At the Last Supper, Jesus broke bread and passed it around to His followers, saying that it was a symbol of His body, which was about to be sacrificed for the sins of the world (Matthew 26:26-30). This supper was the Passover meal, in remembrance of the time when lambs were sacrificed in Egypt to protect the Israelites from the death that was inflicted on the Egyptians, an event that finally freed the Israelites from slavery. This Old Testament ritual was a symbol and prophecy of Jesus, the Lamb of God, being sacrificed for the sins of the world in the New Testament and of the freeing of human beings from slavery to sin.

But why did Jesus “break” the bread instead of cutting it with a knife? The term “breaking bread” has become so familiar to us, as a common phrase meaning to eat together, that we do not give it a second thought. This expression has come into the English language through the Bible and the observance of the Lord’s Supper in churches. We are so used to it that we take it for granted.

Factory-sliced bread was an innovation of the 20th century. Before that, loaves of bread had to be sliced or broken by the user. In Bible times, bread was baked in large, round, flat loaves. The Passover meal used “unleavened bread” (since there was no time to wait for the bread to rise as the Israelites were about to flee Egypt). It would be hard, like a cookie or cracker. Therefore, it was broken, not cut. Even the more common leavened bread would be broken when people were on the road away from home without knives or cutting boards or plates.

Breaking, of course, symbolizes the violence of Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus broke the bread, dividing it into pieces to be distributed to His followers at the Last Supper. This meal also reminds us of another meal. Matthew 14 tells the story of Jesus feeding more than 5,000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fish: “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people” (Matthew 14:19 NIV). In Matthew 15, Jesus did it again, feeding more than 4,000 people with seven loaves and a few fish: “Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people” (Matthew 15:36). At the Last Supper, Jesus broke the bread and distributed it to His immediate followers in the upper room. But the miraculous feedings symbolize that that bread (Jesus’ body) continues to be broken and distributed by His followers beyond that upper room, multiplied to thousands and millions and even billions of people. It goes to every new Christian symbolically and miraculously in the observance of the Lord’s Supper but also spiritually, as Jesus’ forgiveness and promise of life are given to every new follower of Jesus.