Breaking Bread Together

“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Matthew 6:11 NKJV

Eating a meal together, celebrating a holiday with food these are familiar patterns of our lives. And they also were common experiences during the time of the early church. This idea of eating together most likely dates back to the first family. Once they were banished from the Garden of Eden, man and woman had to begin toiling for their food. But over the years and through God’s provision meals had special meaning. Passover was one the main meals from the Old Testament, which was particularly planned by God to remind the Israelites of their deliverance from death and slavery. And in God’s wonderful way of washing everything with eternity, it also foreshadowed how Jesus would come to save the world from its sin. Jesus would even celebrate Passover with his disciples just before his death, and teach them the deeper meaning of the meal.

Today we take communion in remembrance of the deliverance from death and slavery that Jesus accomplished for each one of us. Sometimes at a meal or holiday we try to recreate past celebrations of the same event with the same emotion and authenticity of previous years. And I think somehow we have lost the feeling of what was happening in the early church when they celebrated communion. Sometimes I wish I could have been around when the disciples broke bread together after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension.We can get a glimpse of how they celebrated in Acts 2:42-47.

Today as I read that familiar snippet of Scripture, I was marveling at the main result of their devotion to the teaching, fellowship, worship and breaking of bread together in remembrance of Jesus. The author summarizes with this revealing statement: “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” God was saving people on a daily basis, as a result of their living out their lives for Christ. Eating bread together and recounting what the bread and the wine signified was enough evidence for many to put their faith in the Savior. Oh, that we would break more bread together this year, and speak of the sustenance that the Lord Jesus provided through his body and blood. Praying “Give us this day our daily bread” can take on a richer, deeper meaning.

Dear Heavenly Father- Add to our number daily those who are being saved.