The Bread of Denomination and the Bread of Life

Sorry, a further interruption to my series on the secret place of prayer - but also a very good mediation! Please comment and/or email me!

In all four of the gospels, Jesus speaks about the breaking and multiplication of bread – Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9 and John 6. After that miracle, there was a discussion between Jesus and the disciples. In Mark 6:52, after Jesus walked on the water, and the disciples were surprised and astonished, Mark says they did not understand the miracle of the bread, because their hearts were hard. I had no idea why Mark says this here, but I found out!

In Mark 8, there is another multiplication. After that, Jesus talked to the Pharisees, who asked Him for a sign. Jesus said to them there would be no sign for their generation. He then goes in the boat again, and the disciples have forgotten to take bread. Jesus tells them to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. He is referring to the leaven of religion and to the leaven of politics. But the disciples thought he was merely talking about leaven because they’d forgotten to take bread. Jesus says to this, why are their hearts so hard? Had they no intelligence to understand, no eyes to see? Had they no memory that He could multiply bread whenever He chose? “How many baskets did you take up”, He asked them. They told him, “Twelve and seven.” And He marveled that they did not understand!

It is the same today in the church, where there are even sometimes miracles: these miracles change the situation of the people, but do not change their hearts. We see that miracles were done by Jesus in His day to reveal that the people’s hearts were hard. The manna God gave Israel in the desert was for sustenance, but only under the rules - they could take only enough for one day, except before the Sabbath. If they took more than was allowed, it rotted and was ruined. Today it is like this again, the church is making more than it needs to – and forgetting the essential things. It’s manufacturing doctrine and providing dances and parties and programs – even yoga and tai chi classes! but not the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

In the temple service, Moses directed the priests to put twelve fresh loaves on the altar daily, representing the twelve tribes. This was the bread of the Presence of God, and only the priests could eat it. They were to break this bread at the proper time, eat it, and then preach to the people. It was just the broken bread from God’s Presence, but not the actual Bread of Heaven. Today many preachers do this – they study and arrange, and put their preaching in order, and preach to the people, but this is just the bread of the presence, not the bread of Life. I did this too, and was surprised when there was so little change in people.

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