Bread of Life

Jesus in John 6 declares that he is the bread of life. It's a great picture. When one thinks on the smell of fresh bread and how appealing that is or the taste of a great bread from Panera, it makes Jesus all the more appealing. In his declaration that he is the bread of life there is the promise of life (which in John's gospel means eternal life that begins now and will be fulfilled in all of its wonder when Jesus returns). In reflecting on what this "life" is all about it struck me that to truly understand it we have to understand the death that has come through the fall of Adam and Eve. If we don't understand how life was lost and what was lost we find ourselves putting all of our ideas into what life is rather than putting God's content into life. It seems to me that we do that constantly as we define life according to the values of our culture i.e. what looks like life to our culture begins to look like life to us and so we believe that is the life Jesus is talking about. There's an interesting book that runs a parallel course with this thinking. The title is simply "Happiness". It traces what different cultures and different times have thought would bring happiness. It's amazing how different our concept of happiness is than say that of Greek society 2000 years ago. The movement of what makes for happiness reminds us that there is also a movement of what we believe makes for a really good life. So to hold on to what Jesus means when he tells us that he is the bread of life it seems that we need to go back to what brought death, back to the fall of Adam and Eve. Without that touchstone we can find ourselves believing all kinds of things about what "life" is, rather than finding out what "life" truly is according to God. When we go back to Adam and Eve what we find is that what was lost (at minimum) is a connection with God, a connection with each other, a connection with wisdom, and a connection with God's creation. The Heidelberg Catechism says,
Lord's Day 3
Q & A 6
Q. Did God create people
so wicked and perverse?
A. No.
God created them good^1 and in his own image,^2
that is, in true righteousness and holiness,^3
so that they might
truly know God their creator,^4
love him with all their heart,
and live with him in eternal happiness
for his praise and glory.^5
^1 Gen. 1:31
^2 Gen. 1:26-27
^3 Eph. 4:24
^4 Col. 3:10
^5 Ps. 8
Q & A 7
Q. Then where does this corrupt human nature
come from?
A. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents,
Adam and Eve, in Paradise.^1
This fall has so poisoned our nature^2
that we are born sinners—
corrupt from conception on.^3
^1 Gen. 3
^2 Rom. 5:12, 18-19
^3 Ps. 51:5

Life in Christ is the restoration of what was lost in the fall. If we focus on that we find the life that Jesus offers as the bread of life. As we do so it strikes me as important to realize that what was lost in the fall and what brings life is not only a broken relationship with God but also all of these other things that were lost. If we miss the wholeness of the picture of life we miss life.

One last things that throws a bit of wrench into the whole deal, while "life" begins in a garden in Genesis it ends with life being restored in a city (Revelation 21-22). That movement reminds us that there is some kind of overall movement in what is true life. It seems that God wants us to do some serious thinking about how life can begin in a garden and end in a city and both of these things be true life.