Eternal Bread - Part 3

In my further meditation on the feeding of the 5,000, the 4,000, and the Last Supper, the Holy Spirit helped me focus on what Jesus actually did. In each instance He blessed, He broke, and He gave out the bread. In John’s gospel Jesus said, "I am the bread." (John 6:35) If we have any doubt about what he said about Himself, remember that there are two witnesses to His statement. The fact that He was born in the city of Bethlehem. Bethlehem meaning bread. And He was laid in the tomb on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Since He is our bread we might ask: When was He blessed, broken, and given out? I believe from my study that Jesus was first blessed in the womb of His mother Mary when she came to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. In Luke 1:41-42 Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out in a loud voice, "Blessed among women are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb?" What was the fruit of Mary’s womb? The baby, Jesus. He was being blessed before He was born.

When was Jesus broken? He was broken on the cross when He bore our sins for us. Mark 15:37 says, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last."

When was Jesus given out? When Jesus commanded the apostles to go forth after they received the Holy Spirit and "be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (Acts 1:8) With the Holy Spirit they were then armed with the power to preach, to bear witness (John 15:26,27), and to heal. And they had His authority to give out His body and blood in the form of the bread and wine "in remembrance" of Him. (1 Corinthians 11:24, 25) In all these ways Jesus was being given out to all the world.

In three places in the gospel of John Jesus proclaims that He is the bread. (John 6:35, John 6:48, and John 6:51). What does that mean? Probably more than we’ll ever know. But what we do know is that bread is food for our bodies. However, with Jesus as our bread we are fed in our bodies, in our souls, and in our spirits. He was blessed, broken, and given out for us. If we eat that bread, we will live forever (John 6:51, 58). He is our Eternal Bread.

Copyright 2010 Gloria Fisher.

All rights reserved.

Eternal Bread - Part 2

The dream I had about communion was dreamed on March 14, 2007, and it still lives in me. Some dreams are like that. You may walk around in them for years. Since dreams happen in the soul which is ageless and timeless our dreams are also ageless and timeless. They don’t stop after we dream them. They are still alive somewhere in our unconscious. Some we remember easily. Others we don’t. And some keep speaking to us. My dream about communion is one of those dreams that is still speaking to me two years later.

In the dream I was at my Mother’s church, Grace United Methodist Church, and someone said that we were going to have communion. Then I noticed that we were all seated at a long table. Everyone in the church sat at one extremely long table. I was on the left hand of the person at the head of the table, whom I don’t remember. Communion began. A piece of fish was handed to me. I was suppose to take a piece off of the fish and pass it down. People on the other side of the table were doing the same. I looked down at the fish and thought, "This is not how I’m used to doing communion. This is different."

But I pinched off a piece of fish and passed the rest down. The whole piece of fish was about three inches square...small fish. Then I ate my piece. Then the person handed me the bread. It looked like the bottom half of a flat biscuit, about 3 inches in diameter. I pinched off a piece of the bread and passed the rest down. Then I ate the bread. There was no wine, only fish and bread. And I looked down the table, and I couldn’t see the end of the table. It went on forever. But the fish and the bread never ran out.

The dream, I believe, was telling me that God’s provision never runs out, that He is always feeding me, all parts of me, as represented by all the people at the table. But it is more than that. Because this dream is a numinous dream (a dream that is filled with a sense of the presence of divinity) it is about more than just me. It is about all believers. It is also significant that I was at a church called Grace which to me means that I (and all believers) am feasting on God’s grace that never runs out. I thank God for this dream. It comforts me and fortifies my soul and spirit with the assurance of His eternal provision for all of us.

Copyright 2010 Gloria Fisher.

All rights reserved.

Eternal Bread - Part 1

A couple of years ago I had a dream about communion. In trying to understand the dream I began to study what Jesus said about himself being the bread of life. One of the things I learned during this process is that there is a connection between the Last Supper and the fish & bread for the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. As I focused on the bread in both instances I found that Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it out. In the blessing, in the breaking, and in the giving out the bread multiplied and fed more than was naturally possible.

In the feeding of the 5,000 in the gospels of Mark, Luke, and John and in the feeding of the 4,000 in the gospel of Matthew, the bread went as far as it was needed and was stopped only by the taking up of the leftovers. We can assume that if there had been 12,000 people there, then the bread would have fed 12,000 or 20,000 or however many there were. But in these instances the flow of the bread was stopped, gathered, and counted at the end of the meal. If the bread had not been stopped, it would have doubtless kept on feeding. And why was there food left over? Because God is a "too-much" God!

The same is so with the Last Supper. The bread that Jesus blessed, broke, and gave out in the upper room is still being passed out and is still feeding untold millions of believers today. In fact Paul says believers will eat it until He (Jesus) comes! (1 Corinthians 11:23-25) It is endless bread. It is abundant bread. It is "more-than-enough" bread. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will not hunger..." How much bread will it take for you not to ever be hungry again? And not only you, but all Christians everywhere who will ever live after the Resurrection? More bread than we can count. Endless bread. Eternal bread.

Copyright 2010 Gloria Fisher.

All rights reserved.