Sir, Give us this bread . . . all the time

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“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.” (John 5:24-27, NIV)

Reading passages like this in John as if they were literal descriptions of the end of time was a greater preoccupation years ago than it is now. Mennonite “evangelists” here in the Saskatchewan Valley would hold forth in evening meetings on the nature of the end of the world, mostly through the window of premillenialism, if memory serves. Loosely summarized, it’s the belief that the thousand years of peace on earth follows Christ’s second coming, not the other way ‘round.

Perhaps, as some have said, the nature of the end of time was and is not important enough for the Bible ever to have made it crystal clear, or else—like us—the writers of the New Testament were as befuddled about the possibility of life after death—let alone its details—as are we.

Did John understand the following sentence as he wrote it? “Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” I know I don’t.

I could pick away at it and make up some explanation to explain how “a time is coming and is now come” makes sense.

I could go to another translator—New English translation, possibly—and read, “I tell you the solemn truth, a time is coming—and is now here—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” but in this case, such help is no help at all.

I could go to the NIV study notes and read “ ‘is coming and has now come’ [is a] reference not only to the future resurrection but also to the fact that Christ gives life now. The spiritually dead who hear him receive life from him,” and I’d be closer to, possibly, Swedenborgian theology that (as I understand it) assumes that Biblical eschatology should be read allegorically, that it’s talking about life during earthly life and not about a massive, apocalyptic event. The “second-coming” in this version happened at Pentecost; heaven is the life lived “in the glow of Jesus’ love,” so to speak.

What seems significant to me is that whatever end-times theology you choose to embrace, the reality is that all of us who have opted into the “Jesus way” could remain united on the actually-important aspects of faith, so that born-agains and social gospel people and Swedenborgians and Catholics and . . . whatever, could all be out there witnessing to the joy of loving mercy, doing justice and walking in the light of God’s goodness. Of the redeeming power of love, in other words.

Being human, unfortunately, the other possibility is that it’s over the details that unity will break down, petty difference divide us into antagonistic cliques, shaming the name of Christ in the world we are sent out to enlighten. It’s when “the world” senses our love, our concern that they find justice, our work to help them survive, our willingness to sacrifice for their benefit that they see Christ.

I’ve lived in a rough, poor community where three branches of Christ’s Church—Conservative Mennonite, Traditional Anglican and fly-by-night-evangelistic-crusades worked hard to steal sheep from one another, dividing Christ up into tiny, competing blocks that confused more than they enlightened. A clear case of entrenched, competing eschatologies. So Sad.

I’ve also seen how under MCC, Food Grains Bank, World Vision and others, unity is achieved when vital, common purposes are kept in sight. So Good.

“For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread all the time!” (John 6: 33 & 34, NET)