WHY BREAD AND WINE ?
by Robert Brow (www.brow.on.ca)
Aurora, Ontario, April 2008
In Bible times bread and wine (safer than polluted
water) were the
diet of ordinary families. The cheapest bread was made from barley
(e.g. the five barley loaves the boy offered (John 6:9). It was rolled
out flat (like chapattis or pita bread), and usually served with a
small amount of fish for flavor (Luke 24:42 , John 21:9, and as in the
feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000). The bread was leavened (Matthew
13:33), and unleavened bread was mainly used in memory of the
Passover.
Wheat bread was a luxury (as in the choice flour, Genesis 18:6). New
wine came right out of the wine vat (on a hot day fermentation began
immediately) but the best wine (Luke 5:39) was kept in wine skins for
several years. Wine was always served at a wedding (John 2:3, 10). The
ceremonial serving of bread and wine goes back at least to the time of
Abraham. "King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was
priest of God Most High" (Genesis14:18). Bread and wine also expressed
the invitation of the Spirit to God's table. "Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed" (Proverbs 9:5).
These are some of the meanings suggested in the Bible. This is why the
Christian communion meal (called the Breaking of Bread, Acts 2:42, 46;
20:7) shares in the bread and wine (Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24,
Luke 22:19-20, 1 Corinthians 10:16, 11:23-26). Jesus used them to
express the idea of being welcomed to his family table and
reconciliation with one another. As instituted the day before his
crucifixion it was also a reminder of his cross and resurrection.
Robert Brow
browr@sympatico.ca
www.brow.on.ca
model theology home | essays
and articles | books
| sermons | letters
to surfers | comments