You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 4th, 2008.
Imagine a society where, instead of baking bread for hungry people, they produced mass quantities of pictures of bread and posted ads for them at every corner, and handbills were given out with pictures of different types of bread, hundreds of different types of bread. Pictures of wheat bread, pumpernickel, Jewish rye, banana bread, croissants, sheepherders bread, bread sticks, garlic bread…heck, even melba toast.
Now imagine that these images of bread not only became the dominant mode of exchange (some hoarding these pictures, others spending them as fast as they could get them), but were actually consumed on a daily basis despite the fact that they had no nutritional value whatsoever.
Imagine that, besides the handbills, posters and billboards which depicted the pictures of bread, the evening television news consisted of discussions and international debates over which of these pictures of bread were worth the most, and which were declining in value or had become disreputable as a true picture of bread. Imagine witnessing special interest groups arguing and protesting the advantages and disadvantages of consuming their particular type of bread-pictures. And, of course, in such a world, litigation would be intense over who had the actual rights to each type of bread picture, and there would often be disputes over counterfeit pictures or poor foreign copies had infiltrated the market.
And the entire time that men and women were viewing these billboards, wheat was growing up around the posts. And wherever they stapled posters, streams gurgled by with yeast cultures forming in the shallows and the sun.
What would you make of such a society?
*******
Have you noticed that despite the boom in communications technology, people are less and less likely to talk with each other? They talk at each other. They posture, hold their opinions, do their business, but people no longer meet at the city gate and talk with each other. They stay in their darkened apartments and houses and stare at one of the 63 channels on their viewscreen. Their real needs for life are appeased and deflected as they are vicariously run through basic emotional experiences by what they view. And all the while, as they attempt to feed on these empty images, the wheat grows up around the posts, and the streams gurgle by with yeast cultures forming in the shallows and the sun. 
*******
Much of the modern church would feed us pictures of bread instead of inviting us to meet the Bread of Life Himself.
Let’s disappoint them, shall we?
Caption: “Vat! Manna again?! Oy Gevalt!”
SPOKE purports to be a Journal of Christ so why not give a listen to the words of Jesus on Bread/Leaven from the Gospels:
” I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.“
” I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
” It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.”
” Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
Not a whole lot more (except little things like communion)…but deep and concentrated.
The most extensive teaching on bread in relation to Jesus is found in John chapter 6.
After the feeding of the 5,000 they ran around the sea of Galilee to meet Him in Capernaum. In Capernum they may have found Him at the synagogue. Archaeologists have unearthed the lintel of the synagogue in Capernaum. It depicts a pot of manna ornamented “with a flowing pattern of vine leaves and clusters of grapes” (Edersheim).
According to Joshua, the 40 years of manna for the Israelites in the desert ceased after the passover when they had come into the promised land.
It is with this backdrop, and the messianic expectations and liturgy of Passover that Jesus both feeds the 5,000 and teaches them in Capernaum that He Himself is the bread of life…the living bread come down from heaven.
As is always the case with Jesus, He is both the signifier and the sign itself. The sign points to the living embodiment, which is Jesus Himself. You will find this to be true in all cases and with each name.
Just as Jesus is Living Water, and Living Word, He is also Living Bread.
The hunger and thirst you experience which cannot be quenched or filled is meant to be filled by Him alone in a living way.
To Leaven or Not to Leaven
Leavened and unleavened bread is a powerful symbol in the Bible. During Passover they ate unleaven bread or the “bread of affliction” to remind them of the Exodus. It was starting from scratch every day and the bread was dense and dead having no yeast.
My friend Kim once bought me a breadmaker. It’s easy except the yeast thing. With what must have been ineffective yeast my bread loaves were chocked full of nuts, spices, virgin olive oil, sea salt and brown sugar. When done it was suitable to saw off pieces and re-shingle the roof. Such is the plight of unleavened or ill-leavened bread.
The manna given the Israelites in the desert was daily. The only exception was it kept for two days over the Sabbath. The other days it would go bad by nightfall.
This fleshes out the prayer for “daily bread”. Give me what I need today, tomorrow will come with it’s own requests. Moreover, we are to want God as our living bread daily. As there is no separation of the scared and secular our services on Sunday are not meant to be anything but a group reminder of our daily activity and life with God.
If what is the only time you get bread, you are starving yourself the other six days.
To this comes the idea of leavened bread. One the leaven of the Kingdom (the parable of the leaven secretly put inside three pecks of flour) and the leaven of the Pharisees.
The leaven of the Pharisees is named as hypocrisy, or basically missing the entire point. Jesus cautions and says “beware”. How quickly religion and hypocrisy are added and multiple within us.
What are Christians most known for in the world? Hypocrisy and religious judgment. That is the leaven of the Pharisees. Religion is the enemy of faith, hope and love found in Christ. Just a small amount of it permeates and grows throughout the whole loaf.
Likewise the leaven of the Kingdom.
Recently I made some dough in the breadmaker and bought some fresh yeast. It mixed for awhile then applied some heat. I came back 30 minutes later and the entire globe was filled to three times the original size and it was overflowing out the top. So it is with the Living Bread and His Kingdom. Let Him place His leaven in our hearts and see how it works its way out from the center of our being.
Recent Comments