Artos Zoes (Bread of Life)

Without bread in ancient Palestine, a person would not survive for long. Bread was a primary staple. Made from a variety of grains (barley for the poor and wheat for those better off), bread was baked daily…usually in small, round loaves that looked more like rolls or buns, not like the larger loaves we eat today. As Jesus was teaching a large crowd of people, He took 5 barley loaves and fed about 5,000 in number who ate their fill! The next day, as the crowds searched for Jesus again (desiring another meal), Jesus said, “Stop laboring for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you…I am the Artos Zoes “the Bread of Life,” whoever comes to Me will never hunger…everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” On this All Saints’ weekend, we, too, feast on the Bread which endures to eternal life as those who have gone before us, in the certainty of the resurrection to eternal life.