Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

One sabbath while Jesus was going through the cornfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. But some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ Jesus answered, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?’ Then he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’

I have spent time recently reflecting on what it means to hunger for God. Sometimes, we recognise that hunger clearly. At other times, it appears as something else, such as a longing for rest, understanding, companionship, forgiveness, meaning, peace, or simply a sense that we belong. Sometimes we cannot even name what we are longing for. We only know that something within us feels tired, empty or searching.

Today’s Gospel shows us how we might respond.

The disciples are hungry, and they reach out for something to eat. Their hunger moves them to action. It causes controversy with the Pharisees, but Jesus responds by recalling David, who “entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence.” There is something beautiful in those words: he entered the house of God. He came into the Presence. And there he was fed.

Perhaps, this is what Jesus shows us to do with our deepest hunger: bring it into the presence of God.

We can spend so much of our lives trying to satisfy our hunger elsewhere: through busyness, achievement, possessions, relationships, constant scrolling and distractions. Yet beneath all these longings there can be a deeper hunger, a hunger for God, for the One who meets us in the places nothing else seems able to reach.

And then there is the simple action of the disciples: they reached out their hands. I find myself wondering, am I reaching out?

Perhaps faith begins again and again in this simple movement: recognising our hunger, entering God’s presence, and reaching out our hands to receive. The disciples reached out and found grain. David entered the house of God and found the bread of the Presence. We, too, are invited to come hungry, trusting that Christ will meet us there.

Will you reach out today?