Exploring the New Covenant: Christ and Communion

Read the events following the feeding of the five thousand: John 6:22-59.

These passages are pregnant with meaning and essential wisdom for everyone who calls themself a Christian and lives as a disciple of Christ.

What can we learn?

We do not have Jewish eyes; Jesus did. Bread is significant to Jewish culture. It represents life, divine sustenance, and community. Bread, as a daily staple, reminds us of God’s provision and His presence.

“Manna” was not a fading memory.

Bread is Significant:

Bread is a gift from God. The Jewish tradition of blessing the bread before the meal is called Hamotzi, and it recognizes that God is not only our Provider but also the Sustainer of Life. Here’s a bird’s-eye view of why bread was so significant in Jewish traditions.

• Challa represents the double portion of manna given to the Jews in the desert. A reminder of God’s blessing in the home.
• They ate this unleavened bread on Passover to remember their exodus from Egypt. They didn’t have time to let the bread rise, so they carried unleavened bread. This bread symbolizes freedom, humility, and the removal of pride (leaven).
• The priests prepared twelve unleavened loaves, known as showbread or the “Bread of the Presence,” and placed them in the temple weekly. Then the priests ate the bread after they replaced the loaves. So, bringing the “presence” into their body.

And you shall set the Bread of the Presence on the table before Me regularly. Ex 25:30 CSB.

Jesus, the Bread of God’s Presence

Three times, Jesus told them that He was the Bread of Life. In response, they pleaded for bread, grumbled because He didn’t do what they wanted, and then argued among themselves.

Even the Jews didn’t get it.

We do well to prayerfully and carefully listen to what Jesus said about this Bread of Life. We have the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see and clear our ears to hear.

He is the Showbread.

Remember, Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread, but Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt 4:3-4).

Jesus is the Word who became flesh and dwells among us. He is the “showbread” – the presence of God.

He is the Word

In the Lord’s Prayer, Christ taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread (Matt 5:11).

If Jesus is the Word, the Showbread, and the Bread of life, then maybe He is our “daily bread” we so badly need. More than physical provision, it’s spiritual.

As we read sacred Scripture, let us remember that His presence is with us, sustaining us with God’s breath. Our loyalty and love should be so ingrained in our habits, like our daily meals, that we partake of them with a grateful heart every day.

Without the Bread of Life, we are weak from hunger and thirst.

He is the bread of life

Just in case you missed it, Jesus reinforces the fact that He is the Bread of Life:

• The true bread from heaven (6:32)
• The bread of God (6:33)
• The Bread of Life (6:35)
• The Bread which came down from heaven (6:41)

God’s Will

God perfects His sovereign will, sets His moral will in the soul, and secures His personal will in love. Yet we continue to seek His will as if we don’t know it. Jesus clearly reveals God’s will – His personal will.

For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:40 CSB.

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him on the last day.”

“It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me. John 6:45 CSB.

As clear as day, Jesus tells us that as the Bread of Life, we enter into a relationship with Him that includes the Father. Such a life is safe and sustained until the last day – the day of resurrection.

Without Jesus, there is no life – there is no resurrection. He tells us the truth: “He who believes has everlasting life. I am the Bread of Life.”

So, God’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

It’s The New Covenant!

We may not have Jewish eyes, but the Holy Spirit teaches us the truth. God’s will is that we enter into a new covenant with Him, and it begins with the Bread of Life.

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. Likewise, He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” Luke 22:19-20 NKJV.

Now, our eyes are open, and we see the truth. The Bread of Life brings the New Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant is no more, but the covenant is now based on grace and Jesus’s sacrificial love. It’s real.

The new covenant promised by God is now a reality. Christ fulfills the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant … But his is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” 31:31b & 33-35 NKJV.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Ez 36:25-27 NKJV.

Listen with open ears; see with clear eyes

It’s true that we do not have Jewish eyes, but we have a heart to know God because we’re in the days of the New Covenant. We have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us in the Living Word. We perceive how His will is fulfilled through so sweet a salvation.

Incline your ear and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant…Isa 55:3a CSB.

This everlasting covenant is the personal will of God for us. We need to believe, but there’s more to it than that. We must eat of the Bread of Life and drink to the New Covenant in remembrance of Him who is our resurrection and life.

A one-way covenant is no covenant at all.

Call to Action – Communion:

The truth is the truth.

Listen. Can you hear Him whisper in your soul, “I am the Bread of Life, believe in Me and live.

Take Communion (Eucharist) in your church with a grateful heart and enter into the new and everlasting covenant with the Holy. He who loves you with an everlasting love will sustain you until the day you see Him face-to-face.

… the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 1 Cor 11:23b-26 CSB.

Praise the Lord! The Bread of Life is the new covenant!

Amen!