Bread of Life

Jesus - the babe born in Bethlehem,

Bread of Life, The Beginning and the End.

When I was young, I didn’t like to eat chicken, hamburgers, fish, or any kind of meat. But I loved bread, especially homemade bread. Baking bread was my favorite kitchen chore. My mom taught me to raise the yeast in warm water with sugar, not too hot or too cool or the yeast would fail.

She helped me stir the salt, sugar, flour, eggs, and scalded milk in the large crockery bowl with a wooden spoon until my thin arms felt like rubber. Then came the time to knead the soft dough with gentle rhythmic pressure under the heels of my hands. Knead it and fold it and knead it again. Then leave it to raise covered with a cloth balanced on a beam that stretched out from the stairs over the living room where warm air rose from the wood stove.

Baking bread took time and patience, but also attention. After I’d started making bread on my own for a while, I got careless and attempted to rush the process. I set the dough to rise in the oven in Mom’s largest plastic Tupperware. Sometime later, I hurried into the kitchen and turned the oven up so it would be ready to bake the bread. Soon an odd aroma of burnt plastic and fresh bread filled the house. Smoke started to rise through the burners on the stove. That was a mess to clean up. I remember how surprised I was that Mom wasn’t angry that I’d melted her expensive bowl. I guess she had decided that budding bakers were worth the sacrifice.

Warmth, a gentle touch, and time. Those were the secrets to homemade bread. We didn’t bake just loaves of bread. Mom had recipes handed down for generations, written in cursive on yellowed recipes cards—Schoof Noodla, Krautstrudel and Santa Lucia rolls. These recipes turned an ordinary batch of dough into a feast: dumplings steamed over gravy and chunks of roasted beef or wild venison, a strudel roll filled with browned hamburger and sauerkraut drizzled with…yes, maple syrup! And the favorite---Christmas sweet rolls made with costly saffron, twisted into fanciful shapes. We baked the saffron rolls on December 12th so they would be fresh and ready to celebrate St. Lucia the next day.

Where does the making of bread begin? Does it begin with the yeast, or before that? Does it begin with a shopping trip, or before that? Does it begin with the grain, broken and ground into flour, or before that? Does it begin with the farmer who tills the soil to plant the seeds?

In the Bible the seed that dies multiplies to becomes life-giving bread.

The first mention of bread in the Bible is in Genesis 18, when first Abraham and then his nephew Lot entertained strangers who brought unexpected, yet long awaited news. Both households prepared a feast and serve fresh bread to their guests.

Hebrews 13:2 reads: “Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!”

This was the case with Lot, living in the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley. Lot convinced two visitors at the city gate to find safety in his home. He didn’t realize they were angels who had come to save him from the destruction of Sodom. At his house, he prepared a feast for them, “complete with fresh bread made without yeast.” That was the last meal he ate in his home. The last night before his life changed forever. It’s the first story of bread eaten before a flight.

Another story of a last meal eaten before flight occurs during the first Passover, just before the Israelites escape from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. After a series of failed negotiations with Pharaoh, Moses instructed the Israelites to prepare roasted lamb and bread made without yeast. Later that night, as the city wailed in mourning as the final plague struck, the Israelites took their bread dough and “wrapped their kneading boards in their cloaks and carried them on their shoulders” as they moved in great numbers into the desert.

The bread that the Israelites carried on their backs did not last very long. Soon they complained to Moses. They had already forgotten the babies killed at birth, the forced labor, the cruel whips, the impossible quotas of bricks. They only remembered that they had plenty of meat and as much bread as they wanted back in the land of their slavery. But God sent manna, bread from heaven, to sustain the Israelites on their journey to freedom.

Of all the references to bread in the Old Testament, those relating to manna are the most helpful to me when I think about Jesus, the Bread of Life. Shortly after miraculously feeding the 5000, Jesus says to his followers, “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

His followers had gotten sidetracked, thinking how convenient if only Jesus would continue to miraculously take care of their physical needs like Moses in the desert. Jesus reminded them that they were giving Moses credit for something God provided, and that they were missing the point entirely. This was the first thing Jesus said that caused many people to reject him.

Jesus returns to this principle several times throughout his three-year ministry. Shortly before his death on the cross, as he celebrated the Passover with his disciples one last time, Jesus told his disciples, “I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

The ingredients of that Passover meal were the same as those the Israelites used at the first Passover: roasted lamb, bitter herbs, and bread without yeast. As he broke the bread and poured the wine, Jesus said, “This is my body, which is given for you” and “This is my blood poured out for you…as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.” (Matthew 26; Luke 22) Jesus referred to his eminent death on the cross, but even then his disciples did not understand.

Yet how did Jesus, the Bread of Life, respond to his disciples knowing they would soon abandon him?

He responded with warmth, a gentle touch, and patience. He knew that in a short time, they’re fragile faith would be tested in the oven of adversity and, in that time of trial, they would become the first fruits of the early church.

In his final prophecy about his death, Jesus told his disciples, “…unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.” (Luke 12:24, 25)

I still love to bake bread. Though I’ve traded in the wooden spoon for an electric mixer, I still use the beautiful old crockery bowl to raise the bread. But I know that there is no recipe on earth to substitute for Jesus, the Bread of Life.

Ask God to feed your soul through his word:

Read about Lot and his angelic visitors in Genesis 18-20.

Read about the plagues and the Passover in Exodus 3-12.

Read how people responded to Jesus’ statement “I am the Bread of Life” in John 6.

Use the ABC method to get the most out of reading these passages. For each section, choose:

1. A title to describe that section

2. Best Verse: Which verse speaks to you the most? 3. Challenge: How can you apply this verse to your situation?