Bread Of Life And All That!
I AM the Bread of life.
He coming toward me should under no circumstances be hungering,
And he believing into me will under no circumstances be thirsting……..
Everyone that the Father is giving to me shall be arriving toward me,
And those coming toward me I should under no circumstances be casting out,
That’s why I descended from the heavens,
Not that I should be doing my will but the Will of him sending me.
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In today’s post I wish to look at a mysterious saying of Yeshua that many of his present day followers find difficult to understand. I believe that many Christian interpretations have missed the key to grasping the practical lessons embedded within this esoteric gem from the Nazarene. The key that I will use to reveal the hands-on applications that lie within this supposed mystical discourse is the recently discovered psycho-spiritual tool known as mimetic theory. Let me explain.
Yeshua has just fed the multitude with a multiplied sardine bread combo that satisfied their natural hunger. Having just discovered a new miracle worker in their midst the grasping crowd are now chasing him down for more of his mystical magic. However, the Galilean prophet isn’t carried away by the adulation of the throng as he engages them in discussion; a revealing heart to heart about their founding fathers’ eating habits on the way to the promised land. Back then, their starving ancestors were just glad to get their bellies filled with miraculous daily manna, a gift from their Deliverer God, YHWH. The Nazarene holy man hints that the Hebrew travellers had missed the whole point of their manna diet, just like his present audience, those baying for more Messianic thrills. This is where we encounter the above declaration from Yeshua.
I AM the Bread of life.
Most Christian comment claims that Yeshua is here declaring his divine nature, claiming that he too came from the Divine realm, like the supernatural manna of the wilderness. I have no problem with that but we can, if we wish, read it slightly differently, seeing YHWH, the I AM THAT I AM, as the Bread of life. Most interpretations perceive this life to be eternal in nature, the life of post death experience, yet surely this life is in the here and now, our day-to-day space-time adventure as lived through our soul-psyche. In the Eternal Now of Divine perspective perhaps both these forms of life are one and the same.
He, coming toward me, should under no circumstances be hungering,
Here Yeshua unpacks a great mystery, one with earthly applications. The Galilean realises that all human relationships are mimetic or imitative in nature. We find our perceptions of Self in the other, being drawn to the apparent metaphysical solidity of their personhood. The Self image that we currently hold is a collage of all that we have admired in others to date. No-one is truly their own man. The autonomy of the psyche-soul is a delusion, one that brings in its wake much psychological suffering and pain.
Understanding this, Yeshua reveals himself as an object of human desire. For those drawn into the sphere of his Being, those attached by a gut-felt, metaphysical desire, will not be disappointed. All human relationships of Model and follower eventually end in tears of separation and rivalry. Expulsion and broken relationship is the norm in the world of skewed desire. However, Yeshua claims that ultimately it won’t happen to those attracted to him. Ultimately, because it often happens to the most zealous of disciples along the Way. Simon Peter is a classic example of one who entered the dangerous role of Monstrous Double or Adversary, one who rivaled with his Master Model in attempting to stop him going up to Jerusalem to die. Yet, even such a head strong follower as the Galilean fisherman, finally got it, albeit after his Model’s future demise and unexpected comeback.
The reason that we can desire what Yeshua desires and come into his freedom, is because the Nazarene will never rival back. He will never become a Monstrous Double, one fighting us for a share of Being, for all Being resides within him, the incarnated Tao-Logos. When we understand this newly revealed gravitational dynamic and its accompanying realignment process, we are free to move into a world of desire that is ‘vertical’ rather than remain in the horizontal version where rivalry and ultimate violence prevail.
And he believing into me will under no circumstances be thirsting……..
At first glance this little nugget only seems to echo the radical message of the previous hungering statement, yet there resides here a subtle but important further unpacking of the whole mimetic or imitative process. In this declaration Yeshua replaces coming to with believing into. Modern day Yeshua followers are frankly obsessed with belief. Doctrine and dogma have become the battle fields upon which much spilt spiritual energy and blood lies crying out from holy ground, like the blood of the mythic Abel, the victim of the Founding murder. For many of us intellectually believe the right things concerning the Nazarene has replaced the believing into of this poignant statement.
So what’s the difference?
Well, intellectual belief is always operates in the sphere of the psyche-soul, our interface with this space-time realm. Hence it always contains the potential to be a weapon of our defensive and often counter-attacking ego. In ancient Middle Eastern spirituality belief was a process of trust or letting go, a lying back into the object believed into. Yeshua’s words reflect such a release, with its resulting movement into the very essence of his Being. Like Han’s Solo’s Millenium Falcon being drawn into the hold of the giant Death Star, only flipped from the Dark Side!
I would suggest that such a believing into Yeshua releases something fresh and altogether other within our weary psyches; an unlimited watering from Divine Source itself, a thirst quenching drink of Holy Breath that heals our psychic pains.
Everyone that the Father is giving to me shall be arriving toward me,
Here Yeshua suggests that the mimetic process at work in his followers doesn’t originate with him; rather, all those drawn into his desire field have somehow been placed there by his God, the Father or ‘Abba’ with whom he himself was in mimesis. Once touched by Yeshua’s all-consuming desire matrix the only way to go seems to be towards him. Perhaps this gives a Divine slant on the whole free-will ~ destiny debate that continues to confuse those of a theological bent!
And those coming toward me I should under no circumstances be casting out,
This little phrase has been hijacked by many Christian interpreters to build a case for eternal salvation, the great escape from the dreaded fires of hell. Such a fundamentalist fire insurance take on Yeshua’s words is, I believe, extremely wide of his original meaning. Here is what I believe he is saying.
‘Those who are realigned into my desire field and grow into my likeness through desire exchange will never have to worry about me turning on them. Even though they become like me, I will never expel them or do them violence, unlike human Models. I will never become your Model Obstacle, the one to scapegoat you out of my Presence and Being.’
In other words, the desire link up with Yeshua is the only truly safe relationship that we can have during our space-time journey.
That’s why I descended from the heavens,
Yeshua claims here that, like the miracle manna, his Being is sourced in the Divine. The psycho-spiritual freedom that he enjoys has its origins in his Divine connection with the Transcendent Father, the One who, being Being itself, doesn’t need to rival with anyone for a sense of Self. Such a Divinity has no need to measure itself against the creatures that it has birthed. It is supremely Self-defining, yet wishing to share this freedom with its mirror images. For such a mission was the Nazarene sent – an awakening to the possibility of a rivalry free communion with our Source Spirit.
Not that I should be doing my will but the Will of him sending me.
In taking on this task Yeshua reveals the secret of his commissioning; he has voluntarily been absorbed by the mimetic desire or will of the transcendent Other, the very passion that holds the Cosmos together. In other words, Yeshua the man, demonstrated that once a desire connection is established with Divine Love, and the skewed desire of ego set aside, we can all return to the freedom of the sons and daughters of God. Realigned with Holy Breath, the Divine essence in space-time we can run through life, free from Model Obstacle and Monstrous Double relational constraints, loosed from the gravitational pull of others who vie for psychic clones. Now if that isn’t life abundantly then I don’t know what is!
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Writer Dylan Morrison 