“Before the coming of Christ, there was no bread in the world. In paradise, there were many trees to feed the animals; humans fed themselves like animals. There was no bread until Christ, the fulfilled human, came; He brought bread from heaven so that humans would know a human food.
“The spiritual powers in high places [Archons] thought that it was through their power and their will that they did what they did; but it was the Holy Spirit which, through them, worked its own desire in secret.
“The Truth is sown everywhere, existing since the beginning; some see it at the time it is sown, but few still see it at the time of harvest.” [Gospel of Philip vs. 15-16]
Theologian Kenneth Tanner once told me something that really got me thinking. He mentioned to me that the elements of the New Covenant – the bread and the wine – are created by humanity in collaboration with God.
In other words, God created grapes, but we made the wine. God created wheat, but we made the bread.
From there, we can also see that God created wood, but we made crosses. God created iron but we made things like hammers and nails.
This really got me thinking about how God needs us to accomplish the redemption initiative. Without us, it’s just grapes and wheat, iron and wood. Sometimes what we contribute to the equation is beneficial. Sometimes what we contribute is misguided and cruel. Either way, without us, nothing happens. Without humanity, there would only be wheat and grapes, wood and iron. Without us there would be no bread, wine, nails or crosses.
This means that our collaboration with the Divine is essential. It is the Christ in us that becomes “the hope of glory,” not merely Christ alone. Do you see this? Christ, apart from us, cannot do anything. It is the Incarnation of Christ – Christ in us – where the Divine image is fully expressed.
This means that, until we are the willing, active, intentional agents of Christ in this world, our world is without Christ. The only incarnation of Christ in this world is what we incarnate today. Here and now.
Yes, we must come to the realization that we need God, but we must also come to the understanding that God needs us. Without us – our hands, our feet, our voices – God’s Kingdom cannot come to earth as it is in heaven.
The Incarnation, then, is a declaration that God’s Divine reality is here and now, not “up there” or “coming soon” but today, in this place where you and I live and breathe and move and have our being.
So, when the author of this Gospel says that “Before the coming of Christ there was no bread in the world,” this is what I believe he’s saying: “Christ’s incarnation made the creation of bread and wine possible.” Why? Because, until there was an Incarnation of the Divine and the Human, such collaboration wasn’t possible. Or, to put it another way, the act of collaboration between the Divine and the Human is precisely what the Incarnation is all about. This Collaboration is another word for Incarnation. They are one and the same.
The food that sustains us deeply within – the food that nourishes both the Divine and the Human within us – is created out of this Divine Collaboration. We are fed by the fruit of this Divine Collaboration. When the Divine and the Human work together, they create something that never existed before, and never could exist without this collaboration. Bread and Wine are Holy simply because they are created in collaboration with the Shared Divinity and Shared Humanity of all things.
God’s Spirit permeates all reality. All Truth is God’s truth. This Truth is sown everywhere, and while many perceive it as coming from God, very few can see it when it is manifested in the beautiful collaboration with Humanity.
The fullness of God is made alive in you, and in me, and in all of us, together, working collaboratively with one another to create the elements of our own redemption and awakening.
We are what God is doing in the world.
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The new book from Keith Giles, The Quantum Gospel of Mary and the Lost Gospel of Truth, releases May 20th on Amazon.
“The Quantum Sayings of Jesus: Decoding the Lost Gospel of Thomas” is available now on Amazon. Order HERE>
Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has been interviewed on CNN with Anderson Cooper, Coast to Coast Radio with George Noory, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.”
He co-hosts The Heretic Happy Hour Podcast and his solo podcast, Second Cup With Keith which are both available on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Podbean or wherever you find great podcasts.
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