Opus 2015-428: Bread

Historically bread was a primary food, a staple.  When there was nothing else, there was bread of some kind.  Every culture had some kind of bread:  tortillas, pita, bagels, biscuits, saltines, won-ton, and the list goes on.  Only in modern times has our wealth and plenty made it an accompaniment to other foods, almost a condiment.  Only in modern health food culture does it become the enemy because of carbohydrates and gluten. We take it for granted.

I came across a statement that gives an idea of the place that bread played as late at the French Revolution.  In France, 1789, “Bread constituted three-fourths of an ordinary person’s diet and cost one-third to one-half of his or her income.”1

Forget the potatoes.  Don’t even dream about meat.  Hope you can get enough bread.

One Sunday the congregation was reciting the Lord’s Prayer together and we came to the line that says,

(Matthew 6:11 KJV)  Give us this day our daily bread.

That got me to thinking about communion and its reference to bread.

(1 Corinthians 11:23 KJV)  ...That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

We do not understand the historical importance that this is declaring.  Not only is Jesus to be a daily part of our lives but He is to be thought of as our primary sustenance.  This is the context of His reminder.

(John 6:48 KJV)  I am that bread of life.

If you are a Christian you are to take communion.  When you do, you are to remember the sacrifice Jesus made.  You are to remember that He died for your sins.  You are also to be reminded that He is to be at the core of your nutritional needs, not a condiment.

1Massie, Robert K.  Catherine the Great.  New York:  Random House, 2011, page 534.

homo unius libri