Midweek Musing- June 18, 2025

Matthew 6:11: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.

The third Musing in a series on the Lord’s Prayer

Daily Bread. There is something deeply human about this part of the prayer.

After asking for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done—on earth as it is in heaven—Jesus takes a major shift or so it seems.

The prayer turns from the grand and cosmic to the very earthly and quite ordinary: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

It’s such a short line. And at first glance, it might seem simple—almost underwhelming especially after asking for God’s Kingdom to come bringing with it the promised day of God.

But when Jesus teaches us to pray for bread, he’s doing something powerful: he’s reminding us that we are not just souls waiting for heaven—we are fully human, just as he was. And as humans, we get hungry. And tired. And grumpy. And sick. And thirsty. And hot and cold. And anxious about lots of very real earthly human experience all of which Jesus knows, and he wraps this into this line of the Lord’s Prayer.

To more fully appreciate Jesus' words, it helps to look at their historical background which frames these words.

In Jesus’ time, bread was not a side item or after thought of the meal. Bread was the foundation of the meal, the thing that held everything else together.

For many of us who grew up in the south we can certainly relate to this. I know I can. I have made many a meal out of cornbread and milk (or buttermilk if you are my dad) or a butter biscuit and diet coke

Indeed, Laura knows it doesn’t really matter to me what we have for dinner; my only request is that we have bread.

As another historical point it is important to remember that during this time period food would quickly spoil or easily become insect infested. People didn’t have refrigerators or freezers, Ziploc bags or Tupperware.

And there were no supermarkets with a shelf full of options or pantries packed with backup supplies. You made or bought what you needed for the day or at most two days. And this act of finding bread, like getting water from the communities well, was done every day no matter the weather.

While in our culture it is said many families survive paycheck to paycheck in first century Palestine the vast majority of most families lived day to day, hand to mouth.

And this was especially those Jesus ministered to—peasants, laborers, and the marginalized.

So, when Jesus tells us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” He’s speaking directly to that very human fear which we still have today:

Is there and will there be enough?

But if I understand this part of the text part of the good news in this petition is that God sees us and our very real needs. It declares you and I are not too small nor a request too insignificant to bring it to God’s.

Jesus echoes the Sermon on the Mount where he says, ^“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

Of course, like many of the words of our Lord these words have other meanings and interpretations.

We are all familiar with the idea that Jesus was also referring to bread here as spiritual bread. Bread from heaven. The bread that nourishes our souls. Bread that heals our brokenness and strengthens us when we are weary.

It too is a bread we need daily so as to live a full and abundant life.

Now it is essential if we are to consider this line from the Lord’s Prayer in a scholarly way without mentioning something very unique in the original Greek.

The Greek word traditionally translated as "daily" is ἐπιούσιον (epiousion.)

Here’s the fascinating thing: this word shows up nowhere else in all of Greek literature. Not before the Gospels. Not after. Just… here. It is in a sense a unicorn

Yes, it was translated as "daily" by the King James, but most modern scholars reject that simple interpretation.

Some scholars in studying this word and trying to determine its etymology believe it refers to “necessary”—as in, “the bread necessary for today.” Others suggest it means “necessary for a full existence.”

Either way these could refer to either earthly or heavenly bread

But perhaps that’s the point: maybe…just maybe it means both.

Because we need both.

We need food for our bodies and souls.

And Jesus knows that.

He knows we need this every day.

Perhaps it could be interpreted as: “Give us today both the physical and spiritual bread we need to live a full and abundant life here and now so that we are prepared for the promised day to come.”

Yes, this is long-winded, but did you expect anything less from me!?!

In praying for both the simple and the holy Jesus is inviting us to fully trust.

It’s a petition to help us let go of the illusion of control. To stop having anxiety about tomorrow. And to believe that God will be enough for today—and then again for tomorrow’s today.

Just like the manna God provided the Hebrew people in the wilderness, which could not be stored up or saved. The manna came fresh, and it came daily. And so does God’s love and grace.

Additionally, this prayer reminds us that faith is not a one-time decision, it’s a daily dependence. Just as we need to eat every day, we need to tend to our souls every day. Not with guilt or pressure, but with the quiet recognition that we don’t live on bread alone. We also live on the presence of the One who provides it.

As Frederick Buechner once said: “We are fed by more than food. But not by much.”

This line of the prayer holds those two truths together:

God, I need your help for my physical needs.

And God, I need your help to become more human, more holy, more whole—today.

May we pray this simple line recognizing the full depth of faith it requires.

And may it encourage us to see “daily bread” differently this week—as a call to gratitude, trust, and connection to others who hunger: physically or spiritually.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Alleluia Amen.