Commentary on Matthew 26
by Laurel Walker-Davis
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it, and gave it to his disciples.
After blessing it broke it. After blessing. He broke it.
He blessed it first. Cause we were a blessing before the curse, rehearsed in the mind of GOD like a well-prepared speech, He reached into His heart and pulled out a feast. And that feast was part you. That feast was part me. His body, the church, He blessed and birthed us into the earth to work in the art of growth.
But after blessing it? It broke. Its cells split apart malignantly, marring us miserably with cancer and bigotry, canceling the dignity of I and thou, hustling the infantries of us and them: those left-leaning liberals and the rarely-righteous right, the black and brown, the privileged white, white-knuckled patriots and immigrants seeking a better life. Each of us frozen with emotion on the night we were broken.
Broken like our bank accounts on account of no work. Broken like our hopes for that all-elusive sobriety or society’s “Atta boy” that just never comes. Broken like the earth beneath the casket of the one we can’t live without – GOD, will this pandemic ever end!? Broken like the tape in your head that plays trauma on repeat. Broken like the mirrors that demand you be, fairest of them all, it’s not fair at all – such a tall order for such short people, so impatient for mending, but He wasn’t bending us, y’all. He was breaking us.
Breaking us like His own body was torn, splitting us like His brow beneath thorns. See, He was blessed and broken first, and at our very worst, we’re just bite-sized pieces for feeding the hungriest mouths. And so this body sometimes breaks.
We break the silence of apathy, records for charity, the inequity of glass ceilings. We break the ice to make new friends, we break the news that love will win. We break down and we break dance, cause we’re a glowstick kind of people, in breaking us, He’s just making us shine brighter. So take a bite, become a bite, and revel as the wine reveals real food. Cause all us broken pieces are meant to be consumed.