During close fellowship with Jesus, one can never say with certainty where events are unfolding: in the world not yet transfigured, or in the Kingdom. So it is in the account of feeding the multitude who listen to Him with five loaves and two fish. The laws of the untransfigured world do not, of course, allow such a thing. But on the other hand...
During close fellowship with Jesus, one can never say with certainty where events are unfolding: in the world not yet transfigured, or in the Kingdom. So it is in the account of feeding the multitude who listen to Him with five loaves and two fish. The laws of the untransfigured world do not, of course, allow such a thing. But on the other hand, those before us are still ordinary people who, for now, are only listening to Jesus, and it is not yet known which of them will be ready to follow Him.
How, then, did they find themselves in the Kingdom? The only answer to this question is probably the mention of the breaking of bread performed by the Savior. The breaking of bread is an ancient Jewish rite whose roots go back at least to the age of the captivity, and perhaps to still earlier times. This rite was evidently always domestic, originally a family rite and later, after the emergence of religious brotherhoods, both a family and a fraternal rite. At all times it was regarded as a continuation of the Temple sacrifice, as its domestic dimension complementing the communal dimension. The original meaning of every sacrifice, even a pagan one, let alone a Yahwistic sacrifice, came down to communion with God: everyone always regarded the sacrifice as a shared meal of God—or, among pagans, of the gods—and human beings. The faithful prepared the meal and invited God to the table so that He Himself might sanctify it and bless those assembled. So it was at gatherings in the Temple, and so it was at gatherings in the home. Now the One who brought the fullness of the Kingdom into the world performs the breaking of bread.
It is not surprising that everyone who takes part becomes, at least for the duration of the gathering, an inhabitant of the Kingdom. With Christ, God's presence is revealed in all possible fullness, and the Kingdom becomes the most certain reality. Such participation is of course only the first step, only the beginning of the journey. Yet this experience is very important, because it enables everyone who has lived through it to understand what the Kingdom is not in words but in reality, and to make a decision based not on other people's stories but on personal experience.
3
3:23 But before faith - That is, the gospel dispensation.Came, we were kept - As in close custody. Under the law - The Mosaic dispensation. Shut up unto the faith which was to be revealed - Reserved and prepared for the gospel dispensation.
3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ - It was designed to train us up for Christ. And this it didboth by its commands, which showed the need we had of his atonement; and its ceremonies, which all pointed us to him.
3:25 But faith - That is, the gospel dispensation.Being come, we are no longer under that schoolmaster - The Mosaic dispensation.
3:26 For ye - Christians. Are all adult sons of God - And so need a schoolmaster no longer.
3:27 For as many of you as have testified your faith by being baptized in the name of Christ, have put on Christ - Have received him as your righteousness, and are thereforesons of God through him.
3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek - That is, there is no difference between them; they are equally accepted through faith. There is neither male nor female - Circumcision being laid aside, which was peculiar to males, and was designed to put a difference, during that dispensation, between Jews and gentiles.
3:29 If ye are Christ's - That is, believers in him.
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4:1 Now - To illustrate by a plain similitude the preeminence of the Christian, over the legal, dispensation.The heir, as long as he is a child - As he is under age.Differeth nothing from a servant - Not being at liberty either to use or enjoy his estate. Though he be lord - Proprietor of it all.
4:2 But is under tutors - As to his person.And stewards - As to his substance.
4:3 So we - The church of God. When we were children - In our minority, under the legal dispensation.Were in bondage - In a kind of servile state. Under the elements of the world - Under the typical observances of the law, which were like the first elements of grammar, the A B C of children; and were of so gross a nature, as hardly to carry our thoughts beyond this world.
4:4 But when the fulness of the time - Appointed by the Father, Gal 4:2.Was come, God sent forth - From his own bosom. His Son, miraculously made of the substance of a woman - A virgin, without the concurrence of a man. Made under the law - Both under the precept, and under the curse, of it.
4:5 To redeem those under the law - From the curse of it, and from that low, servile state. That we - Jews who believe. Might receive the adoption - All the privileges of adult sons.