Our earliest Christian statement of faith was a simple one: “Jesus is Lord.” In many ways, I think it’s deceptively simple. We could say it means “Jesus is Lord,” as in “Jesus is God.” Easy-peezy. Or we could think of “Lord” as in, “Lord and Master.” Jesus is our master who is in charge of our lives and who we owe our loyalty. Pretty good theology there. But, of course, we also think of Lords and Ladies – fancy British rich people who may be too good for commoners like us. That’s… not as good for describing Jesus. Or there’s the feudal Lord who has countless serfs who are worked to the bone and not paid fairly, subject to the cruel whims of the boss. I certainly hope we don’t see Jesus that way.
It turns out that the word “Lord” comes from an Old English compound word that I will almost certainly mispronounce: hlāfweard. Hlaf is where we get the word “loaf” from: hlāf, loaf. Those sound pretty close. Weard is not “weird” like a person who is strange and not normal. It’s closer to “ward” as in “someone who guards or keeps or protects.” So, Lord is “the keeper of the bread,” “the one who protects the bread.” The word came from an old Germanic tribal custom that it was the chieftain who provided the food for those who followed him. Originally, the word wasn’t that prevalent. The “Lord” word they used to use for a god was drighten, which meant “a ruler with an army” – someone who commanded a violent force. After the 11th century, the church chose a different word to use for “Lord” in English. Rather than lift up a warring leader (drighten), they chose the Lord who keeps the bread safe and gives it to his followers. They chose the word that depicted one in authority, but also the one who provides.
You can trace the journey of “Lord” back through its roots and find that in the old church Latin. Dominus could mean “one who subdues,” but it could also mean, “one who builds a house.” It was the one in charge, but also the host of a feast. Then there’s kyrie from Greek. When the people say to Jesus, “sir, give us this bread always!,” they say kyrie. It was their way of saying, “sir” or “mister,” but it was also the way that Lord had been translated from the Old Testament in the Septuagint (which was a translation of the Bible from the 3rd century BC). So, kyrie was a respectful way to address someone, a master or ruler, and the head of a household – responsible for caring for the needs of all. From kyrie we go back to Adonai, the Hebrew word for “Lord” (as in “Lord God”) and “mister.” The earliest root of that comes from an ancient language called Ugaritic and it was probably Ad – father.
“Jesus is Lord” – Jesus is the bread and he’s the one who keeps the bread. He is one with the Father who provides for us and cares for us – giving even his own body to nourish us and save us. He is the bread and he protects it – he gives us life and holds our souls and heals our hearts so that we might be restored to God. Jesus is the bread from heaven with endless authority and power who, nevertheless, hosts the feast, heals our wounds, and breaks forth into the world in times and places where we least expect it.
-Sources: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Lord & https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lord & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord