I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out

 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.  Loose it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'"  So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.  But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"  And they said, "The Lord has need of him."  Then they brought him to Jesus.  And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.  And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.  Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:

"'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  Bu He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." 

- Luke 19:28-40

Yesterday we read that Jesus taught another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.  Therefore He said:  "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.  So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.'  But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'   And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.  Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'  And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'  And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'  Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.'  Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.  For I feared you, because you are an austere man.  You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.  And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.  You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.  Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'  And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.'  (But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.')  For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'"

 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.  Loose it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'"  So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.  But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"  And they said, "The Lord has need of him."  Then they brought him to Jesus.   The events of today's reading are called Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, and it is significant to us and to all who witness as the entrance of the Messiah into His city.  He enters from the East, as was prophesied of the Messiah.  My study bible emphasizes the nationalist expectations of the time.  Israel had suffered for centuries as a pawn between powerful kingdoms at this time, amid the constant battle for power and control between empires.  At this time, under the Roman Empire, nationalism had led to the expectation of a political Messiah, who would deliver them from outside domination and re-establish the kingdom of David.  But Jesus gives a strong, conscious signal that His kingdom is something different -- not an earthly kingdom.  He chooses to ride on a donkey -- and the colt of a donkey -- rather than horse or chariot as would a conquering king with his military.  This is a sign of humility and peace (Zechariah 9:9), just as He has taught His apostles to go out to the world on their earlier missions.   Jesus' Triumphal Entry is also a promise of Christ's final entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem, with all believers and of His accepting the New Jerusalem as His pure bride (Revelation 21:2), an image present to us spiritually and yet continually moving toward fulfillment among us.

 And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.  And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.  The people who spread their clothes before Jesus were doing so as paying reverence before a King.  There is a corresponding spiritual interpretation, my study bible notes, which expresses our need to lay down our flesh and our lives for Christ -- indeed our entire worldly identity.

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:  "'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"  The people shout from Psalm 118:25-26, Scripture associated with messianic expectation.  This was recited for six days during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), the feast of the Coming Kingdom, and seven times on the seventh day as branches were waved.

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."  Bu He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."  The welcome of the Messiah into the heavenly city is irrepressible, a powerful reality that transcends time and all boundaries in its true effect, so that all of creation rejoices.  This event is commemorated in the Church as Palm Sunday, the day that begins Holy Week, in which Jesus' hour of "glory" comes on the Cross, and His suffering, death, and Resurrection defeats even death.

I am always intrigued by Jesus' reference to the crying out of the stones.  In Exodus, the garments of Aaron, the first in the lineage of priests before the altar, are fashioned with stones -- all of which represent all the sons of Israel before God (Exodus 28:12-21).  When Elijah contests with the prophets of Baal for the God of Israel, he lays the foundation of his altar with twelve stones representing the twelve tribes whose name is Israel (1 Kings 18:31).  John the Baptist tells the people who come for his baptism, "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,  and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'  For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones" (Matthew 3:9; Luke 3:8).  St. Peter writes of the faithful that each comes to Christ as a "living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious," and that as "living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:4-5).  In the Revelation, we read, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it" (Revelation 2:17).  In each of these cases, stones are associated with names, and a name represents all of a person, such as when we pray "in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 5:17).  But I think that in addition to all of these images of stones representing human beings, Jesus' words in today's reading give us a sense of all of creation rejoicing in the Incarnation, and indeed, even in the Passion that is about to unfold at Jerusalem.  It is the Cross and its power that gives us the full meaning and impact of the Incarnation, and the defeat of the final enemy of all of creation, death itself.  Jesus' statement indicates to us that the Incarnation isn't only about the salvation of human beings, but for the whole of the world -- meaning the whole of the cosmos, all of creation.  John's Gospel tells us, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).   The word used for "world," in each case in the quotation, is not the Greek word for "earth," but the word cosmos/κοσμος, which does not merely mean "universe" in Greek but rather all that is created; that is, visible and invisible, as it says in the Creed.   What is to be achieved at Jerusalem in this week ahead of Jesus will transform the world and the cosmos -- and is for all of it, all of us, all of the created order.  In Christ's Ascension, we're told, the angels marvel at human nature transfigured and entering the heavenly realm, rejoicing at this extraordinary transformation of all that is and what it means for everything (see the commentary of St. Cyril of Alexandria on the Gospel of John 14:2-3 here).  From the stones of the world to the powers of heaven, all of reality is transformed in this week which Christ begins with His entrance into Jerusalem.  We understand it to be not only the worldly, earthly Jerusalem, but the Jerusalem in which the angels celebrate always, and we join them in our worship.  Let us consider the power of Christ to change everything and anything.  What we do in a gesture of worship honors all of this; He to whom we pray is all of this.  He reminds us of the nature of the entire created order when He teaches that even the very stones would cry out should His followers be silenced.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world

 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven."  And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?  How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven'?"  Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves.  No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.  It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.'  Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.  This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread which came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."

- John 6:41-51

Currently we are reading in chapter 6 of John's Gospel, which began with the feeding of five thousand in the wilderness.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."  Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."  Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You?  What work will You do?  Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from the heaven and gives life to the world."  Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."  And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.  And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven."  And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?  How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven'?"  Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves.  No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.  It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.'  Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father."  John gives us the commentary of the religious leadership on Jesus' statements about Himself.   Christ emphasizes once again His union with the Father -- and that those who come to Him are drawn by God the Father. This is the source of true faith and revelation, and it is the bedrock of the Church, the Body of Christ.  It is just as Jesus told Peter upon Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:16-18). 

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.  This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread which came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."  My study bible comments that the eucharistic significance of this passage is indisputable.  Christ's declaration that He is Himself the living bread that gives life is a revelation of the Mystical Supper of the New Testament Church.  John does not give us the details of the Last Supper as does Luke (Luke 22:19-20).  But instead, this Gospel focuses on the significance and truth of these events -- which were, at the time of its writing, already known to its hearers in the Church -- and gives us Christ's own words verifying this.  Once again, as in yesterday's reading, if we focus in on Christ's words, He's not only including those people who follow in faith, but states that he will give His flesh for the life of the world.  That is, for all of creation.

In our recent readings and commentary, we've been focusing on just what Jesus means when He says, for example, in yesterday's reading, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."  What does that "all" mean?   It is more than the ones who come to Him; this word in Greek for "all" means everything.  In today's reading Jesus tells us that He will give His flesh for the life of the world.  Once again, Jesus' words in the Greek indicate more than the people who will be His followers.  Rather, to draw people to Him through the "lifting up" on the Cross is not just to save persons but to renew all of the created order.  In chapter 3, Jesus told Nicodemus about those who would believe, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (3:14-15).  But in the next verses, He again links His sacrifice on the Cross to the life of the world:  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (3:16-17).   In each of these cases, as in today's reading, the Greek word for "the world" is κόσμος/kosmos.  This word indicates not just planet earth, and not simply the people in the world, but rather the whole of the created order, an entire universe of creation.  As I read this text, Christ is offering to us a link between our faith and the renewal of the whole of the world.  His sacrifice on the Cross offers a chance for renewal to all of the universe, one that is found in the communion of God and man, even the faith through which the Father draws human beings to Christ.  It is John's Gospel in which Jesus will state that "unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain" (12:24), indicating a link for us between His death on the Cross and the renewal of the life of the world.  Therefore, in our faith is found a kind of renewing energy that isn't simply about our personal salvation, but which is for "the life of the world."   Grace is spoken of as being without measure.  John declares about Jesus in the Prologue to his Gospel, "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (1:16).  His fullness isn't the kind of fullness we understand through measurement; it is rather overflowing, as "grace for grace" is a Semitic expression which indicates an abundance or infinitude of grace.  In Luke 6, connected with a teaching of Beatitudes, Jesus speaks about a life that is filled with this grace, and how to live it:  "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you" (Luke 6:38).  He is connecting, in this passage, the granting of forgiveness and the practice of good judgment to an abundance of overflowing grace, both given and received.  We cannot help but to understand that we are not alone in this, but rather related to a whole world in this overflowing life; it is grace that cannot be contained within one person, but touches what is around that person.  In this sense, we can begin to see what it means that Christ was given of love for the whole world; we can't really know all that we touch in our lives, from the created order of the holy angels to whoever and whatever our lives may touch in the world.  Certainly the Gospel speaks to us about suffering and tribulation, but all comes under the context of love -- the love from which this abundance of grace flows and through which Christ is given for the life of the world in the first place.  Therefore our faith is connected to love, and the unmeasured grace which may renew an entire cosmos of creation could only come from love.  St. Paul writes about love that it "rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things," and moreover, that "love never fails" (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-13).  The renewal of all things is possible only through this love, which transcends everything.  Through the love that faith can plant in us, we simply don't know what can touch the world and how it works for renewal and blessing.  We certainly can't know what an entire order of creation looks like in the sight of God and the fullness of salvation that Christ brings.  But love nevertheless touches our lives, and we feel its absence, and can long for what we don't know and don't have, so strong a pull does this truth and joy from our Source really have upon us.  Our Scripture affirms that all of the creation groans for love, for love is the Source of all (Romans 8:22; 1 John 4:8).  Let us consider the things that faith has done and can do -- and remember that it is given of love for the world, for the life of the world.  We simply can't put a limit on that.  All we can do is seek to live it as we are guided.

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many

Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.

Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. And he said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom." But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able." So He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father." And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many."

- Matthew 20:17-28

In yesterday's reading, Jesus told a parable of what it is like to work in the kingdom of heaven, and the reward that comes to each. There was a landowner who contracted with laborers to pay them each a denarius a day. At various times of the day he went into the marketplace to call more people to work for him. Finally, when evening came, he went to his steward and told him, "Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first." So each laborer, no matter how many hours he or she worked that day, was paid the same sum: one denarius. So the ones who worked longest complained, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day." But he answered one of them and said, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good? So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen."

Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again. Since the past Thursday reading, Jesus has been teaching His disciples about leadership in His Church. Every day since, the readings have touched on various aspects of leadership, and the core of humility and service that is required for understanding of what it is to truly be great. This is the third strong warning Jesus delivers to the disciples specifically about what is to come in Jerusalem. This one, however, is the most detailed -- each warning has been a little more graphic with respect to what is to come. He will be betrayed, to the chief priests and scribes, who condemn Him to death, and will then deliver Him to the Gentiles. There He will be mocked, and scourged, and crucified. It is hard to imagine how the disciples can take in this news, no matter how many times He has begun to prepare them.

Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. And he said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom." But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able." As noted above, all the recent readings have been instruction and preparation for leadership in Christ's Church. It all began with a question from the disciples: "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" After all of Jesus' teaching (see all the lessons in between last Thursday and today), and Jesus' extraordinary statement about the suffering and death He Himself will endure, James and John Zebedee's mother approaches Him, asking for positions of greatness for her sons. My study bible points out that while Matthew reports that it is their mother who makes the request, James' and John's own involvement is revealed by Jesus' address to them -- in the Greek, the "you" is plural -- and by their plural "we" in response to Him. What it shows is the stubbornness of our ideas of greatness and position, contrasted with the values of the Kingdom which Jesus (and Matthew's gospel) has taken such great care to present. In contrast to the disciples and their mother, we note specifically the wording Jesus uses in His own response here regarding what is to come for Him. My study bible says, "Christ calls His Crucifixion a cup and His death a baptism. The Cross is a cup because He drank it willingly. His death is a baptism, for He was completely immersed in it, and by it He cleansed the world." It is a choice He is making, a transformation He will undergo for the life of the world.

So He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father." The brothers themselves -- and so many of the disciples -- will make sacrifices for the Kingdom, including martyrdom. But here is another example of humility in Jesus: to sit on His right hand and His left is not His alone to give. Christ works always in cooperation with the Father.

And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many." What is the greater good? Whose is the higher love? Says my study bible, "Here is a new definition of greatness. All offices and positions in the Church are for service of God's people based on love." What we take away from this statement is a comparison to those to whom Jesus will be handed over -- and the type of leadership He desires in His Church, for which He will set down the great example for all. Christ's life of service is for all -- "for many" in the Aramaic, my study bible says, carries the meaning of "for all." The radical statements here are the greatest and most potent examples of Jesus' teaching on humility and service. They culminate all the readings emphasizing humility and leadership in the Church, and cannot be overemphasized for the language Christ uses here so vividly for us all.

Jesus will set us the great example of service and humility in His own death and Resurrection. He will give His life as a ransom for many, meaning for all those who come afterward in faith. The Church also teaches that He will go to the deceased as well, that they may live in spirit. There is no one left out of this phrase for many. This is something we often lose sight of, but the Church has always held that Christ is really a savior for the whole world, for every person, "for the life of the world" as John Zebedee will write in his own gospel bearing his name. Jesus' focus on leadership has been a focus of tremendous sacrifice, and today's language is even more strong in this dimension: the great shall be servants, the first shall be a slave. And we know what His own great sacrifice will entail. But I feel it's a good idea to focus on the good that is done in sacrifice that we may know nothing about. If Jesus' plan is indeed for the life of the world, those living and those passed, everyone to whom His name has gone and those who may know nothing of Him in their lifetimes in this world, we trust that these words are true, and that the traditional position of the Church is sound. There is no one left out who may benefit, find salvation and eternal life, through this sacrifice that begins the Church, and that is an example for the the life of the church. There is no one who is left out, one way and another. The repercussions of the good things we do today, the sacrifice we make and even the suffering we may endure for the sake of this gospel, may be something entirely incalculable for any of us. We just don't know how far down the line, and how far into the heart, even into eternity where all may dwell, what we do and what we may be asked to contribute may actually go. While the gospel readings focus on sacrifice -- the cup of Jesus' suffering on the Cross, the baptism of His death -- we must focus on the tremendous importance of what He is saying here. His life is a ransom "for many," for anyone who will accept it. Can we put a calculation on what may be, in fact, infinite? Let us consider Jesus' words, and where they lead us. Consider what you are a part of when you sacrifice and accept, with Him, the work for the kingdom which is for the life of the world. We remember the words from John's gospel: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The life of which He speaks is of this age and the age to come, the world in the Greek is not planet earth, but the whole cosmos, the whole of creation. We just can't possibly calculate how great that extends, its depth and height and breadth. But it lives in us, and in our service which we contribute, with Him as our prime example of leadership.