Breaking Bread and Making Peace
Breaking Bread and Making Peace
Leviticus 2-3
Bread doesn’t last long in our home. The Kiehns are bread fiends. We love bread. I can still remember the looks on my kids’ faces the first time I took them to Olive Garden and told them they served unlimited breadsticks. We took leftovers home that night because the bread filled them up before their meals came. Olive Garden’s breadsticks are one thing, but the homemade bread of the Park Baptist family is quite another. Over the years, I have often had the privilege of walking into my home and saying, “Kids, I have homemade bread from…” The bread rarely made it through the night. We have broken much Park Baptist bread together. Our family loves bread.
Something about breaking bread together brings people together. It has been said, “The fastest way to find common ground with an enemy is to break bread together.” When you say, “Let’s break bread together”, you are saying, “I want friendship.” “I want to get to know you.” Breaking bread as a sign of friendship and community begins in the book of Leviticus when, during the grain offering, the worshipper breaks bread to offer the firstfruits of the harvest to the Lord. It is the worshipper's way of saying, “I want friendship with God, and I want to give Him my best.” The modern church needs to recover the true meaning of breaking bread together, both with God and with one another. If we truly understand the meaning of breaking bread and apply it in our church, we will have healthy fellowship.
I want to highlight two things in today’s text that I want us to apply as a church: Breaking Bread and Making Peace.
Breaking Bread
Remember, Leviticus opens with the LORD speaking from the tent of meeting to lay out the way for Israel to enter into God’s presence. The book of Leviticus helps us answer the question of how sinful people can enter the presence of a Holy God. The first three offerings mentioned in Leviticus are called ascension offerings. Descriptions for the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the peace offering all include the repeated phrase, “a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” The offerings ascend to heaven as a pleasing aroma. We all know what it's like to walk into the house as the pleasing aroma of dinner hits our noses, or what it was like to get close to the door of Prater’s Bakery on opening day. The smell is a pleasing aroma.
Moses does not detail every aspect of the grain offering, but each element of the offering has meaning.
“When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it and bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense, and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the LORD’s food offerings.
“When you bring a grain offering baked in the oven as an offering, it shall be unleavened loaves of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers smeared with oil. And if your offering is a grain offering baked on a griddle, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mixed with oil. You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. And if your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. And you shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the LORD, and when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the LORD’s food offerings. Leviticus 2:1–10
Notice how, unlike the burnt offering in which everything was burned, only a portion of the grain offering is burned, and the remainder is an offering to the priests. The grain offering accompanied the burnt offering, which was intended for atonement of sins, and was a thanksgiving offering to the Lord for His forgiveness and acceptance.
The grain offering was the main source of income for the priests. It was their payment for their service to the Lord. The Apostle Paul uses the same analogy when he explains why the church should financially support their pastors and teachers.
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
1 Corinthians 9:13–14
Just as the priests shared in the grain offering, those who proclaim the Gospel should make their living by the Gospel. This has been God’s design from the beginning. The priests did not work the land; therefore, they were dependent on the generosity of the Israelites’ offerings to the Lord. If they didn’t offer sacrifices, the priests wouldn’t eat.
In addition, the worshipper would include oil and frankincense with his grain for the offering. The oil helped with combustion, and the costly spice of frankincense both added to the pleasing aroma and served as a sign that the worshipper was offering his best to the Lord. The grain offering was given as a memorial portion to the Lord as the worshippers remembered the Lord’s provision and His providential rule over all creation. It was their way of saying, “All I have is because of You because You are the Creator and Sustainer of life.”
The Israelite rituals helped them to remember God and what He had done for them. As New Testament Christians, we have similar rituals. Every Sunday, we give our firstfruits back to God in grateful response for what He has given us. In giving our resources back to Him, we are saying, “All I have is because of You because You are the Creator and Sustainer of life.” We acknowledge that all we have comes from His hand. When we withhold our offering, we functionally forget why we have what we have. We are acting like the pagan world who trusts in themselves and their efforts rather than God.
In the Old Testament, sacrifices were intended to set the people of Israel apart from the world. Today, our rituals are meant to do the same. We are called to be in the world, but not of the world. We gather and give every week as a reminder and testimony that we belong to God and live for Him and by His provision. The Lord makes this distinction by prohibiting leaven and honey in the grain offering,
“No grain offering that you bring to the LORD shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as a food offering to the LORD. As an offering of firstfruits you may bring them to the LORD, but they shall not be offered on the altar for a pleasing aroma. Leviticus 2:11–12
Because leaven and honey were commonly used in pagan sacrifices, the Lord prohibited them in the grain offering.
Leaven became a sign of evil. To offer grain without leaven or honey, the worshiper was committing himself to live a pure life unto the Lord. Jesus warned His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which was hypocrisy. They were outwardly righteous while having inward corruption and sinful desires. The rituals in Leviticus are not the most important thing. They are external symbols of that which should be in the heart. The grain offering did not include leaven or honey because this reminded Israel that they were called to be set apart for the Lord. Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 5,
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump,
as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven,
the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth. 1 Corinthians 5:6–8
The Israelites offered unleavened bread. Now we offer the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Besides the oil and frankincense, the worshipper added one more thing to his grain offering.
You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. Leviticus 2:13
Salt is a preservative and served as a symbol that God’s covenant with His people would be preserved forever. It could not be destroyed by fire or decay. Many scholars believe salt was also used in all the offerings because the meal following the sacrifice would include the use of salt. Regardless, every time the salt was thrown on the grain, the worshipper was making a statement: God’s covenant will last. He will not cast me out. I will be accepted by God on the basis of His covenant promises.
In the last section of the grain offering, Moses gives us a foreshadowing of God’s offering of firstfruits to us.
“If you offer a grain offering of firstfruits to the LORD, you shall offer for the grain offering of your firstfruits fresh ears, roasted with fire, crushed new grain. And you shall put oil on it and lay frankincense on it; it is a grain offering. And the priest shall burn as its memorial portion some of the crushed grain and some of the oil with all of its frankincense; it is a food offering to the LORD. Leviticus 2:14–16
I want to highlight the word “crushed”, which is repeated twice in this paragraph. The bread (or grain) was crushed as an offering to the Lord, and thousands of years later, God would send His offering to the world: the bread of life to be crushed for us.
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6:32–35;47–51
As one writer notes, “As the grain was bruised and crushed to make the sacrifice for the ancient Israelite, so the living Bread was bruised and crushed for all who would believe.”
Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life who was crushed for our iniquity. His body was the bread that was broken so that we could have life. God’s eternal covenant, symbolized by salt, is preserved forever through the Bread of Life who was broken for us. If you are a non-Christian, this is the most important part of the sermon for you. Jesus said, “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” What does he mean? To eat of the bread of life is to believe He is the Bread of Life, and if you choose to believe, you must believe it all. You believe that Jesus was sent from heaven, that He was crushed for sinners, and that He was raised on the third day. To eat of the Bread of Life is to fully and completely trust Him as your Savior.
A loaf of bread doesn’t do anything for us unless it is broken and shared. You can stare at the bread, you can even smell the bread, but unless you break and eat the bread, you remain hungry. Friend, the Bible says you are a sinner and need a Savior. You must repent and believe. You must realize your works will not save you on the Day of Judgment. Someone must be crushed for your sin. It will either be you or it will be Jesus for you. God has made a way for sinners. Jesus is the Bread of Life, sent from heaven to be broken for you. “If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” “Anyone” truly means anyone. Everyone has hope if they believe in Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life. Anyone can come. All kinds of sinners, and any sinner who eats this bread will live forever. As the great hymn of the faith says,
Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives
Friend, trust in Jesus Christ. Believe and live forever.
Church, Jesus was bread broken for you. The moment you believed is the most important part of your life. He was broken for you. Salt was added to the grain offering as a sign of remembrance that God’s promise stands. Beloved, God’s promise stands. He will never leave you or forsake you. As you feed on Him by faith, you are forgiven. Your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. You are safe in the Father’s hands and no one can snatch you out.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24
By His broken body, we are healed, and when we feast on the broken bread, we remember. On the night Jesus was betrayed, Jesus ate with His disciples,
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19
Jesus took bread and broke it. He gave a visual picture of what was about to happen to Him, so we continue to break the bread and feast on the Lord by faith.
If you are struggling in your walk with the Lord, you need to remember what God has done for you. You need to remember that anyone who eats the bread of Christ will live forever. You are not saved by what you do. You are saved by Christ. Come to the light. Rejoice that even the vilest offender, who truly believes, that moment, from Jesus a pardon receives. And not only receives in that moment, but in that moment and for every moment after. If you believe, you are safe. If you have drifted from your Savior, come back today.
We need to recover what it means to break bread with one another. Luke describes the life of the early church in Acts 2,
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:42–47
They were devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the breaking of bread with one another: doctrine and life. We must commit ourselves to the truth of the Scriptures, and we must commit ourselves to one another. One way we commit ourselves to one another is by breaking bread in each other's homes.
I am always looking for cracks in our Gospel culture at Park. We want to be a church that both believes the Gospel and lives the Gospel. Cracks may form when we believe things that are untrue, or they may form when we do not live out what we believe. This week, as I have been meditating on this passage, four different people have said something to the effect of, “I am rarely invited to break bread in people’s homes.” I believe we are a welcoming church and a hospitable people. Now, I believe we love each other and that God is doing a great work in building community among us. But comments like that are signs of cracks in our foundation.
The early church devoted themselves to the breaking of bread in people’s homes. I firmly believe, at least in part, that the power of the early church was in the breaking of bread with one another. It wasn’t just the breaking of bread; it was the breaking of bread with one another and the community and friendship and love that resulted from the breaking of bread with one another. The breaking of bread is one way the bond of friendship will not be broken. Tim Chester wrote,
Food is a central ingredient in the Christian life, shaping our mission, our community, and our joy in Christ.
Another theologian once said,
The table is the place of intimacy. Around the table, we discover each other’s joys and struggles, and in the breaking of bread, we become one.
Breaking bread together is how we build deep friendships and strong community as we share our joys and sorrows around the table.
Many people in our congregation do a masterful job of inviting people into their homes and sharing life together. I am so grateful for these saints. But we all need to do our part in breaking bread together because breaking bread paves the way to making peace.
Making Peace
Leviticus 3 contains instructions about the peace offering, and it sounds very similar to the burnt offering described in chapter one. The worshipper is to take an unblemished animal and bring it to the tent of meeting. Then he is to press his hand on its head and slaughter it for the Lord. This is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Although they sound similar, there are several important differences. First, the peace offering could be a male or a female from the herd. Second, the whole peace offering was not consumed by the fire. The fat, which was viewed as the best part of the animal to be offered to the Lord, was the only part that was burned. The third, and probably most important, difference was that the worshipper and the priests were allowed to partake in some of the food. The peace offering was a communal meal between the worshipper, the priest, and the LORD.
It is important to note that the peace offering always followed the burnt offering because one could not have peace and fellowship with God until his sins were atoned for. Only after sins were atoned for with the burnt offering could the fellowship meal of peace be enjoyed with the Lord. This is our modern-day communion meal. Peace with God and peace with one another happens at the Lord’s Table. Unity with God and one another happens at the Lord’s Table. It is the place where peace and unity are remembered and testified to.
This is why we place a fence around the Table before we take the Lord’s Supper. We say something like, “If you are a baptized believer and a member of good standing of a church of like faith, you are welcome to the Table. But if you do not believe or are living in unrepentant sin, we ask you to refrain from the Table.” Why do we do this? We do this so that our communal fellowship meal reflects our fellowship with God and with one other.
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23–24
We should not come before the Lord at His Table of peace if we do not have peace with our brothers and sisters for whom Christ also died.
In Paul’s longer explanation on the Lord’s Supper, he condemns the church for how they are observing Communion because they are not thinking about one another. In 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, Paul makes it clear that the Lord’s Table should be a place of peace and unity. Because we have peace with God, we should have peace with one another.
But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that 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.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. 1 Corinthians 11:17–34
In Leviticus, 1-3, we see the same pattern. We must discern our sin by offering a burnt sacrifice in our place, then we must offer grain as a sign of thanksgiving and to share a fellowship meal through the peace offering. When we approach the Lord’s Table, we recognize that Jesus is the Passover Lamb whose body was broken and blood spilled for us. We confess our sins to Lord and ask forgiveness for any animosity or division we have in the body, then we have the meal of peace.
Breaking bread and making peace: this is the Christian life. Jesus breaks the bread of His body and makes peace for us. We break bread as we remember His sacrifice and the peace we have through His blood. We continue to break bread with one another as a sign of the unity and peace we have with Christ. The entire Christian life is about breaking bread and making peace. Leviticus 1-3 lays the groundwork, establishing the pattern of breaking bread and making peace that we still follow today.
Christianity is not mere theory and ethereal, it is real and physical. As one theologian has said,
When Jesus himself wanted to explain to his disciples what his forthcoming death was all about, he didn’t give them a theory; he gave them a meal.
Beloved, our health as a church cannot come only from our strong doctrine. We must share our lives with one another. We do that by breaking bread and making peace.
The grain and peace offerings in Leviticus 2-3 brought an aroma that was pleasing to God. Today, when the saints are devoted to the apostles' teaching and the breaking of bread as a church around the Lord’s Table and in our homes, it brings a pleasing aroma to the Lord. The Chrisitan life is about breaking bread and making peace because that is what our Lord is about. The Bread of Life was broken, making peace through the blood of the cross. If Jesus was broken for us giving us the meal of peace, surely we can break bread with one another and model the peace of the Gospel to a world that desperately needs it. Break bread and make peace for the good of the church and the glory of God.