Hill of the Lord Blog
I’ve been thinking about bread and wine lately. The church I attend here in Toulouse takes communion every Sunday, so I’m not surprised that it has been on my mind. What has been striking me most each week is the remaining bread and the leftover wine. Why don’t we finish all the bread, and why don’t we drink all of the wine. Well aside from it being weird to see someone scarf down a whole loaf of bread, and that it would be not proper to be buzzed or drunk at church, I see these remaining elements of communion and I realize that there are so many others who have yet to partake in the bread and wine, so many others who need to have their thirst and hunger satisfied. So many others. But in light of this perhaps daunting thought, I am comforted as well, realizing that there is still more to eat and more to drink. That Christ on the cross is enough for all to be filled. Christ’s love is abundantly more than enough to satisfy each and every one of us. There are so many more who need to be filled but even more left for them to partake in.
Christ was the bread and the wine. He was broken like the bread for our sins that we could experience God’s love and that we would be satisfied by it. He was poured out like wine that our emptiness would be filled and we could find reconciliation and healing.
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
MATTHEW 26: 26-28
Among other things serving directly in ministry God has been showing me more and more our hearts must be broken for the lost. As Christians we are called to be like Christ (duh). The love of Christ vanquished death on the cross. We are called to take up our cross daily. As we do this the Holy Spirit can work through us to continue to vanquish the symptoms and signs of death that linger, yes for us, but more importantly for those around us. Our hearts must be broken to the point of not only feeling sorry for those in need, but our hearts must move us to action, to, like Christ, place the burdens of others upon the Cross. I pray that we would not close our eyes, that our hearts would not harden. I pray that we could not ignore the pain of loss in those around us. Let us feel the pain and moreover respond with the clear salvation that is already in our care.
This idea can be extended if we also look at the heavy references in the Bible to the harvest field and the vineyard. Christ was bread and wine. So maybe we are grain and grape striving to fulfill our greater purposes, to become as well bread and wine like Jesus. Specifically looking at John 15, about the vine and the branches one can see so much meaning in the details. For me one of the greatest of these is in verse one of chapter fifteen. However it is best in French…
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.”
1 “Je suis le vrai cep, et mon Père est le vigneron.”
John 15:1 & Jean 15:1
In English we have a gardner, but in French the word is vigneron, literally one who tends to the vines. So going off of the French version God’s role in my life is magnified looking at the depth of this symbolism. A gardner tends to many things and even can be an amateur. You and I wouldn’t hesitate to call ourselves gardeners if we had some dirt in our backyard with a few plants. But a vigneron is without doubt a professional. His sole purpose is to tend to the vine, and ultimately to have it bear much fruit. He is a master at his art of guiding the vine, pruning and trimming, and ultimately picking the fruit. I imagine his greatest joy is savoring the wine that comes from the fruit. Seeing his work literally come to fruition and fulfill its purpose. Reading John 15 in its entirety can be quite illuminating.
Ultimately bread and wine serve as symbols to remind us and focus us upon the cross. But, the physical taste of the bread and wine of communion are fleeting, while the heart behind them, their significance, the love of Christ, is eternal, permanent, everlasting. This sensation in our souls, unlike the one our taste buds, cannot and must not part from us. All the same we must strive to not take that which is always present for granted. The love of Christ remains fresh and powerful, but it is our vision and understanding of this that becomes stale. We essentially create an idol, a pitiful imitation of God, of Christ, and of His love. This is what is stale, that which is fleeting, and does not satisfy our hunger. We must find again the true meal, the true source of love, and cast down our idols.
In Christ there is abundance for us to experience love beyond measure. This love is not simply infinite and overflowing that we will always be satisfied, but also so that we can always pour this upon others equal to the amount we have received. Take communion remembering the cross, and forgiveness, but also seeing those who remain, who know not yet true love. And having seen them be moved by the Holy Spirit to act in love. The time is now. Be moved in urgency and confidence in what the Lord has, is, and will do in and through you.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
-John 15:9-13
He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. -Luke 10:2
Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. -John 4:35
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - 6:2
