this stuff works.

    Reply
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