“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.
