Bread
The account of the “bread from heaven” became one of the most important episodes in the history of the people of Israel. It was understood as a testimony of God’s care for His people.
Jesus Christ - His Life and Teaching, Vol. 5: The Lamb of God, by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev
This from the exodus. After a time, the people became weary of this diet:
Numbers 21: 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
God sent them serpents, biting the Israelis with many dying. Moses prayed, God answered:
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.”
It worked.
This manna ceased to fall after the first Passover that the Israelites kept in the Promised Land. Thereafter, the rabbis would call to mind the story – the proof of God’s omnipotence and His care for His people.
Why this background? After feeding the five thousand, many came to Him; Jesus said that they came not because of the signs but because yesterday they were filled.
John 6: 27 “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
He draws them back to Moses and the manna; they know this story well. They also know that the manna soon enough did not satisfy, and Jesus offered to them another type of bread, one that fully satisfies.
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
Bread was perhaps the most significant staple in the diet of those in Jesus’s time. they would understand bread – literally and figuratively – as the source of life. Jesus told them that He is that bread of life, the bread that came down from heaven; to receive this bread, believe in Him.
41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”
Jesus understood this, and did not back down:
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
That was the easy part….
53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
The Incarnation, redemption, and the Eucharist are all to be found here. The Word became flesh; partaking of His flesh offers salvation. But how could people take this, understand this, follow Him after this? To eat flesh with blood was forbidden, to say nothing of what Jesus offered.
Consider the indignation that followed these words, even from those who followed Him:
60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” 66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
Many, but not all:
67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” 68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Conclusion
The novelty of Christianity lies in that it invites man to unite with God not only through prayer and other forms of worship, but first and foremost through partaking of God.
Man is what he eats. Christ descended from heaven; His flesh is to be eaten, and if eaten, one will never go hungry. This episode serves as the prologue to the Last Supper: this is My body; this is My blood. With this, you gain eternal life – which they then witnessed in Him after the resurrection.
Epilogue
Over the last few years, I have really begun to internalize this. I am not eating bread and wine; it is the body and blood of Christ. My mind, shaped heavily by Enlightenment “rational” thought, struggled mightily with this. Then something I heard from Jonathan Pageau really helped quite a bit:
The Catholics believe it is real, the Protestants believe it is a symbol. The Orthodox believe it is real because it is a symbol.
Now, I don’t really know if this is good theology, nor do I want to get into a food fight due to the broad brush strokes of this statement (for example, I believe the Eastern Orthodox believe the elements are “real” body and blood in much the same way as the Catholics do; I think Lutherans are closer to these two than they are to Zwingli, whose views shaped those of much of Protestantism on this topic).
But it makes a difference to me: do I believe I am taking grape juice from a plastic cup and a small tidbit of bread from a plate, or do I believe I am taking in the body and blood of Christ?
As far as I have come: the question matters in how I am experiencing it, and not if or how the transformation takes place. I am slowly transforming just how I am experiencing it – or having my experience transformed, more accurately!
As always, thankyou!
I really appreciate the Jonathan Pageau quote. I have been inclined to think that way about much Biblical symbolism, but wasn't able to express it so well.
I really enjoy your blog and it brings to mind many new ideas to ponder.
I have a couple of questions I think pertain to this and I hope you can help me out. What exactly was the bread and wine within the cultural context of Jesus day? Was this part of the Seder and was the Passover meal Christ's last meal? Have you ever looked into the eating of the matzah and the hiding of the Afikomen at the Seder? If they were performing these rituals at the time, it seems very symbolic of Christ body being broke and hidden. https://israelmyglory.org/article/the-marvelous-afikomen/
As for the literal wine becoming blood or the bread becoming flesh, would this be similar to believing that the snake on the pole was the redeemer of the people and not God? Eventually, 2 Kings 18:4 talks about the bronze snake that Moses raised up in the wilderness needing to be destroyed with other idols. When Christ is compared to that very bronze snake that was lifted up in John 3:14-15, does this seem as though it has anything to do with the literal power of the flesh or is it Christ's atoning work? If we get to the point that we believe it is the material that saves and not the substance, are we at risk of idol worship?