ActiveFaith.us
 
 
Have you ever heard the expression “bread a circuses”?
 
It’s funny how you can hear an expression like that over the years, and never bother to find out what it means or where it comes from. But over the last couple of weeks, I’ve heard this one several times, which I thought was unusual.
 
So, I decided to look into it.
 
According to Wikipedia (which I recommend you always double-check and never use for academic reference), “This phrase originates in Satire X of the Roman poet Juvenal of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries. In context, the Latin phrase panem et circenses (bread and circuses) is given as the only remaining cares of a Roman populace which has given up its birthright of political freedom:”
  1.  
  2.     .. Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man,
  3.     the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time
  4.     handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now
  5.     restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:
  6.     bread and circuses
  7.  
“Juvenal here makes reference to the elite Roman practice of providing free wheat to some poor Romans as well as costly circus games and other forms of entertainment as a means of gaining political power through popularity. The Annona (grain dole) was begun under the instigation of the populist Gracchi in 123 BC; it remained an object of political contention until it was taken under the control of the Roman emperors.”
 
OK, so I get it. Instead of the people demanding, and the leaders providing, actual long-term solutions to problems in society, all that’s asked for -- and all that’s given -- are “bread and circuses,” or short-term (and short-sighted) so-called solutions that aren’t really solutions at all, but instead exacerbate our problems in the long run.
 
This immediately made me think of the time when Jesus took the five loaves of bread and two small fish offered by a small boy, and fed a huge multitude (at least 4-5,000 men alone, plus women and children). Why? Well, because they were hungry, and they expected to be fed by the Master. He fed them, and they were full, with lots left over.
 
But guess what? They were hungry again the next day. How do we know? Because the next day, the multitude looked for Jesus, and had to sail across the sea to Capernaum to find Him. When they found Him, Jesus actually rebuked them, because He perceived that they didn’t come because of the fact that He performed a miracle, but because they wanted Him to feed them again.
 
These folks just didn’t get it, though. They wanted Jesus to do more miracles, to give them more loaves and fishes, to satisfy their desires now -- and if He would do that, the Scriptures say, they were willing to make Him their king (John 6:14). And what was His response?
 
Jesus wanted them to stop focusing on the short term, and instead to focus on the long term. They demanded that He “evermore give us this bread,” and He blew them away with one simple sentence:
  1.  
  2. "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
  3.  
He went on to lay out the spiritual “facts of life” to them, saying, “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (vv. 48-51).
 
In other words, “Don’t you get it? Stop asking for loaves and fishes -- that may feed you today, but if you don’t get it tomorrow, you’ll die. In fact, you’re ALL going to die, no matter what -- so instead, consider the long term and believe in Me, and you’ll never die” -- that is, you’ll have eternal life.
 
They didn’t get it, of course. Verses 41 and 52 give their befuddled response: “The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven... The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
 
In fact, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (v. 66).
 
That’s our problem: we want easy solutions; we want solutions that work now, regardless of future consequences; we don’t want to be told the cold, hard truth, with facts that don’t fill our bellies but save our souls...
 
We want Bread and Circuses. We want Loaves and Fishes.
 
Instead, as Christians, let’s commit to long-term solutions. You know, like Jesus said to do.
 
(By the way, if you want to really learn about the difference between long-term and short-term thinking, pick up a copy of Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. It was written in 1964 will change your thinking forever.)
 
William Greene is the author of Christian Political Activism: Biblical Principles for Active Faith, a “work in progress.” Read the latest chapters at ActiveFaith.us.
“There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.” (John 6:9-11)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
“Bread and Circuses” or “Loaves and Fishes”?