Why Break Bread?

Though he gives us more of what Jesus said in the Upper Room on that final night of Jesus’ earthly life, the author of the fourth gospel tells us none of the details about the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Perhaps he was both aware of and comfortable with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul’s versions of that most important event.

But if our answer to “Why break bread?” involves who invites us to this Table, rather than where this sacrament comes from, then the fourth gospel is rich with words that vividly describe our Host in terms that leave us filled with awe at the mystery of “the Word” that was in the beginning, was with God, and was God, and became flesh and dwelt among us.

Listen with me to the “beloved disciple’s” reminders as to the nature and character of our Host around this table.

John 6:35, 51: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

. . . I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

John 8:12: Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

John 10:7, 9: So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. . . . I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”

John 11:25, 26: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

John 14:6: “Jesus said to them, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 15:1, 5: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower . . . . I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 18:37: Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 

In addition to these “I AM” statements, there are a number of stand-alone “I AM” statements, that is, statements without a predicate as found in the texts already read. The outraged response of those who heard Jesus say these kinds of things suggest much about their implications. In John 8:58, 59, for example: “Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I AM.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

As Larry Hurtado suggested in his book, Lord Jesus Christ, “this absolute use of ‘I am’ in the Gospels amounts to nothing less than designating Jesus with the same special referential formula that is used in the Greek Old Testament for God’s own self-declaration.” (371)

When one considers these “I am” statements we have read, all having predicates, as well as the “I am” statements used in the fourth gospel without a predicate, we can only conclude that the fourth gospel tells us of a Jesus who is unique and utterly superior in status and significance.

It is that Jesus, the great I AM, who invites us to come and break bread.  

As The Book of Common Prayer reminds us, “you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen.”