Breaking Bread

 “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭22‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.22.19.NIV

We like to focus on the symbolism of Jesus “breaking the bread” like His body was broken on the cross, to the point that some people treat it like a sort of shorthand: “He means his body. That's His body he’s breaking.”

And is it symbolic? Sure. But that's not what the phrase means. Far more important, I think, is the actual meaning of the phrase: He broke bread with his followers. That implies communion, right?

Duh. It's communion we’re talking about, Jonathan. 

But no, I mean fellowship. Communion. You know, hanging out. Chilling over a meal. 

Breaking bread. 

We risk thinking of the Lord’s Supper as high ritual when we elevate its chief component to a symbolic, semantic ideal—but the primary element in this story is about as low, as common, as a concept can be: the Word became human and pitched His tent in the middle of our camp. 

That's what the Lord’s Supper is about: God sharing a cup of soup with us. Us, His people, sharing a burger and fries together in His honor. It's nothing high and holy—rather, it's nothing high and holy except that it's God choosing to participate in the most mundane aspect of our common lives: sustaining our bodies with food. 

It's like the manna in the wilderness, right? God came to Moses high on the mountain in glory and power. But to His people, He came with the basic necessities they needed to live. He met them where they lived—not on a lonely mountain, but in the middle of their camp.

May we share our lives with God as He strives to share them with us. 

Esau Have I Hated

Malachi 1:2-5

Is this a strange assertion for God to make? He seems to be saying that He chose to favor Jacob and to curse Esau, doesn't He? Scary thought, this!
Paul brings this up in Romans chapter 9. He explains in verse 11-12: "Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, 'The older will serve the younger.'" Paul compares it to a potter. If a potter decides to make one lump of clay into a vase for the mantle, and another lump of clay into a chamber pot, how is the clay going to complain to the potter about what He made it to do?
Peter accuses Paul of writing things that can be hard to understand in his Second Letter, and whether he had this passage in mind when he wrote that or not, I've cetainly found the truth of that statement in this reference from Romans.

On the other hand, this is not a new concept Paul is interpreting. His quote is from Malachi, but he also quotes the prophet Hosea in verse 25:
"As he says in Hosea:
   "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;
      and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," and,
   "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
      'You are not my people,'
   they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "
and he goes on to quote from Isaiah in verses 26-29. Jesus is talking about Israel's rejection of its prophets in Luke 4:25-26 when He says, "I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon," but the idea is along similar lines. In the last half of Isaiah 6, God commands Isaiah to tell the people of Israel to ignore Him and harden their hearts, so they won't come to Him for healing.
This is the same God of Whom Paul speaks in I Timothy 2:4, "who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth," and of Whom Peter speaks in II Peter 3:9, "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." It's the same God Who said through His prophet Ezekiel in 33:11, "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live." This is the God that conceded in Hosea 11:8-9,
"How can I give you up, Ephraim?
       How can I hand you over, Israel?
       How can I treat you like Admah?
       How can I make you like Zeboiim?
       My heart is changed within me;
       all my compassion is aroused.
"I will not carry out my fierce anger,
       nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
       For I am God, and not man—
       the Holy One among you.
       I will not come in wrath."

In Isaiah 56:4-8, God declares:
"To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
       who choose what pleases me
       and hold fast to my covenant-
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
       a memorial and a name
       better than sons and daughters;
       I will give them an everlasting name
       that will not be cut off.
And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD
       to serve him,
       to love the name of the LORD,
       and to worship him,
       all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
       and who hold fast to my covenant-
these I will bring to my holy mountain
       and give them joy in my house of prayer.
       Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
       will be accepted on my altar;
       for my house will be called
       a house of prayer for all nations."
  The Sovereign LORD declares—
       he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
       "I will gather still others to them
       besides those already gathered."


This is YHWH God of the Old Testament, and the Holy Father of the New Testament. This is the God of Abraham and Isaac, and the God of Cephas and the sons of Zebedee. He said He chose Jacob and cursed Esau, but He also says that He wills not that any should perish, and that He does not delight in the death of the wicked man. (These are only a few of the myriad of verses from the Old and New Testaments that talk about God's grace!)
This is God, the Righteous One.
If we accept that everything God says is true, and I do, then we have to reconcile these statements, even though they appear at first glance to contradict each other. How can God wish for all men to be saved, and wait patiently for all men to come to know the truth, if He creates some men to be saved and others to be damned?
One of my favorite stories of all time is the story of the centurion in Luke 7. Suffice it to say that he is dedicated, and that he trusts in Jesus' ability to save his servant--but my very most favorite part of the story is this verse:
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel."
Even now, when I read this verse, my eyes can't help but tear up. How amazing is it that a man, and a Gentile at that, could amaze the Son of God? Jesus was impressed by this Gentile, and He honored him for his faith.
God's election, I say to you, is not an election of Jewish people, nor of dark-skinned people. In Romans 2:28-29, Paul says, "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code." Rather, God knows who loves Him. He knows who will love Him. His election is of those that love God, and it's an election only He could make, because only He knows. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts," God says in Isaiah 55:9. God knows a lot more than we do, and He knows a lot more than we give Him credit for--even on our good days!
This is God we're talking about. This is not a judge, nor a congressman, nor a president, nor even a king. This is the God Outside of Time, Who sees all things and knows the hearts of men, and He's the One Who is performing the election we're discussing. He is the only one that could.

If I tell you, "I love my son Jacob, but I hate my son Esau. I'm going to do everything I can to help Jacob do well, but I'm going to hold Esau back and do everything I can to mess up his life," then you can go report it to Child Services, because that makes me a bad father. CPS agents would come and investigate me and find out that I really am a bad father, and then they would try to protect poor Jacob and Esau from my bad influence.
If God says to us, "I love Jacob, but I hate Esau, and I've cursed Esau and his family, and I'm going to keep them from getting their land back," then we might also be tempted to assume that God is a bad father. But when the CPS agents start investigating our call, they're going to find what we already know: God is not a bad father. He's proved it in many ways.
Think about God's statement, and compare it to the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11. The father in this story gave his son his share of the estate, as he requested. The son's request was brazen and stupid, and anyone that hears the story know it, but the father doesn't say anything about it--he just gives the son what he asks.
Is the father in this story a bad father?
We could certainly argue that he should have denied the son's request--it was certainly his right. He certainly knew that his son would squander the money. Still, he gave the foolish son what he wanted.
Esau had the same chance this son had. It's the chance God gives to all of us: the chance to do whatever we want with His gifts, which He gives to us. Esau may not have been a bad guy, but when the children of Jacob came wandering through the wilderness and needed to walk through the land that belonged to Esau's children, (in Numbers 20) Esau's children refused to help their cousins, and said so with a large army.
I don't know much about Esau, but I do know that this is the kind of children Esau raised: children that forsake their relatives and that refuse hospitality to wanderers in the desert. We could make excuses for them, but this is still true: they should have helped their blood-relations, and they did not. (Bear in mind that God commanded the Israelites not to abuse foreigners among them in Exodus 22:21 and 23:9)
God allowed Esau to make his own choices. Esau chose poorly. For those choices, God cursed Esau and his descendants. God did not enjoy the death of wicked Edomites, but He didn't allow their wickedness to continue.
God allowed Jacob to make his own choices. Jacob did stupid things, but he did try to follow God. For this, God blessed Him. Just as Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, (Genesis 15:6; See also Romans 4:3) Jacob's faith was rewarded, and that of his sons.

What then? God loves the man that puts his faith in Him, but He hates the sinful man that refuses to repent. He knows our hearts, He is wise and knows all things. Who among men can know the heart of a man except the spirit within the man? But God knows.

In Romans, Paul follows his scary statement by advising his readers to humility, and to thankfulness for God's grace. In Malachi, the prophet uses the statement as the foundation for God's relationship with his readers: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty." (1:6)
So then, if we do believe in God's grace and do acknowledge Him as a Father and as a Lord, let us strive to honor Him in our lives!

Malachi's Opening

"A beginning," said the Princess Irulan Corrino in Frank Herbert's Dune, "is a very delicate time"; and it's a point never so valid as in the opening of a sermon. True?

"How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not save?"
--Habakkuk 1:2

"Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: 'I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.'"
--Isaiah 1:2

"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe."
--Hebrews 1:1-2

These are the kinds of openings that make you say, "Wow! Let's see what this guy has to say--it sounds good!"

Malachi has this kind of opening. Malachi's opening line is: "'I have loved you,' says the Lord." I don't know about you, but I already like the way this sermon is going. :)
Naturally, this provokes a response, and Malachi anticipates the reader's question: "Lord, how have You loved us?"

You might think this question impertinent on the surface, but think about it for a moment. It's great when I tell my wife that I love her, and it's definitely something I should do, from time to time. However, she being a girl, just my telling her that I love her isn't enough to convince her--I also have to prove it to her.
Girls are funny like that.
So I might say to my wife, "Wife, I love you. Here, I brought you flowers"; or, "Wife, you are dearest to my heart. See, I got you a new book"; or, more often, "Wife, love of my life, I love you madly. See, I've put away the dishes from the dishwasher."
These demonstrations are quantifiable things to which I can point, and say, "See here? I love you," and they're necessary in a relationship.
Would it be fair of God for Him to expect our relationship with Him to be any different? (You may notice the application of the same rule to our role in the relationship, but we'll leave that for now...) God doesn't think so, and He offers illustrations to prove it.

"Wasn't Esau Jacob's brother?" The male Jews in the room are all thinking, "... Older brother." "Yet," God says, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."
This is pertinent (to us), remember, because we're Jacob's (spiritual) descendants, not Esau's, and therefore beneficiaries, of Jacob. Not of Esau. Jacob's estate is our inheritance.
So God says, "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. See? I cursed Esau. And now, even if Esau's heirs try to recover from My curse, I'll just knock them down again."
The obvious point the readers were getting, of course, was that God did not continue to oppress Jacob's heirs; in fact, they had rebuilt Jerusalem pretty nicely after the Chaldeans destroyed it, and they were living there now. The Edomites were not so blessed.
It's a roundabout way of saying it, but essentially, God is saying, "I do love you. I know I've let some bad things happen to you, but I've also given you the opportunity to rebuild. Take a look at your cousin Edom. He's not so lucky as you, because he doesn't have Me looking out for him."

Get this: Malachi begins his sermon with the God of Heaven proving His love for His people. Isn't that great? Doesn't that make you want to hear what else he has to say?

Wouldn't it be cool if I could live my life in such a way that when people saw me, they had proof of God's love, right in front of them? If they saw me and said, "Wow! Let's find out what else God has to say--with an opening like this, it must be good!"

One of my favorite verses in Ephesians is 2:10, where Paul says that God creates us in Jesus to do good works, which He created for us to do. God has plans for us, and it doesn't involve us sitting back and waiting for our riches in Heaven to accrue interest! Rather, it involves us doing good--doing good things that God tailor-made for us to do!

God intends to prove His goodness to people around me, through me. That is a high and noble calling, brothers and sisters, and it's one He'd love to give us. All He asks us to do is listen and obey.

The Curse of Shimei

II Sam. 16:5-14

This passage has always struck me. David is fleeing from his home, threatened and shamed by his own son. The Israelites, his people, have chosen to side with Absalom. He's just learned that Mephibosheth, whom he treated like a son, has gone to Jerusalem, hoping to claim David's kingdom as his own. David and his entourage are tired after a long day of walking and mourning.
If it were you and I, we'd be pushing our car into a small-town gas station after we'd lost our house and our dog had run away with the tax collector. It's the kind of day when you just have to say, "What else can happen today?"
Enter Shimei, relative of Saul. Shimei comes out of the town and starts throwing rocks at David and his men.
Most translations say he throws rocks at "David and his servants" or "David and his officials", and then go on to say that David's "troops" or "mighty men" were on his right and his left... I have to wonder if that's a distinction, because it seems to me that if Shimei had any sense, he would avoid pelting the armed soldiers with rocks... you never know when Abishai's spear was going to fly. I Chronicles says that Abishai once killed three hundred men with his spear, and this time he's itching to add Shimei to his list of kills. "Let me go over and cut off his head!"
Have you ever seen or read Shogun, by James Clavell? The miniseries had Richard Chamberlain as Pilot Blackthorne. Both were excellent. Anyway, there's this one scene where one of Governor Yabu's samurai chop off a peasant's head because he doesn't bow quickly enough. Blackthorne is appalled at the barbarism he perceives in it.
This is no such occasion! Not only is Shimei refusing to bow to the king, not only is he hurling insults at the king--oh, no; that might be cause for sending the Secret Service agents to arrest this man. But this guy is actually, literally, throwing rocks at the king of Israel.
Hey, I don't know about about you, but I'm totally with Abishai here. As if Absalom taking Jerusalem weren't enough for one day, now you expect us to put up with this? I don't think so! It's time for some chop-chop action here.

But David said, "What do you and I have in common, you sons of Zeruiah?" I find this a shocking response, considering Shimei's accusation that David is a bloodthirsty savage... (And for that matter, who in his right mind comes out of his city and calls the commander of an army a bloodthirsty pig, and then throws rocks at him? Shimei is just asking to get his head taken off.)

As an aside, if you recognize this turn of phrase in verse 10 from Jesus' conversation with his mother at the wedding in John 2:4, ("What have I to do with you, woman?") take 10 points now! Other than the plural here, the Septuagint translation of this Hebrewism is word-for-word identical to its construction in John. If you like to look at Greek, see here for the LXX and here for the book of John.

Do you think Shimei was expecting to get killed? If he was, he was in for a shock--but he shouldn't have been. Certainly you remember David's attitude in I Samuel 24, and again in chapter 26, when he stands inside the tent where King Saul is sleeping, as Saul is coming to hunt and kill him. Back then, David said, "The Lord Himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand against the Lord's anointed!" Guess who was with David that time? :)
So it certainly didn't surprise David's sidekick Abishai when David told him, "Hey! Haven't we had this conversation before?" (Watch Abishai roll his eyes here.) "Who knows? Maybe God sent this guy here to throw rocks at me--He's certainly had it in for me so far today. And if God wants him to throw rocks at me, then I'm not going to be the one to stop him. Maybe God will pay attention and remember my contrition the next time He decides what kind of day to give me."
Can't you just see Abishai grumbling as he adjusts his helmet? "You're the boss, David, but if one little rock hits my head, that guy is toast."

Isn't David's attitude funny?
Isn't David's attitude right?

Who am I, after all, to strike back against ridicule and scorn? Jesus tells us that when someone strikes us on the cheek (pretty insulting, wouldn't you say? I'd be offended!), we should turn the other cheek and let them hit us there, too. It's not about whether they're right to insult us or whether we deserve to be insulted. Rather, Jesus is assuming that we didn't do a thing to provoke the insult.
Not only did David prevent Abishai from killing Shimei--he didn't even let his men stop Shimei from throwing rocks!
Abishai said, "Saul's trying to kill you, David, but God has given you the chance to live and to kill him first."
David said, "If God wants Saul dead, He'll take care of it--not me."
Abishai said, "Who does this man think he's insulting? Let me defend your honor and stop him."
David said, "Leave him alone. If anyone will vindicate me, it will be God."
Trust. David has trust in God, that God will do the right thing. He has such trust in God to do the right thing, that even when his friends tell him that God has given him the chance to do it himself, he declines.
In our wisdom, we call that foolishness. We tell jokes about people that don't take advantage of the opportunities that God sends them. We make up adages about how much God respects those that help themselves.

Seizing the day is fine. There's nothing wrong with making the most of a God-given opportunity, and being thankful for it. But we would also do well to remember the attitude of a man whom God respected as having the right kind of heart. David considered himself unworthy to take matters into his own hands, and he trusted that God would not fail him.
May we ever share in that same trust!

The New Man

Col 3:8-12

The progression between verses 8 and 12 is interesting:
in verse 8, we put off anger; in verse 12, we put on compassion.
in verse 8, we put off wrath; in verse 12, we put on kindness
in verse 8, we put off malice; in verse 12, we put on lowliness.
in verse 8, we put off railing; in verse 12, we put on meekness.
in verse 8, we put off shameful speaking; in verse 12, we put on longsuffering.

When someone wrongs him, a sinner becomes angry; a saint shows compassion.
When someone slights him, a sinner is provoked to wrath; a saint shows kindliness.
When someone acts against him, a sinner shows malice; a saint shows lowliness.
When someone does something stupid, a sinner rails against him; a saint displays meekness.
When something bad happens to him, a sinner speaks shameful words; a saint practices longsuffering.

Most of us are tempted to anger, wrath, malice, railing, or shameful speaking—most of the world condones, or even respects, these things.
Consider the television: who is exalted? Sitcoms, dramas, talk shows—who do people watch and look up to? Who does our fiction extol and portray as our role models? Is it not the people that get angry and do something against those that wrong them? Isn't it the people that get away with getting back at those that wrong them? Is it not the people that mock and abuse the people that wrong them? Is it not the people that curse those that wrong them?
If this is the case, then why shouldn't we expect to be tempted to react in these ways? Why shouldn't these reactions be 'natural' for us?
However, that which is natural is not necessarily desirable, and for us that desire to be Christians, these 'natural' things are not. Paul says we are to put off this 'natural' behavior and put on the opposite reactions. Instead of getting angry at our antagonist, we show concern for them. Instead of acting out of rage, we show kindness. Instead of doing something to harm them, we consider their feelings and their needs above our own. Instead of mocking or cursing or abusing them, we answer peacefully and suffer indignation and wrongs in silence.
And why would we do this? We do it not to increase our own righteousness—we do it not to preserve our sainthood; we do it not to keep ourselves holy.
We do no good thing for our own exaltation, or purity, or righteousness—we cannot. We give up the right to be holy when we become Christians; instead, we are purified. We are cleansed. We are sanctified. It's not of ourselves that we exhibit righteousness, so it can't be for ourselves that we show it...
If we do show righteousness, it is the righteousness of God. We show it by Him, for Him, to Him... He has become everything good to us and for us, and we must reciprocate or wither and die. But then, if we are showing our goodness to God and for God, then it is for God we show it, and not for men or for ourselves.

Service and Revelation

Mk 13:7-8

To whom does God choose to reveal His will? Why did He tell Simeon and Anna that they would see the Messiah, and not Caiaphas or Herod? Why not Nicodemus?
Why did God reveal to the magi the meaning of the star? Why not to the chief priests?

Why does God choose one person over another, to whom to reveal His intentions?

Who am I to say that God has not revealed His word in greater fulness to Ellen White or Joseph Smith or Billy Graham? All I can do is test the words they say and watch the actions they perform, those outward manifestations of the inner person. If the man is a philanderer and a charlatan, do not his works speak for themselves? If the man is a godly man that strives to serve Christ, then do not his actions also speak?
It's up to his master, whether a servant rises or falls. Who am I to judge the servant of another? I can choose to follow a man or not, to heed his words and teachings or not, but I cannot choose to condemn him or not; I cannot judge him true or false. It's not my job, not my responsibility, and not my prerogative.
It is my job to listen to the Word of God. It is my job to seek out God's will in my life. It is my responsibility to strive to show the Word of God in my life to others—this is what Jesus says: “Let your light so shine before men that they might see your works, and give praise to the Father in Heaven.” “If you confess My Name before men, then I will confess your name before My Father in Heaven.”
And others, when they see me, can only judge me by my own actions. They cannot see whether my heart serves in contrition or in contempt; they can't know whether I seek the praise of God or the praise of men. All they can judge are the things I do.
What am I telling people about my message in the things I do? Am I telling people that I am a faithful servant of God, trying to do His will? Or am I telling people that the Word of God in my life is a fraud?
God forbid!

Growth

2 Pet 3:17-18

Why should growth be important to us in our spiritual lives? What difference does it make if we get wiser, more faithful, more able to walk according to our calling?

Who cares?

Growth is life. Have you ever seen the rings of a tree? A tree keeps adding rings, every year it stays alive. The tree only stops adding rings when it dies.
We are not different than the trees. Our lives, our experiences, our knowledge becomes fuller with each year that passes. Our memories grow longer, every day of our lives. Our hearts accumulate more and more life with each new day.
This process is not something we can change—we can't stop it, because we can't help it. It's the way of life.
However, it is up to us, the things we allow to grow in our hearts and our minds. We can choose to devote our lives to earthly pursuits—noble pursuits, maybe, but fleshy ones, nonetheless. We can seek after scientific knowledge, business knowledge, sports prowess, crafting skill. We can seek all these things; God has given it to us to seek after all these things.
However, we mustn't neglect to seek after other things, too: things like faithfulness, goodness, kindness, prayer. Knowledge of God. We can try to become better in these things, or we can ignore them and let them fall by the wayside.
We're always growing in something. Wouldn't you rather be growing in godliness?