The Word of life, bread for the world, was born in Bethlehem. The name Bethlehem means House of Bread. So Bethlehem was the bakery of God, and that is where the ovens of God were located. This bread, like all true offerings to God, was a sweet-smelling savor.
When we are done with the process, there is a sweet smelling savor, but you might not guess the results if you were unacquainted with the process and saw it for the first time. We get a glimpse of this right at the end, where the loaf is broken in order to represent how the Lord’s body was broken in the crucifixion. The loaf is broken, distributed, and then consumed.
But this reality is manifest earlier. This is God’s way. The seed must first be cast away, thrown into the soil. When it grows up, it must be cut. When it is cut, it must be threshed, to separate the kernels of wheat from the husks. Then, when it is just wheat, it must be ground into flour. When it is ground into flour, it is mixed into dough, and after that, it is placed in the oven. All this preparation so that it might be broken.
This is God’s way. He makes us whole by breaking us. And lest that seem harsh to us, He showed us how it is to be done. The Incarnate Son served as the preeminent example. He went first so that we could see. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief—because He was sown in the ground, cut down in obedience, threshed in affliction, ground in submission, kneaded as one entirely submissive, and then cooked in the furnace of the devil’s spite, the Father’s wrath, and the Father’s culminating and sovereign mercy.
And the loaf is before us now, so that it might be broken. And as it is broken, we have something to eat, and something to imitate.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.