Recipe and Freshly Baked Bread - The Word Incarnated

This is the secod half of the translated entry from Hachiko & Boboru's diary.

I found this passage as I was reading “Window of the Soul” (by Ken Gire): Jesus said he was the bread of life, and after he went back to heaven, the bread would have been gone from the earth for a while. So he left the recipe of his own life in the Bible and sent the Holy Spirit that the world will not starve.

Just as flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and other ingredients are mixed together, he has mixed the truth of the Word in us by the Holy Spirit. Like dough being kneaded by hands, we are kneaded by our environments. Like the leavening of the yeast, we are left alone for a time, and are baked in the oven of our daily lives. Then again the smell of the freshly baked bread fills the earth. The difference between the written word and the word incarnated is the same as the difference between the recipe and the bread. The recipe is important, but that’s not what people are drawn to… What people are drawn to is the smell of freshly baked bread… However, we often give starving people the recipe, instead of the bread. (pp276-277)

“We often give starving people the recipe, instead of the bread”; I tend to agree with that. There is an online forum I visit once in a while for information gathering. It’s run by a non-Christian, and a lot of housewives visit this site. Most visitors are non-Christians, but there are some Christians among the visitors and sometimes there are lively discussions about their faith. More than six months ago, some woman made an entry about the difficulty she was having. She was earnestly sharing the various hardships she was going through in her life, and how she was hurt and struggling from the experience. In response to that entry, a regular visitor of that site, who is Christian, shared her testimony with quotes from the Bible. At the end she wrote something like “Would you want to believe in Jesus and give him all of your burdens?”

When I read this, I thought, what a wonderful testimony! This person is shining as the light of the world… I was impressed. But the reply to this comment was, “But I want to be saved by a living human. It’s human who hurt other human, and it’s also human who help other human. However misdirected it might be, I would rather hear the voice of human in flesh, rather than Jesus, who I can’t touch or see.”　

I was somewhat shaken by this. No, actually, I was very much in shock. What looked like wonderful words of testimony to me were merely insipid to her. What she was looking for was the freshly baked bread, and not the recipe. But this Christian woman (and in a sense I, too) was satisfied with just giving the recipe. The recipe might have come from a professional baker, or written on a beautiful recipe card with a picture, but it would still be just a recipe, and will not be able to fill people’s hunger. 　

　 There was a story in “12 ‘Christian’ Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy” (will be published in Japan on 3/10). When a child was going to bed at night, he became peevish and didn’t want to sleep alone, because he was afraid of the dark. His mother told him, “You will be fine, because Jesus is with you.” Then the child replied, “But I want somebody to be next to me and hold my hand”…

God knew very well about the human needs; that our hunger cannot be filled by recipe. He knew of the need, which makes us want somebody to actually hold our hands, to be saved by human in flesh. Because he knew, Jesus, who is God, took upon the flesh and came to this world. Because he knew, “The Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).” And now, we Christians are called to bake the bread of “the Word incarnated” and send forth the fragrance of Jesus, the freshly baked bread, through our daily lives. May each of us be the provider of the bread, and not of the recipe to this world. May this body in flesh be used to manifest Christ. 　

(It's my writing from here on)

Since I came to Vineyard, I’ve received so many freshly baked breads. It’s simply amazing how many bread bakers there are in that place. But that hasn’t always been my experience in the past. There were many instances I’ve given the recipe and not the bread. I think a lot of times people (including myself) don’t know how to give bread, or are not in the place where they can do that. Of course I don’t want to lose balance and think human interactions are all we need. But I see a lot of validity in giving bread rather than the recipe, to people who are not Christians, or Christians who are in distress. And it’s imperative for me to learn the recipe very well in order to produce quality breads to give to others…