About a week ago, Saundra made some olive bread. It is a sort of soda bread with black and green olives embedded. Wonderful stuff. It takes us back to the time when every home baked bread, had olive trees, pressed their own olive oil. In short, it takes us back to the time of Christ in the eastern Mediterranean area.
In America today, our bread is made using
hard wheat, a type of wheat that contains much gluten, the protein that helps
bread dough stick together. If you’ve ever eaten gluten-free bread, it is made
from other grains like barley or millet. And because they don’t have gluten,
the bread is crumbly. It falls to pieces easily. And because we have such a
large area in the Middle West which is ideal for growing wheat, and because we
have such good transportation systems, few people grow their own grain, or even
bake their own bread, preferring to buy bread in loaves at the store that is
baked in regional bakeries from cheap, but good wheat flour.
But in the Holy Land in those days, bread
was made from many different grains, because different grains grow better in
different places. Buckwheat, Teff, millet, sorghum, barley, spelt, wheat, oats,
rye, sesame, bulgar, farro, einkorn, Khorasan, flax, And in the Middle East,
there are dry places and wet places, high altitude areas that get very cold and
windy, low places that stay warm and humid, rocky soils, sandy soils, fine
black soils and red clays. Each of these places best grow different grains –
and since everyone had to live off the grains they grew and the transportation
systems were so poor – think donkey carts – bread was different from town to
town, even from household to household. But everyone ate bread because it was
the cheapest source of calories, in a time when everyone worked at hard, farm
labor and used twice the calories we do today. Bread was the basis of life in
the Holy Land.
You see, the diet of that day was very
restricted. Bread was the basis for every meal. Olives were available in season
and they were pressed for their oil, which was used for cooking as well as burnt
in oil lamps and used to keep germs out of wounds. Dates and figs were eaten
fresh and dried. There was no corn, no sweet potatoes, no pineapple, no
strawberries, few types of squash or beans, for all of these foods were native
to the Americas and had not yet been taken to the Old World – the “corn” talked
about in the Old King James Version refers to wheat, which is what the word “corn” still meant in the early 1600’s.
No, in the Middle East grew some basic
melons, pomegranates and peaches, but not apples. Grapes were grown widely and
wine was made to preserve the sugar content as alcohol. Chick-peas were the most common legume, butter and cheese
were made from milk, honey was harvested from wild hives. Goat and mutton were
the most common meats, as well as cattle for the wealthy. Pork was forbidden,
as was shrimp and non-fish seafood. The most common vegetables were members of
the onion family, very little other vegetables were eaten. But the most common
foods were bread, meat stew, olives, grapes, dates, figs, wine, and milk
products.
You know, in most places, there is a
starch which is the basis of our food. In southeast Asia, it is rice. In Central
America, it was maize corn, In Ireland it was potatoes until the great famine
when the potatoes fell victim to fungus. In the tropics, it is cassava and
tapioca, which are roots. In northern Asia it is noodles made from wheat flour.
In Italy, it is pasta, which is made from durum wheat dough which is pushed
through molds and dried to become pasta. And through the Middle East, through
Europe and America, Australia, and New Zealand, it is wheat bread.
In the holy land, the most common form of
bread is what we today call sourdough. In sourdough, a bit of natural yeast is
left in the dough. Additional flour is added to a bit of dough left over and
allowed to rise overnight. The yeast grows and produces carbon dioxide bubbles
which rise the bread. In the morning, most of the dough was then baked to form
small loaves or possibly what we call pita which are then filled with a meat
and vegetable mixture. But a bit of the wet dough was kept, protected and
allowed to act as starter for the next day’s bread. It was considered
miraculous that the dough would rise, almost like a living thing – which, we
now know, it was with the yeast growing inside the dough. The yeast was a leavening
agent, which comes from very old words meaning “lifting”. The yeast, though,
requires hours to work it’s magic. If there is no yeast, the bread simply forms
crackers, known in Hebrew as “Matzo”, which is of special note around the time
of the Passover, because the Israelites had to leave Egypt so quickly the bread
could not rise.
Last week, we saw Jesus feed the five
thousand with five barley loaves and a couple small fish. He then walked across
the lake, catching up with the disciples in the middle of the lake. Our reading this morning continues the next morning as the crowd awakens and realizes that
neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, so they got into the boats and went
to Capernaum on the other side of the lake looking for Jesus. I’m so glad we
don’t have to row across a lake to find Jesus.
They asked Jesus, “Rabbi, when did you
get here?”
Jesus, as usual, doesn’t answer their
question directly, but deals with the real issue – why the people were looking
for Him. He said, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not
because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and
had your fill.”
In other words, Jesus said the crowd had
followed Him because they saw Him as their free lunch. Despite the miracle of
the feeding of five thousand, they simply saw Jesus as a free lunch. Which is a
warning to those of us today who would establish regular free community lunches
– there is more to do than simply provide the food for the body. If we
establish give-way programs, we must provide spiritual food as well as free
physical food to accomplish God’s will. As Jesus went on to say,
“Do not work for food that spoils, but
for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will
give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
The normal food we eat can spoil, but
there is food for our soul that lasts to eternal life. Perhaps Jesus is giving
us a metaphor here, that His teachings are food for our souls that will feed
our souls and lead us to eternal life. The crowd certainly understood this to
be metaphor, an analogy, for they immediately changed their line of
questioning.
“They asked Him, “What must we do to do
the works God requires?” They wanted to know what they had to do to be right
with God.
And Jesus responded with “The work of God
is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
The crowd understood He was talking about
Himself as the one God had sent. So the crowd asked for proof. “What sign then
will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?” They
wanted proof that He was sent by God. Then they suggested, “Our ancestors ate
the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven
to eat’” quoting our Psalm for today.
But Jesus understood that they thought
Moses had given them the bread, for it is very easy to think that Moses had
some special magic. Jesus wanted to turn the attention to God – and to Himself.
He wanted to turn from the man who stood in front of the burning bush to the
God who was in the burning bush, the great “I am that I am”, which is the name God
gave to Himself.
“Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses
who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who give you the
true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from
heaven and give life to the world.”
Jesus was pointing out that life comes
from bread – on this they all agreed. But Jesus also wanted to remind them that
there is ordinary bread, which would mold – and special bread from God, which
gave life to the world.
Jesus said, “It is my Father who gives you
the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down
from heaven and gives life to the world.”
They responded, “Sir, always give us this
bread.” They were probably still thinking of manna, they were still looking for
a free lunch. They still were thinking about their tummies, when Jesus hit them
with the zinger. We went
Jesus declared, “I am the bread of
life.” Jesus intentionally used the “I AM” phrase, which was not commonly used
in Israel, because that was the name of God. Jesus applied it to Himself. And
then He explained further, “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever
believes in me will never be thirsty.”
What Jesus was saying here requires some
more background. The Apostle John gives it to us at the beginning of his Gospel
when he tells us that the Christ was the Word of God. John tells us that
everything that was made was made through the Word. So if the Christ was the Word
of God, then everything made was made through Christ, who is the Word of God.
So God initiates the Creation, and Jesus
forms the Creation. It is as though there is a water system which has high
pressure water, and there is a man standing there, controlling and directing a
hose through which that water flows. God the father is the water system, while
Christ is the man directing the hose.
And this includes the creation of life,
and sustaining that life.
We think that if God walked away from the
Universe, everything would continue onward for a while, perhaps slowly falling
apart. But that is not true. God is actively maintaining the Universe. If God
walked away, the Creation would disappear faster than a video game or a TV show
disappears when the electric power stops.
Life is the same way.
In fact, life must be sustained.
We all know that people die when they
stop eating. It takes a while, but they die. Bread sustains life.
Now remember when Jesus said, “Do not
work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal
life, which the Son of Man will give you.” The men of Israel and us
have often assumed that this is a metaphor, an analogy that the “food” the Son
of Man – Jesus – gives us is His teachings.
But what if that is not a metaphor, but
Jesus means this literally.
On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus
passed around a loaf of bread which was shared, and he said, “This is my body,
given for you.”
What if He was serious and literal about
the need to eat the Communion bread which Jesus gives us to gain eternal life?
What if that bread somehow was spiritual food for our souls?
We do not believe that this bread during
Communion is the literal physical body of Jesus, but we don’t believe it is
just bread, either. We believe that when we eat this bread and drink this
juice, we are somehow spiritually connecting with Jesus, that He is present
here with us, that these elements somehow help give us eternal life. Although
different groups of Christians will disagree about the exact meaning and
purpose of Communion, almost all groups of Christians agree that it is very
important to participate in Communion regularly. The founder of the Methodist
movement, John Wesley, felt it best to join in Communion everyday if possible.
And so, I ask you to look today at these
elements in a different way today, not as just a piece of bread and a bit of
grape juice, but truly as if Jesus has given them to you, touched them with a
bit of His glory, brushed against them with His essence, put a bit of His
eternal nature into them. Look and believe that these elements are one of the
ways that Jesus gives His grace to us, leading us to an eternal life with Him
one day.
#marktyoung
ReplyDeleteloved this, thank you... it is good when i have validation outside myself for the things that i write and share with others... but i am always concerned that i am not leading God's children astray... i write from personal lived perspectives, hard won... it is difficult to separate from these words as i may currently view their meaning because of the deep roots of personal learned experience from which they come, brought those words together... i know that the Spirit inspires me when i diligently look for that inspiration... i also know that none of us are perfect in this old temporal world of ours (God given)... i do not wish to share what i write with the intention of communicating that i am "right"; but simply to share how i have come to see things and allow others to make their own decisions and perhaps create some quality conversation... i also know it is a thin line and seek from others their take on my words and listen for their words to help clarify my own... i would appreciate your take on this linked article/essay... your words above have given me confidence that what you may have to say would help my confidence in my own words, or not... blessings, Mark Young ©2021mty
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