Meaning of the Bread
For Christians, this is a season of remembering. We look forward to celebrating and remembering Christ’s death and resurrection but, in advance, we remember many other events and words that led up to that horrific sacrificial offering of Himself. During his final meal with his disciples, Jesus did something that he wants Christians to remember.
Please turn, with me, to the earliest record of the events of Jesus’ life and ministry.
Mark. 14.22- he took some bread and did something unusual and new with that bread. He blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and told them to eat it and that it was his body. It is recorded similarly in the parallel account in Matthew 26, but the account in Luke adds another detail.
Luke 22.19- says that he gave thanks, which is another way of saying that he blessed it. But, then, he said something else.
“…this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me…”
Christians are to perpetuate what Jesus began in this final evening meal before his sacrificial offering. Christians are to follow the practice of taking bread, thanking God for it, breaking it, and, through this, remembering Jesus. Christians are to remember what he did and are to remember that this represents his body. There is symbolism involved in simple bread- a simple ordinary and everyday commodity became a powerful symbol of something incredibly great.
‘This is my body.’ What is involved in that expression? Let’s explore that a bit today as we anticipate regular participation in taking the symbol of bread.
Paul makes some helpful statements about the bread.
1 Cor. 10.16b- our taking of the bread puts us into communion, or sharing, of the body of Christ.
v. 17- our taking makes us one loaf and one body because we participate in the one body of Jesus, represented in the bread. Our taking of Jesus into ourselves does something mystical, magical, powerful, and wonderful! Paul puts this in an interesting context.
v. 18- because people ate of the meat from the sacrifice, they participated in the altar and all that it meant. They became part of the system and were tied to the worship system of the time. Participation in one made one a participant in the greater. Taking a bit of bread makes one a part of what gives that bread its significance-which is Christ’s body.
Let’s look a little farther.
1 Cor. 11.23- Paul received instruction, from the Lord, about something Christ did the night he was betrayed.
v. 24- he declared that this is his body.
Question: what is his body?
Question: what did he do for his body?
These are important questions and they open us up to some wonderful blessing from God through Jesus.
v. 26- read. Then, in “The Message”- “…every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you re-enact in your words and actions the death of the Master.” Every time we take the bread, we re-enact the death of the Master- we act it out- we remember it, in that way- not just in an ethereal and mental way. Our senses come into play. Our bodies come into play. Our emotions come into view, too. Our whole selves- like loving God with all our soul, strength, bodies, and mind- participates in what Jesus did. This simple action that Jesus performed gets enacted one more time. Around the world, this occurs countless thousands of times each weekend. In some circles, it happens thousands of times each single day. Jesus death- the central event of God’s plan for salvation- is put before Christian people, and non-Christians, too, each and every time God’s people take of bread in communion. We get to act it out. We get to remember, by doing, not just by thinking it through- this is not an academic exercise. This is so much of the way God wants it- to be actually enacted and done over and over and over again so the message goes deeper and deeper and deeper into each of God’s children.
Jesus said that the bread represented his body that was broken for you. What’s his body and what does it mean that it was broken for each of us?
1. First of all, his body is his body- his physical body. He lived in a physical body- that started as a newborn body and ended up a healthy 33-year-old body- in the prime of life for most men. But he laid that perfect physical body down in sacrifice. We’re told that he was scourged, in the context of preparation for crucifixion. (Read from Dictionary of the Bible). Then he was crucified. This was not pretty. And what came of this, for us?
1 Pet. 2.24- read in context from v. 19. In his body, he showed us how to suffer. Contrary to what the health and wealth gospel types want us to believe, the NT message is more one of suffering that will come to us. Life has its tough times and Jesus showed us, in his body, that we can suffer and make is through to the kingdom. To hear Christians grumble, sometimes, you’d think that life was supposed to be all rosy and wonderful- peaches and cream, as we might say. But that’s not life. That’s not life. We can make a case for the fact that God always intended for life to be more wonderful, and that is true. Before Eden, that was true, and after Eden, man entered into sweat and labour and all. We can believe that once we are converted, then, we enter into that more idyllic life that God intended. However, that is not reality. We are still ‘in the world’, even if we’re ‘not of it’. Reality is that there is a lot of suffering. A family member becomes suddenly gravely ill and that throws families into fear and anxiety- even sickness, sometimes. Accidents happen, and God allows them. Oppression happens, and God allows it. Christians are martyred, and God allows that. This life is not the one we’re supposed to get enchanted with. It’s glorious, once we put Christ in the centre, and one of the ways we do that is through remembering this lesson about his body. In fact, a strong case can be made for remembering this more often. At our ministerial conference, in May, for instance, communion will be available each day. Such remembering can be incredibly helpful- never routine (this is where danger in having young children participate might come in, where they do not participate with much measure of understanding- although we leave that up to parents, perhaps some caution might be in order sometimes- it’s not a snack.)
It’s mentioned that we have healing through what Jesus suffered, somehow, too. This touches on something that’s a great benefit for us, which isn’t used enough, I fear.
James 5.13- 15- when you’re sick, you are to summon those who hold office in the local church. We’re not to ‘go it alone’ and are not to minimize the impact of this. This is a faith-building activity. Jesus did something in his body and we have healing through his body, but we don’t call on him for this nearly enough. I’d be surprised if Karl, Tony, and I were called on, in total, 10 times in the last year. We’re not acting in faith on this. People get sick… and get well… and that’s the way of life, often. But, we’re to bring Jesus into all our life. We’re to bring Jesus into our well times and our sick times, and this is how we do it. This is not something that isn’t necessary or is superfluous. This is an important function of elders in the church, too. To be with people when sick and to encourage, through prayer, anointing, and simple discussion can be incredibly faith building. Please put us to work! Christ’s beaten body, which we are to remember when we enact the Last Supper, is for this! Any of us can pray for one another- no question. But not anybody, in our tradition, anyway, can anoint. This is a function which, as a minister, I am jealous for and about- it is a precious opportunity to be with God’s people at times of greatest need- which is when Jesus’ sheep ought to want the presence of Jesus, as chief Shepherd, through his under-shepherd. Do not cut yourself out from potential spiritual benefits and to being tied in to Jesus and his church, more, as Jesus ministers to you in low times and needy times in your life.
2. Jesus’ body is the church, broken for you. We know the many places that the church is called Jesus’ body. Col.1.18 tells us that Jesus is the head of the body, the church. We can look at passages in most of Paul’s writings where this analogy is made clear to us.
How often is it true that we have the church, broken for you, in our lives? We’re meant to be the church broken for one another. Do we bend over backwards for one another? Do we go the extra mile for one another? Do we do what is required, and then a bit more for one another?
Do we remember that the call of Christianity is to not simply do what is required, but to do more? Luke 17.10 has been dubbed the ‘go above and beyond’ verse in the Bible. Do we remember it very much? As the church, let us remember it, because this is what we’re to remember, too, when we think about being Jesus’ body broken for one another. We become Jesus’ hands, eyes, ears, legs, etc. toward one another on a regular basis. We aren’t enough but live rather isolated lives in the church, even. But let’s remember who we are, and this is underscored in one vital passage that touches on the meaning of the bread.
1 Cor. 5.1-6-8- read in The Message. This speaks about our ongoing Christian life. I want you to clearly understand something from here, too, because some still get tripped up on something that is not stated anywhere in the NT and with regard to the Lord’s Supper. In the OT, unleavened bread, used in the Passover meal, pictured something. It pictured the sinless people of God. Israel was not that and was constantly picturing that message- through the sacrifices and through the entire festival of unleavened bread. In the Companion Bible, a note says this: “He means, the Passover being past, we are living in the days of unleavened bread.” However, who are those people now? Ro. 8.1 tells us- there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ- who are the body of Christ- the church of Christ. Jesus never made an issue about bread. Bread is bread. Nowhere is there any stipulation for the Lord’s Supper to be eaten with unleavened bread and there is a reason for that. It’s unnecessary now. We don’t have to picture what, in Christ, we already are. The picture is passed- the reality has come. The bread doesn’t picture, now, what it did picture back then. The bread, now, pictures Christ’s body broken for you- his physical body and his church body- broken… for… you. The picture is different; so is the symbol different. Maybe Jesus used unleavened bread but maybe not. It’s never an issue to Jesus. It has not been an issue to the Christian church. Let it not be an issue to us anymore. Let us not argue or debate over bread and let us not believe that some particular former form is more righteous. It is not. What it pictured is now a reality and does not demand a picture but is lived out in the lives of people with Christ living in them- that’s you and me.
Jesus tells us to take the bread, which is his body broken for us. Whenever we do this- as often as we do this- monthly, weekly, even daily- we re-enact his sacrifice. Can we ever become over-full of the sacrifice of Jesus?
