The Healthiest Bread We All Need

Bread, oh glorious bread. It is often a very simple food made of grains and yeast of numerous varieties that has provided nourishment and sustenance throughout the generations. Today, in light of much adulteration of our food supply and the popularity of grain-free diets, it is often one of the most controversial foods to discuss. Regardless of where you stand on the nutritional side of this food category, breaking bread is still the term used to describe what we do together as friends when we gather in community to fellowship and dine. But, God spoke to me today about the healthiest bread we should be consuming each and every day- the Bread of Life.

Jesus is described as the “Bread of Life” in John 6:22-40. When Jesus calls himself this, he is sharing the promise that He, and only He, as God, will take care of our needs each day on this earth and in eternity when we put our trust in Him. A research of the word bread in the Word shows that it represents three different things: 1)sustenance- When God commanded that Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, he stated that Adam would work and sweat for bread. This pointed to the necessity of growing crops for food to survive. We need bread for sustenance. Our human hunger pangs also remind us that we depend on God who created all sources of food; 2)hospitality/relationship- Abraham demonstrated hospitality when he shared his bread with his three visitors in Genesis 18. Breaking bread at the beginning of meals with the words “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth.” is part of the Jewish tradition. Jesus also broke bread many times with his disciples who carried on the breaking of bread in communion after His resurrection; 3)Biblical offering- In the Old Testament, grain offerings were given onto the altar as a sacrifice to God by the Israelites as part of their covenant relationship. In the New Testament, when Jesus gave thanks and gave the disciples bread and wine at the last supper, He declared that this was the new covenant through His sacrifice.

God doesn’t want us to be overly concerned about fleeting things like where our food will come from. He tells us to spend our energy seeking “the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you” (John 6:27 NLT). He wanted his disciples to know that He was God and that time with Him was the “true food” they really needed. Jesus invites us today still to feed on Him. He teaches this in the Lord’s Prayer by modeling asking God for our daily bread. He is basically showing us that the only way to live the abundant life of joy and freedom he promises us is to plug into His Word daily, commune with Him, and to trust in Him for our day to day needs, both physical, and more importantly, spiritual.

Unlike the perishable bread we bake or buy at the store, this heavenly bread of Christ will never spoil, perish or run out. It is life-providing, life-sustaining and our divine provision, gifted to us from our Abba Father when we have faith in Him as our Lord and Savior through the sacrifice of His son’s body, the flesh (and blood) we now commemorate through our practice of communion.

The phrase breaking bread takes on a whole new meaning in light of what Jesus says about himself in John 6. I am the bread of life! Jesus means that My bread is joy and when you partake of it by spending time with me, it spread like the starter culture or yeast that grew the original wheat into something edible and delicious and healthful. We, too, are the bread of life- when we start with Him, the eternal starter culture, and add the grains of our own life, we become a living food, a conduit through which to share this special bread of heaven with others! This holy bread multiplies so there is always enough, always an overflow, and when we share the love of our savior with others, this is how the bread rises and grows into something so good and nutritious to share! Just like He fed a crowd with a few loaves and fishes, with one small daily bit of bread (in our time with Him), sustaining us, growing us, we will be equipped and fueled and fed in spirit, mind and body to feed those we come into contact with. This is the meaning of being a true disciple. Breaking bread with others takes on this deeper meaning when we allow our hearts and minds to be renewed and transformed into a new creation just like a few raw ingredients of wheat, oil and salt can become something new and different when a small amount of yeast is added, causing these to grow into something totally new. We can no longer pick out the original ingredients as they have become a fully new creation when the yeast does its work. Just like this, when we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives each day, we become over time a new creation, fully separate and unrecognizable from our past sins, hurts, and traumas. These are gone and we are made clean and new. Praise God for this truth. Taste and eat, for the Bread of Life is so good, wholesome, delicious and bountiful!