Lay Some Bread on Me

Two thieves break into an apartment in a high rise apartment building.  One thief quickly goes to the buffet and begins to fill his sack with the good silver.  The other thief went quietly into the bedroom and, finding the jewelry box, began to fill his sack with expensive treasures.  Suddenly, they hear a knock on the door, followed by a shout, “Open up!  Police!”

The one thief says, “Quick…the cops…jump out the window!”

“But we’re on the thirteenth floor!” says the other.

“You idiot!  This is no time to be superstitious!”

Now, I have to tell you the truth.  This never happened.  There were no thieves.  No police came, and nobody jumped out of a high rise window (in case you were worried).  This is just a joke, a story.  Nevertheless, it teaches a valuable lesson.  When the mind is filled with anger or fear, it loses mindfulness, and often makes poor decisions.  In addition, there are times when superstition may hide some wisdom.

I think we need to take the same approach when reading the bible.  The modern reader takes in the stories and finds them outlandish.  Either the miracles are just too much to accept, or the claims made by Jesus go beyond what any rational person living in the twenty-first century can accept.

At one time, the Roman Catholic Church used to discourage people from reading the bible.  The thought behind this was that the untrained uneducated person would misinterpret the scriptures and come up with some pretty strange ideas.  Most of us can point at any number of beliefs held by fundamentalists in any religion and see the truth in this.

Moreover, people like “that old time religion” because it’s simple.  It’s black and white.  They take little quotes here and there and try to lives their lives according to those words without ever noticing how some bits seem to contradict other bits.  And when you find those contradicting bits, it’s easy to discount the whole book, to dismiss it out of hand.  Another strategy, however, is to take those bits and ask yourself, “How can I read these in such a way that they don’t contradict one another?”

Another technique is to understand that parts of the bible were added later by early church fathers for the purpose of addressing specific concerns of the early Christian community.  The gospel of John was written with a specific purpose in mind.  It was written with the intent to convince people that Jesus was divine.    Regardless of John’s intent, you can still read the words ascribed to Jesus and take meaning from them.  Take for example, Chapter Six, which we’ve been going over the past few weeks.  This chapter is taken to be about the practice of communion, which was a highly controversial practice among those exposed to first century Christians.  There is more to this chapter than that, however.

Jesus said to the crowds:
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world.”

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them,
“Truthfully, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.

For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (John, Chapter 6, 51-58)

When Jesus says he is the bread, the word in Greek means “shew-bread”.  According to Smith’s Bible Dictionary, shew bread is “literally “bread of the face” or “faces.” Shew-bread was unleavened bread placed upon a table which stood in the sanctuary together with the seven-branched candlestick and the altar of incense.  Every Sabbath twelve newly baked loaves, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, were put on it in two rows, six in each, and sprinkled with incense, where they remained till the following Sabbath. Then they were replaced by twelve new ones, the incense was burned, and they were eaten by the priests in the holy place, out of which they might not be removed, The title “bread of the face” seems to indicate that bread through which God is seen, that is, with the participation of which the seeing of God is bound up, or through the participation of which man attains the sight of God whence it follows that we have not to think of bread merely as such as the means of nourishing the bodily life, but as spiritual food as a means of appropriating and retaining that life which consists In seeing the face of God.”

The people listening to his words would know that he was making a reference to Moses.  After traveling through the wilderness for forty years, according to the old story (true or not), Moses addressed the people he took from slavery to freedom.  “You are all now standing before the LORD, your God–your chiefs and judges, your elders and officials, and all of the men of Israel, together with your wives and children and the aliens who live in your camp, down to those who hew wood and draw water for you–that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD, your God…” Moses then enjoins the people to keep the commandments, so that they might live good lives.

“For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, ‘Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’ Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’ No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out. Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom…choose life.”

This is the choice Jesus is offering.  The clue we have is in John’s words, “you will have no life within you.”  Jesus is asking us to take his words and make them our own.  Take his teachings.  Love one another.  Care for one another.  If we could do this, we would have a veritable paradise.  Eating his flesh and drinking his blood were not meant to be literal.  The life to which Jesus refers is a spiritual life.

John is trying to say that while in the desert, the Hebrews depended upon God food and drink, manna from heaven, water from a stone, to maintain physical life.  Now, the teachings of Jesus, God made flesh, by John’s testimony, contain spiritual life.  It is John who says that in the beginning came “the word”, the logos.  The flesh and blood about which Jesus is speaking is his word, his teachings.  By claiming to be the shew-bread, Jesus is declaring himself an offering to God.  This is how it would be understood by the people listening to his words.

So we have a choice.  We can choose to live our lives, ignoring the spiritual, searching for something to fill that emptiness, in worry and in fear, or we can choose to reach out to that creative power in the universe and love one another.  Trying to find fulfillment in drugs or riches, or sex, or power, leaves us unfulfilled, and still feeling lost.  Finding the divine spirit within brings peace of mind.  We can choose death, or we can choose life.

And as Moses said, this message is not too esoteric to be understood.  It really is no mystery.  Love God.  Love one another.  Take care of one another.  God is not some invisible guy up in the clouds.  You are the temple of God.  So you see, you may believe that that it’s all a bunch of hooey, you may think it’s all superstition, but there is wisdom here, if you look for it.