I am often struck by how small I think about Jesus. What about you?

Several weeks ago, I wrote the line, “Jesus is from eternity.” My son mentioned it to me and shared that it was one of the best descriptions of Jesus he had ever heard.

I keep thinking about that.

“Jesus is from eternity."

Yet, I typically only think about Jesus in the here and now: How does Jesus deal with my immediate situation? How does Jesus save me? What is Jesus saying to me?

Me. Me. Me.

Certainly, there is something important about being present in the here and now. I struggle with not living in the moment. Typically, my thoughts run to the future. This is likely a significant reason why I struggle with contentment. It turns out, though, that in the midst of that struggle, there is another issue: an overwhelming self-centeredness. This self-centeredness draws everything back to me, even my understanding of who Jesus is and what he is about.

Consider this interaction between Jesus and the people at the Capernaum Synagogue:

At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:41-51

Recall that Jesus has challenged them about being controlled by their bellies. He challenges them to eat the bread of life so that they will never go hungry again. They are responding to his statement that he has come from heaven. It doesn’t make sense because they know his parents. John likes to play with the two words for “know.” Here, he uses the word “οἶδα (oida),” which we might refer to as “head knowledge.” The people “knew” who Jesus' parents were, but they didn’t “know” in the way of “γινώσκω (ginosko)” that John uses to describe how Jesus' disciples come to know God. This second way of knowing is an intimate knowledge that goes beyond the head.

Jesus knew of their grumbling. They were missing the deeper reality because they were only understanding Jesus from a perspective of the here and now. They understood him in the only way they could. Jesus wants them to think and believe deeper. I think he wants them to try and see things from an eternal or infinite perspective.

In many ways, this whole passage is about the difference between the finite and the infinite.

The people were interested in the finite bread. Jesus wanted them to consider the infinite bread.

This bread, which was from heaven and was his very body, is Jesus, the embodiment of the infinite.

Jesus is from eternity. Jesus is infinite.

We can’t wrap our minds around this reality any more than the people at the synagogue could. At least, I can’t.

I wonder if we could begin to grasp what is meant by sharing with Jesus in this infinite game if we could begin to wrap our minds, hearts, and souls around the radical self-giving love that is offered in him?

If we believe in Jesus, then we are stepping into eternal life. We begin to share with him in his infinitude. The “Helper,” the Spirit, lives inside the one who believes. The Spirit is constantly calling us to look beyond the finite and into the infinite. There is no end to the grace, mercy, compassion, empathy, or love of Christ. The Spirit in us animates that reality through us.

As I consider this interaction with the people, I am deeply struck by my tendency to understand Jesus in a finite way, through the lens of what I think I know, just like them.

We likely do not think about Jesus through the lens of Joseph and Mary. No, we think about Jesus through the lens of other Christians we know or a lens about Christians we think we know. When we do this, we are missing the infinite reality of who Jesus is. Or perhaps we have graduated to thinking of Christ in terms of theology, doctrine, and confessions. Again, these are nothing more than finite games that are being applied to the infinite Christ.

I pray that I might grasp the infinite and eternal Christ. I pray that for you too.