6.3 - We All Start at Square One
A Different Angle
I spent five minutes searching for it while sitting in my chair and looking down at my feet. "There is no way that paper clip could've gotten away from here," I thought. Then, I rolled my chair back about 3 feet, looked from a different angle, and there it was, in plain sight. This experience is similar to my approach to John's story about Jesus. I've tried to zoom in, zoom out, and look at it from different angles. When I do, a new idea often appears - in plain sight. It may be a reflection of something I've read before, another author's echoes, or a new insight. Regardless, it has meaning to me. I thought, “Sometimes, looking at life from a different angle is all we need.”
“This Cannot Be!”
In the previous segment, our curious audience asked Jesus, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" He turned to the whiteboard while saying, "This is the work of God. This is what you can do. This is where it all starts. This is square one on the game board, and you cannot pass GO." Then, he wrote in big, bold letters, "BELIEVE IN WHOM HE HAS SENT."
They could not see that, even though it was right in front of them – in plain sight. They couldn't buy it. And that's not uncommon. You see, to believe that this man Jesus was sent from God went against everything they've been taught. “To come from God, he would have had to have seen God, and no one has seen God. Anyway, to claim you have come from God and that you are the Messiah and a dusty carpenter’s son from Nazareth - this can't be the new king in the line of David.” To believe this would require a flip of their understanding, an immediate remodel of their consciousness.
20 Centuries Later……
Isn't this the same for us 20 centuries later? You might be saying, “This can't be true, that Jesus was sent from God because that would mean there is a God, and anyone with any intelligence knows that that's not realistic.” You're not alone. 37% of all Americans identify themselves as atheist or agnostic. As many as two-thirds of young Americans doubt God’s existence. Or, you may be on the other side of the aisle and say, “Yeah, I get it; Jesus is the messiah whose death, burial, and resurrection mean I get to go to heaven when I die.”
Are they mutually exclusive, or can we roll the chair back and look at what he said from a different angle? I have discovered something to this thing called life beyond my daily physical existence. But it required remodeling my consciousness. I mean a complete gut job, including removing walls, even the load-bearing ones of my preconceived notions. Only then, as I sat silently in the shell of my former self, did I get the feeling that I was not alone. There was this something or someone else sitting with me, within me. A timeless presence. Did this mean I was special? No, only human. Beyond that, my words don't work.
“If you’ve been there, no explanation is necessary. If you haven’t, none is adequate.”
Been There, Got the T-Shirt
But it all starts at Square One!
Jesus had been there; he understood. He knew this presence, honored it, grew into it, followed it, became one with it, and urged others to do the same. But it all starts at Square One! He put it in a paradox: if you don't believe in this presence, you could never do its works. It's a logical impossibility. To do the works of this presence, you must first believe it exists, and in the one this presence has sent. Or, as Jesus put it, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him, who he has sent.” He was not critical or judgmental, simply outlining "Job One.
If you can't quite buy it, that's OK. Many wonderful people live socially acceptable lives without any perceived need whatsoever. But if you ever need something more, move to Square One and sit quietly. Remove the filter of your active unbelief and listen for the silent whisper.
The Interrogation Continues
30 So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us, then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” This was not unusual. That's how it was done then. "Show me a miracle, and I'll believe you are special. Then, maybe, I’ll believe what you say.” Moses did it. Now, you do it.
Watch how Jesus gently corrects them and tries to skillfully lead them to the first square on the game board.
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, (other versions bring it more up-to-date by saying, “I tell you the truth,” “I assure you and most solemnly say to you,” and ““I tell you for certain.” In current slang, we might say, "Truthfully" or "if I'm being honest here.") Anyway, he says, “It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Still miracle-minded,
34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”I Wish I Had A Million Wishes
This reminds me. As kids, we used to talk about what we would wish for if a genie popped out of a bottle to grant us three wishes. Our first wish was always for a million more wishes because that's human nature. Many have continued to imagine God as a genie, always trying to outsmart Him.
Instead, Jesus redirects them.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. I can hear the collective, "Huh?" The teacher, Jesus, knew they could not process that statement with natural intelligence and physical consciousness. I imagine him pausing there, kneeling to adjust his sandal, and giving his statement time to rattle around. Today, we process it poetically by saying sweet things about the "bread of life" and "living water," but I don't think that comes close to what Jesus meant.
The Importance of Bread and Belief
In today's gluten-free society, Bread gets a bad rap, and we don't understand how vitally important it has been, but his listeners did. Wheat was domesticated in the Middle East thousands of years ago, and its cultivation spread to Europe, North America, and East Asia. Because bread was a food that required no foraging or hunting, nomadic tribes could now settle down. This eventually led to villages and a more advanced organization of society. Bread is just that important. Without it, we may still wander the forest, eating mushrooms, berries, and anything we were lucky to kill.
Jesus says, "What bread is to physical life, I am to spiritual life. You can keep hunting and foraging, or you can come to me. Take my words like the wheat, knead them, bake them, swallow them, and allow them to produce life.”
36 “But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away, 38 for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.”
Don't hear “down from heaven” in space terms and worry about the heat of reentry.
Think of it as a parallel realm beyond the veil from which all creativity originates and becomes life.
Don't hear “down from heaven” in space terms and worry about the heat of reentry. Think of it as a parallel realm beyond the veil from which all creativity originates and becomes life. Jesus expresses this in the father-son relationship. He says, “I stand here in physical form, but my origin is spiritual, connected to the Father and doing what he asked me to do, which is to give every one of you life, to keep you spiritually healthy until the very last day. (Think Lion King here.) On that last day, as a father would his child, I will present you as a spiritually healthy being with all your fingers and toes.”
Belief is Square One
But it all starts at Square One—belief. None of the rest matters if there's no belief in a spiritual realm and a spiritual life.
It's easy to see how bread symbolized Jesus’s physical body and was celebrated in the Eucharist. However, keeping it at the ceremonial level can lead to a repetitive cycle of seeking forgiveness for sins (think three wishes) and hoping for a posthumous entrance into heaven, with little impact on one’s behavior or daily life. Rather than seeking a religious ritual, I want a fulfilling existence that provides evidence of my faith.
Let's discuss the "last day" concept first to avoid confusion. There is a belief that at the end of life, there will be a final judgment day where each person will rise to appear before God to review their life and receive a reward or punishment. This belief was prevalent in that day. However, it also could mean each person's last day, when we will be raised from our dead physical body to our alive spiritual body. Which one of these interpretations is correct? We will never know on this side of the grave, so do not let any uncertainty cause you to miss what Jesus teaches. By embracing his way of living, each day of a person's life, including the last day and beyond, can be enriched and enlivened.
But I’m So Hungry!
Now that we've addressed that, let's focus shift to something we know. Our most basic needs are hunger and thirst. When these needs go unfulfilled, we become consumed with worry, making it difficult to reach our full potential. Jesus is proposing a different way, a better way of living that flows from the understanding of our true identity. In this passage, John wants us to see Jesus’ perception of himself: the role model and teacher of this spiritual life, where one is never anxious about being hungry or thirsty because one understands the true source of life. The Father, the creator of the universe, is still creating and inhabiting all of his creation, including us!
“The universe is constantly expanding—at an ever faster rate. ‘When we say that the universe is expanding, we mean something pretty literal,’ says Dan Scolnic, an associate professor of physics at Duke University, who studies this cosmic growth”
Each of his listeners had been born and raised in the Temple system, where admittance depended on your "standing" and obedience to its laws. One was clean or unclean, accepted or rejected. Since God lived in the temple, those rejected could not access him. Jesus is saying that he has brought God out of the temple and into the presence of the people. No one who comes to him will be rejected. Also, one does not come based on standing or obedience but by belief. Jesus understands this is a difficult concept for them, even to the point of “seeing yet not believing.”
John wants me to understand that believing in Jesus as the appointed role model of the proper way of life and his direct relationship with God is essential to following him. If I don’t believe that, I may listen or talk about him, not follow. I would “jump ship” at the first obstacle or turn to catch the next shiny new thing. People were doing that all the time. Following means learning to live as he did, and this process is the key to a fulfilling life now and in eternity. It brings life to the individual and the world.
To my grandchildren and their children: By the time you read this, you will have a concept of how life works. I am asking you to “park" that understanding for a while and consider that there may be another way. The older you are, the more invested you are in your current knowledge, and the more difficult it will be. I understand this, but I still ask you to consider it. Intelligence and energy flow through all created things in the universe, including you. By quieting your mind, you can tap into this energy, receive this information, and ignite its energy by believing. You will then join in the wondrous act of creation. Try it for a day or two and watch what happens.
“Intelligence and energy flow easily through all living things, including me. My work is to acknowledge that and tune into it. My life should be a free-flowing dance to this music.” - Insight from Meditation
41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” That’s where we will pick up next time.
Key Takeaways:
We must be willing to start at square one.
God is a living, breathing being who chose to be expressed through your life, your breath, and all creation.
You cannot follow what you cannot see, but it doesn't mean it isn't there. Ask for eyes to see and ears to hear, then decide whether to follow.
