Jesus took the bread, broke it, and gave it

Tuesday, 1/5/16

This miracle of feeding five thousand with five loaves is the only story that appears in all four Gospels.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each tell us about Jesus taking the bread, breaking it, and giving it. They each used the same three verbs for telling us what Jesus did with the bread. Each of the four, using the same three verbs, tell us that Jesus, took, broke, and gave the bread,

The reason for their being in agreement might have been that in that first century, the one presiding at the Eucharist every Sunday always said it that way: saying that Jesus took the bread, broke it, and gave it.

We haven’t many records of Christians coming together for the Eucharist in that first century. In Chapter Eleven of his first Letter to the Corinthians St. Paul chided the Christians for not worthily celebrating the Lord’s Supper.

Then too, the Christian communities had a handbook that told them, “When you come together on the Lord’s Day begin by confessing your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure.”

When we take part in the Eucharist, it is grand to realize that this has been done billions of times, always recalling that Jesus took, broke, and gave the bread.