September 2, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” (1 Corinthians 11.27-29)

“Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but 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.’” (John 6.32-33)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

Jesus taught us that He is the true bread from Heaven come down to feed the world that is in hunger for authentic life. We may put this into that category of story which says “Give a person a fish and feed them for a day. Teach a person to fish and they will eat tomorrow.” The world hungers for things that will satisfy their hunger; all kinds of hungers. The list of such “hunger” items is long and most of them are satisfied in moderation but in excess become dangerous. For example, a hunger for survival which becomes a hunger for power. Or, there is a hunger for love which becomes a hunger for lust. There is a hunger for fulfillment which becomes a hunger for larceny, envy, jealousy, covetousness and stealing from God. Each of us could add to this “hunger” list. I believe the greatest hunger is that for eternal life. Without the satisfaction of this hunger our death is forever. Jesus alludes to the story of Moses and the Hebrew freed men (and families) who were bound to wander in the wilderness because of their disobedience to God. Imagine how wonderful it would have been to travel for only a few months instead of sojourning for forty years. In the midst of their journey, the bread of haste had begun to be a vastly diminished inventory. The grain they harvested from the stores of Egypt was being stretched thin by this small country on the move (2.5-4 million people). It was inevitable that the cost of such a long journey would make itself known in hunger. To answer the call for “bread,” God told Moses that He would provide bread from heaven, or manna. We do not truly know the consistency of this manna. We do know the promise and provision of it was consistent. During the night while the people slept, God rained down this manna from Heaven. The people could go and gather but only in the sufficiency of a certain amount for each person to eat that day (and a double portion on the day before the Sabbath.) For those who sought to gather more, it would be found to become wormy. I have to believe that the bread was made by God in such a way that they could only eat a daily portion and no more because their stomachs would be filled. They could eat only that much and no more. I guess that would have made it “wise” bread. Even manna had a life span. The provision did not last long either because the people continued to violate God’s trust on this or because they learned to trust and other provisions were made to sate that immediate hunger.

Jesus declared that He was the “bread of God come down from Heaven.” He was unlike the bread of Moses which satisfied for a day (or two days in reference to that for the Sabbath). He was the bread of life which satisfied the “forever” hunger. It was the hunger for eternal life. It was the bread of tomorrow and the tomorrow after that until the people who ate it dwelt in that forever tomorrow which became the never-ending day. As we partake of the “bread” of the sacrament in celebrating the Lord’s Supper, regardless of when or where that remembrance takes place, we must keep in mind the very essence which the bread represents. It is more than the “body of Christ” but not at the expense of the “body of Christ.” The bread which was broken on the night when the world betrayed its Savior (Judas was not the lone conspirator, mind you) was the traditional flat bread, or matzah. It represented the “bread of haste” which the Hebrews were told to bake and take with them on their journey of freedom to freedom. In order for it to be the “bread of haste,” it did not include any leavening, or yeast. Jesus told His disciples to between of the “leaven of the Pharisees.” (Luke 12.1) He was speaking of the influence of the Pharisees and their disturbing of the “rules of righteousness” which far exceeded the parameter and template of the Law of the Covenant (the 10+2). In their effort to be in control of the every move and act of the people, they expanded the reach of “the Law” and became the enforcers of it at the expense of the people themselves and to their own benefit. Just as Jesus had warned them not to “lord it over others as the gentiles do” (for example in Luke 22.25), He warned them to think differently about teaching others how to live “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; know that He will provide all that is needed to live in that Kingdom.” (Matthew 6.33) They were to maintain “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14.4) and not the extremist lives of those who poison the “bread of life” which false doctrine, politics and popular opinion. The “bread of life” broken as a sign of fellowship was indicative then of living in the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. It is not His body that was broken (which would have disputed the prophesy of Psalm 34 that said “no bone will be broken” as we realized when the practice of breaking the legs of those still alive on the cross by sunset would lose their support and die more quickly and in greater agony…(you have to “love” the Romans for their cruelty, not!). Seeing that Jesus was already dead, this did not happen as quite probably it did to those crucified to His left and right. It was in the “breaking of the bread of life which comes down from Heaven” that was broken with the disciples and became emblematic of the Christian fellowship of faith. Those who eat of that bread shall never hunger in body or in spirit (John 6). What value and truth is in this didache of the sacrament concerning the bread which we share together “on the first day of the week.” Remember, it was when Jesus “broke the bread” that the two on the road to Emmaus recognized Jesus as the Resurrected Christ. His words burned in their heart and they immediately became evangelists to further declare the good news. We must remember not merely the partaking of the bread but the true response to it. Salvation is not passive but active!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.