Wheat and Grapes

Jesus said, “This is my body…” speaking of the bread he blessed and broke at his last supper with his closest disciples. He also said, “This is my blood…” speaking of the wine they would drink at that same meal.

Both the bread and the wine are made from individual pieces or items – individual grains of wheat for the bread and individual grapes for the wine – that need to be crushed in order to be joined with the other crushed pieces to make the products of bread and wine. The bread can be made only after the wheat is crushed together. The wine can be made only after the grapes are crushed together. If the wheat and the grapes are not crushed, loosing their individuality in the process, they remain only wheat and grapes. And it is only after the wheat is crushed and made into bread that the bread can become the body of Christ; only after the grapes are crushed and made into wine can that wine become the blood of Christ.

I have to wonder if there is not a lesson here for us – for Christians and for the Church. God takes the wheat of our lives to make our lives bread and then as Christ himself. However, we must first be “crushed.” In the hands of God, we become the Body of Christ – both in an individual sense and in a corporate sense – but not apart from first being crushed.

We work so hard at avoiding being crushed. Does anyone imagine being crushed to be a pleasant experience? It really destroys us! Perhaps, however, that is precisely the point. We must be destroyed, in a sense. Perhaps this is the thing Jesus is trying to tell us: “The one who tries to save his life will lose it but the one who loses his life for my sake will save it.” We must embrace those things that would into our lives that would crush us and allow ourselves to be crushed. Perhaps it is even more than just allowing ourselves to be crushed. Perhaps it is even that we need to be intentional – not that we crush ourselves but that we both keep from stepping back from those “crushing experiences” and even stepping right into them… deliberately!

But this is so counterintuitive. It is not our first inclination. (At least, it’s not my first inclination.) We want to defend and protect ourselves. The paradox is that, if we give ourselves to a defensive and protective life, we die. What Jesus teaches and demonstrates to us, however, is that, if we both refuse to defend ourselves and even step directly under the weight that would crush us, even though we die, it is only then that we live with and in his life.