How Much Jesus Loves Us!Sample

Jesus wants to bless you in a special way

Why did Jesus say: "Which of you will give a stone to his son who asks him for bread?"

Is there a hidden meaning in this text? That's what I want to explore with you in this reading plan. Let's abandon our modern perspectives and adopt those of Jesus' contemporaries 2,000 years ago. What did this text mean to those who heard it?

In the Sermon on the Mount, according to Matthew chapter 7, verse 9, Jesus asks, "Or if your son asks for a fish, will he give him a snake?" Although these words are familiar, they conceal a depth that is often overlooked.

We tend to read this text with our "21st-century glasses", thinking that Jesus is simply pointing out that God will not deceive us in his blessings. However, I want to show you that it goes much deeper than that. Take the example of the fishermen of the Sea of Galilee, who could mistake certain snakes for fish. They had to be careful not to deceive their children.

The comparison between the stone and the bread, and the snake and the fish, is very instructive. At the time, there was a stone whose shape was reminiscent of a small loaf of brown bread. Some Jews believed that these stones were petrified fruits of cursed cities. This belief, perhaps, helps us to understand Jesus' temptation in the desert: to transform stones, whose appearance is reminiscent of bread, into real food.

As we delve deeper into our historical understanding, we discover that stone and bread share an uncanny resemblance in this biblical context. Jesus, after forty days of fasting, was surrounded by stones which, to his hungry eyes, resembled loaves of bread. Satan's temptation takes on its full meaning...

What we understand from these historical realities is that Jesus is not comparing incomparable things, but rather talking about the special care we need to take so as not to be mistaken in what we are given. So we realize that Jesus wants to bless us with special attention because he knows what we really need.

Jeremy Pothin
Living and growing in the life of the Spirit