The bread-keeper
Lord is not exactly Jesus’ nickname, but when someone wants to get his attention in a crowd as often as not they’ll shout, “Lord!” and he’ll turn in their direction. When Peter was sinking in the sea he called out, “Lord!” and Jesus reached out his hand to save him. This may be too playful for you, but in simple terms I think of the names of Jesus like this: Jesus is his name. That’s the name his mother gave him on orders from God through the Angel Gabriel. Christ is his job title. Christ means anointed one. Jesus is the Christ anointed to be the savior of the world. Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine which means he is the infinity of God’s love come to dwell among us in full solidarity with all that it means to be human. Jesus Christ was anointed to teach us the way of Love as a Way of life.
Now, all that being said, those close to Jesus (that’s you!) call him, Lord. Lord is a wonderful old word with lots of history. My favorite definition of the word Lord fits Jesus perfectly. Lord means bread-keeper. The one whom we call Lord is the keeper of the bread. Jesus is the bread-keeper. The only reason the bread-keeper has bread is to give the bread away. The bread that we hunger for is God’s love. Jesus is the keeper of God’s love, and he freely gives it away to anyone one who puts out their hand.
Jesus is the bread-keeper who gives us the bread of God’s love, so that we can in turn give bread to all our neighbors.
The bread of the bread-keeper takes many forms.
Sometimes:
bread is a sandwich or a cup of soup. If someone is hungry, feed them.
bread is understanding. If someone needs to talk, listen.
bread is sympathy. If someone is sad, sit with them.
bread is love. Tell everyone that God loves them.
Always bread is love…
We are followers of the bread-keeper called to be bread-keepers, so that we can give the bread of God’s love to whoever is right in front of us according to their need. Jesus is Lord, the bread-keeper, offering to all the bread that saves.