Not by Bread Alone
As Easter approaches, I remember all the more how Jesus compares His body, or His words, to unleaven slabs of bread, the kind of bread we don't see anymore, really anywhere. Modern flatbreads are made with bleached flour, instead of with whole wheat or other brown-colored edible grass seeds. Modern flatbreads also are made a lot smaller than in the ancient Middle East. Modern flatbreads don't really remind us of how Isarael's painful history, and of how God's own words (different from Solomon's words as part of Israel's teaching itself and learning lessons the hard way), began to be written: on leather, on skins of cattle that had been killed. Remembering and still suffering the near constant turmoil of all of the Christmas season, makes it difficult to cherish and look forward to the lament and great joy of Easter this year. For me, it's hard to believe the Lenten passage to Easter is beginning. Monday, I ate the last of chicken I had in store, keeping in...