When Paul and I got married, we had a second small reception in Northern Ireland for friends and family who couldn’t travel to England. Paul managed the menu. I thought he would know what people here liked, so I left him to it. At the reception, when we sat down to eat, large roast potatoes arrived first. I expected this – Paul loves his roast potatoes. What I didn’t expect was for it to be followed by more potato – Champ. I was just recovering from the shock of champ, when to my horror a third potato dish arrived – creamy Dauphinoise potatoes. I leaned over to Paul and said, “three potato dishes… three! What were you thinking?” Paul beamed at me and said, “Oh we like potatoes here… everyone will be pleased.”
I soon discovered that in Ireland people were welded to their potatoes, just as Sri Lankan’s were welded to their rice. Potatoes were so basic to life here, that during the potato famine in Ireland, people starved – or migrated – because of the shortage of potatoes. Potatoes, rice, bread – are all staples of various nations; I discovered that in Eritrea the staple is injera, a kind of flatbread. Staples are the dominant part of our diets; they supply energy and nutritional needs.
Jesus uses the metaphor “bread” because in Israel, flatbread (and wine) were staples. If Jesus had been Irish, he might have called himself the Potato of Life, the Spud from Heaven. If He had been Sri Lankan or Eritrean – he would have said “I am the rice of life, or the injera of life”!
“I am,” says Jesus, “the living bread.” This is a vivid declaration because just before he talks about being the bread of life, just a little earlier, Jesus miraculously feeds 5000 people. The disciples and followers had just seen Jesus do this.
But, here Jesus is declaring I am the bread of life. If you feed on me, you will never be hungry again. You will never die. When the Israelites ate manna – bread sent by God they still died. But I am the true bread from heaven who gives meaningful life, and life eternal.
Jesus is speaking into two of humanity’s deepest needs throughout history: our search for meaning in life and our longing for eternity and fear of death. The recent pandemic took away all normalcy. It exposed our deep need for meaning in life, even at terrible times, and laid bare our fear of our mortality.
But the feeling of meaninglessness is not new – it is an ancient emotion. The biblical book of Ecclesiastes, is a poem about existential anxiety. It captures the raw feelings of futility that humans experience in life. “All is vanity…all things are full of weariness, what has been is what will be…there is nothing new under the sun.” These words capture that sense of futility, pessimism and depression many of us felt during the pandemic.
All religions and rituals are an attempt to find meaning in life. World literature has a fine library devoted to the futility of life –existentialist philosophers, writers and playwrights wrestle with the emptiness they see in life. In his book The Stranger (The Outsider), Albert Camus, describes a man so detached from life, who feels that everything is so pointless, that he is devoid of emotion or feeling. Samuel Beckett’s plays have weary characters waiting pointlessly for something meaningful to happen. Monty Python’s film The Meaning of Life gives us the meaninglessness of life from birth to death. The Galaxy song in the film summarises humanity’s insignificance in a vast expanding universe:
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars;
It’s a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
… So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere out in space,
’cause there’s (nothing at all) down here on Earth!
Our anxiety about our mortality and desire for eternity are also ancient emotions. We have many burial rituals from the Egyptian pyramids to Neolithic graves in Ireland that are based on the hope of the immortality of the soul. In Medieval times, alchemists, famously Nicholas Flammel, searched for the fabled Philosopher’s Stone, that would give immortality. (We meet Nicholas Flammel in Harry Potter and the P.S.) In the 21st century we have cryogenics, where people can be frozen and preserved, in the hope of being awakened centuries later to live a few more years.
I find it incredible that Jesus speaks into two of our deepest anxieties – the need for meaning in life and our fear of mortality. Christ responds to those deep ancient anxieties of life and death and offers us himself as the Bread of Life.
But what does “I am the Bread of Life” mean?
It is easy to get caught up in the things of the world, to search for meaning and identity in achievements, work, recognition. These are good things – if we lose these anchors, we find ourselves adrift, questioning the purpose and meaning of our lives. I have I struggled with some of these, slowly learning to find my identity and meaning in Christ.
In Christ, life has meaning. Always. No matter what our circumstance, no matter how successful – or unsuccessful – we seem. If we have an illness and are confined to bed – Christ gives meaning, even joy to those long days. If we are out of work – Christ takes away anxiety, and gives us peace that passes understanding. If we are caring for a loved one in difficult circumstances – Christ gives us patience, contentment and strength.
God’s economy and his values are different. In Christ, life is never meaningless because living by the two great commandments – loving God and loving our neighbour will always ground our lives in meaning.
St Paul famously said:
“I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
To our second great anxiety, about mortality and death, Jesus’ words resound with assurance “you will live for ever.” We tend to think of “life on earth” and “life after death.” But that is not how Jesus speaks of it. When Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, he says, “He who lives and believes in me will never die.” What does this actually mean? We think of eternal life happening after we die. But according to Jesus Eternal life begins here and now and continues seamlessly after we die. You know, Heaven and Earth are closer than we think; they are linked far more than we imagine. In the Lord’s prayer we pray “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” The greatest antidote to our fear of mortality is the knowledge that we are living an eternal life in Christ, NOW; we are citizens both of Heaven and Earth – here and now. We have a foot in Heaven and foot on Earth, so to speak. Like the children in C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series, who belong in both Narnia and our world, we belong in two worlds.
As the Bread of life, Bread from Heaven – Jesus infuses meaning to life on Earth, and gives us eternity here and now. If Christ is our staple, we will never hunger for meaning. Often our Christian life becomes a set of dogmas and beliefs. But it is not. Our life in Christ is transformative. Christ changes everything: how we value ourselves, how we see our work, how we conduct our relationships, how we see our future, death and eternity. Because Christ’s words “I am the Bread of Life” means that a life in Him, is a life full of meaning and purpose through time into eternity.