journey onWord with us

The Bread of Life would soon be broken for them (and us). In a deeply purposed meal early after sundown in His today, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, “Take, eat; this is My Body.” (Matthew 26:26b NKJV) That literal bread wasn’t meant to satisfy a hunger, but the Who it represented surely does. That literal bread was given to be a central element in a sacred remembering that invited all people to a table that previously belonged only to God’s chosen people—a people He miraculously delivered from brutal bondage and commanded them and their descendants to remember with the purposed meal Jesus celebrated with them that day.

I could say—and have said—a great deal more about those elements and that meal. But it’s what happened very near after that’s full and vivid in my mind’s eye as I write this year. The day that dawned at sunset would be the most bold and brutal in all of human history. Before the sun set again, the penalty and price of sin would be paid. Half of the plan of rescue and redemption would be complete. “It is finished.” Jesus cried. And, it was.

With all that lay before Him, Jesus chose something that had been at the center of a purposed pattern throughout His earthly life. He chose to go away quietly to be with his Father. At the begin of His purposed walk to the end, Jesus chose prayer. Now, I don’t know about you, but God is still working on my thirst for, and first choice of, prayer. I know I’m not where I used to be, but the words I heard someone speak just a day or so ago spoke the truth of my own heart too many times to count. “I don’t know what else to do. Do you think we should pray?”

For far lesser things I have gone to Jesus second or after all else failed. Jesus never failed in going to his Father first. With all that lay ahead, one might think, how could He not (question mark deliberately omitted). The brutality at the hands of men would be like nothing any other had endured. And that brutality would be nothing by comparison when the time came to become sin and willingly take it to the grave. Take a moment to pause and let that begin to wash over you. He became sin. The sin of all for all time.

The Bread of Life would soon be broken. His precious body and blood willingly offered up for our once and forever redemption and rescue. But first, prayer. May that be our pattern, also, in taking up our cross daily and following Him. But first, prayer.