Jesus Use and Revelation of Bread

Culture of the Kingdom
Today’s Topic: Breaking of Bread: Jesus Use and Revelation of Bread
Scripture: John 6:27-35; Mark 8:14-21

Greetings Kingdom Citizens
When we look at the great feedings of the 5,000 and the 4,000 we tend to always look at what happened naturally and miss the true revelation of the mystery to why this happened. In Mark 8 we see Jesus telling the disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. The disciples did not understand Jesus because they thought He was talking about bread because they only had the one loaf. Jesus is clearly angry because He just performed the two great feedings and He asks them "do you not remember" (Mark 8:18). Now Jesus asks them two very important questions that we tend to overlook or passby. He asked them "how many fragments did they pick up from the two feedings"? They answered respectively, twelve and seven. Our focus when we read this story tends to be on the number of people He fed. More importantly the Lord's focus is one the number of fragments. But why?

Jesus had them collect 12 baskets full. Now remember Jesus tells the disciples that He is the bread that comes down from Heaven (John 6:32-35). He is the bread that was formerly represented in the Old Testament. Exodus 25:30 speaks of the 12 loaves of special bread, show bread (shewbread) that was that was to be placed on the table known as the Table of Show Bread. God required them, Israel, to do this to show them that even though He fed Israel with manna in the wilderness, there is more to life than bread and more nourishment that is needed than physical bread can give you. You need the bread from His presence. In other words, the twelve loaves was to symbolize the bread of His Presence which is the food that comes from His presence. Now that is powerful and so significant because more than ever do we need to be fed. Not in a song, but the Word that comes from the mouth of God to our spirits.

Now when we look at the great feedings, after the 5000, the disciples and multitudes went looking for Jesus and when they found Him they asked Him why did He come there (John 6:25)? the response of Jesus shows us that The Father showed Jesus their true intentions in John 6:26. Now I am paraphrasing this scripture, Jesus says that they did not come looking for who I am, you are looking for me for another meal. Remember they came over with 1 loaf of bread according to Mark 8. Jesus tells them in John 6:35, He is the bread of life. Even better, He is the bread of the presence of God. Now this was not the only revelation in this story.

God told them to collect up the fragments and they collected 12 baskets full. Now they started out 5 loaves to feed 5000 plus people. The scriptures go on to say the people had their fill so what does that say? Bread came from Heaven but the fact still remains that they collected 12 baskets full. What does this mean? All that Jesus is remains uneaten even though they ate bread (manna) from Heaven. The gathering of the fragments shows whether they received Jesus or not. Based on what they gathered, they did not receive Him. "He came unto His own and his own RECEIVED HIM NOT" (John 1:11). The scripture then goes on to say but as many as receive Him to them gave He power to become the sons, huios (mature) of God. Do we see this? These miracles are not some arbitrary stories but are examples and clues to the mysteries of Christ. The bread of Christ will give us life again. The great thing about that is it is eternal life. It will restore you to God and remove the curse of the fall. It will also present you again (reconcile) you to the Father in the One (Christ) who is the bread of Heaven.

In closing there are three types of bread:
1. Bread for the physical body's nourishment and need
2. Bread for the soul, which is the bread that is sustained by the will of man by which he generates for himself.
3. Bread for the spirit, which is sustained by the presence of God. The soul can be sustained by the spirit if the soul is submitted to the spirit.

Do we need bread for our physical bodies? Of course. But more over we need the bread from the presence of God because it will give us life and life eternal. So the breaking of bread is when we meet together, the Christ in each of us is shared with each other. In addition it is how the life of Christ that is in each of us might be broken and distributed in our conversations together. Are we breaking bread together?

At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.