Symbols of Redemption - Bread

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’ Matthew 26:26‭-‬29 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/mat.26.26-29.NIVUK When Jesus gathered with His disciples for the Last Supper, it was not a snack meal. He was not there to eat two or three morsels of bread, or a piece of wafer, and wash them down with a shot glass of grape cordial. No, this was a full meal. This was Middle Eastern hospitality. Jesus was celebrating a high feast with His disciples - His last feast before being crucified. However, over the years only two common elements have remained in Christian worship. These are the elements Jesus specifically mentions during the feast as being symbolic of His suffering to save us and the New Covenant He was about to establish. In the run-up to Easter Sunday we will consider these elements. It was December 1998. It was brutally cold. I was walking back to my host family's apartment, where I was living for three months to learn Romanian, when I noticed a long line of people snaking its way down Nicolae Balcescu Street. I wondered what on earth this was. And then I saw the small building at the head of the queue. It was a tiny bakery. This bakery was about to close for Christmas Day. These people were buying the last fresh bread that would be available for the next few days. Bread is a huge staple food across Europe and the Middle East. My host family used to joke that Romanians eat 'bread with bread'. In Jesus' day it wasn't the same as now. Jesus would have been eating a yeast-free Matzo flatbread, not a bloomer or a baguette or a sliced loaf. But the process of making the bread is still strikingly similar. And it is this process that I believe Jesus uses to symbolise His suffering. Bread is something cheap and common, found on millions of tables across the globe. It is simple and unpretentious. In short, not special. Like Jesus during His thirty years of almost complete obscurity, and even the fact that He took on a common name and occupation: He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Isaiah 53:2 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.53.2.NIVUK Bread comes from grains. And every grain has something in common. To reproduce to the level where it can be used to make bread, it has to be planted into the ground and die as a grain, only to be resurrected as a head of wheat, or whatever grain has been planted. Jesus uses this natural process to explain His own death. Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.12.24.NIVUK This grain is then crushed to make flour, usually under a heavy stone.In a way, this is also what happened to Jesus: But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.53.5.NIVUK The Mazo bread was also broken and shared among the disciples. Although Paul later uses this as a symbol of unity in Christ (1 Corinthians 10:17), Jesus is using the breaking of the loaf to symbolise the breaking of His body (Matthew 26:26; 1 Corinthians 11:23-24). In other words, this common, cheap, unpretentious food becomes a striking symbol of the brutal violence about to be committed against the body of Jesus Christ for our sins. It is used as a symbol of the heavy, but utterly necessary, price to be paid for our redemption. And why is it so heavy? Because sin is so heinous, so utterly obscene, so sinful. Every sin, no matter how small in our eyes, is an act of rebellion against the nature, the sovereignty and the glory of God. Sin is repugnant. It is offensive. It is demonic. So the price of salvation for those who commit it must be high. Before Coronavirus, we were avid travellers, regularly flying in particular to Asia and Europe. However, we hardly ever gave the price of our vehicle a second thought. For example, a brand new Boeing 737-800 - a plane regularly used by airlines - costs USD 108.1 million. An Airbus A320neo, loved by budget carriers, costs USD 110 million. And the largest passenger plane in the world, the Airbus A380, costs USD 445.5 million. But the price of our salvation is far greater than all the airplanes in the world combined. It was the perfect life of Jesus Christ, sacrificed in a death so utterly horrific that even the Romans, who carried it out, believed it to be abhorrent. The simple loaves of bread on our Communion table are a reminder of the exorbitant price of our sin, and the One who was so willing to pay it. That is why Paul says we should examine ourselves before we eat of it (1 Corinthians 11:28-29), realise the seriousness of our sin and repent. The price of our sin is too high not to do so. Bread. Such an ordinary, cheap and simple food. Yet from this simple loaf we see how Jesus came to earth as ordinary man, surrendered His life for us and was crushed for our sins. We see the seriousness of sin and the awful cost of the price to redeem us. Experiencing the discomfort of admitting our sin before God like this is definitely not too high a price to pay.