Jesus, John, and Maslow’s Pyramid!
August 22, 2021
John 6:56-69
[Jesus said,] “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”
Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Every time I hear the stories within the gospel of John, I am reminded of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a theory I learned about when taking a course in educational psychology that was a required for my Master’s Degree in education.
Maslow proposed that humans have a Hierarchy of needs. He created a classification system which ranks these universal needs in the form of a pyramid. He split the pyramid into two categories. At the bottom of the pyramid, are the deficiency needs. Residing at the top of the pyramid are being or growth needs.
Deficiency needs are essential for survival and safety. So the first level comprising the base of the pyramid are humanity’s most essential needs—air, water, food, clothing, shelter, and so on. In other words the things we physiologically need to survive. Moving up to the next level are safety needs—including personal, emotional, and financial security, as well as well-being. Next comes a need to belong and be loved—family, friendship, and intimacy. And finally, above that level are self-esteem needs—respect from others, a need for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. It also includes the need for self-respect, including strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence, and freedom.
The upper levels are comprised of being or growth needs, beginning with a need to know and understand such as creativity, predictability, curiosity, and meaning. Above that level are aesthetic needs. Humans require beautiful imagery or novel and aesthetically pleasing experiences. In other words, an appreciation for music, art, and nature. Next is self-actualization— the realization of one's full potential and the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be. And finally transcendence, which includes spiritual needs—giving oneself to something beyond oneself, altruism or spirituality. Maslow equated this level with the desire to reach the infinite. When this need is met, it produces feelings of integrity and raises things to a higher plane of existence. The fullest realization is in giving oneself to something beyond oneself.
Maslow's idea suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire to attain the next level of needs. So one moves from the bottom to the next level above until one reaches the top of the pyramid.
Okay! With this said, we know who Jesus is. We know John as a gospel writer, and now we know that Maslow is not some Egyptian who had an outstanding pyramid built! So, what does Maslow’s Pyramid have to do with Jesus or John or our gospel lesson for that matter? Let’s begin with Jesus. What is interesting about Jesus is that he knew all about a person’s hierarchy of needs before Maslow came up with his theory. Furthermore we can safely say that Jesus reached the top of the pyramid.
John, the gospel writer, illustrates how Jesus is very well aware of his own needs, as well as, the needs of the people he encounters. He shows that Jesus often begins by healing, comforting, and supplying what people need at the lower level of Maslow’s Pyramid. He speaks in terms of the tangible, physical things people can relate to and then shifts to the more spiritual, intangible transcendent, spiritual things that his followers can’t detect with their senses.
Jesus is also aware that many of his disciples and followers reside in the realm of the concrete—what they see, hear, feel, taste and smell. Many are still working through deficiency needs at the bottom of Maslow’s Pyramid and haven’t reached the upper levels of being or growth needs. But that doesn’t stop Jesus from talking about upper level needs. For example, in Johns Gospel Jesus meets up with a woman at a well and speaks about water and thirst. But then he ends up talking to her about spiritual water that will quench her spiritual thirst.
When speaking to Nicodemus Jesus talks about rebirth, but Nicodemus understands Jesus to mean physical rebirth and he queries, “How can anybody who has gotten old now go back to his mother’s womb and be reborn? But, Jesus isn’t speaking of the physical. He is speaking of rebirth by the spirit from above.
In today’s gospel lesson, “Bread” is a metaphor for all our needs. Martin Luther in his explanation of the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer—give us this day our daily bread—says bread means, “Everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink clothes, shoes, house, farm, fields livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children upright members of the household, right and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, heath, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. Sounds a bit like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, doesn’t it?
In the verses before our gospel lesson, Jesus identifies himself saying, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” The people get what he is saying because Jesus appeals to their deficiency needs of food and water. Or, do they really get it?
In todays lesson Jesus takes it a step further and says, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. …Whoever eats me will live because of me.” Okay, now Jesus is losing some of them because he isn’t talking about the kind of bread that satisfies our stomachs. He is talking about bread that satisfies our souls. So, the disciples don’t get it. They say, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” It sounds cannibalistic to them. Jesus responds, “Does this offend you?” Well, yeah, Jesus. it does!
Jesus goes on to explain, “It is the spirit that gives life. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Jesus knows that some will not, cannot believe what he is telling them. And, he knows that even one from his inner circle will betray him. So, he isn’t surprised when many of his followers fall away from him.
Then Jesus turns to the twelve and asks them, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter replies, using the words we now use as a gospel acclamation, Alleluia! “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Alleluia! Alleluia!
When Jesus says, I am the bread of life, he means that he comes to address all of our needs, not just the physical but the spiritual, as well. Jesus tells us that we gain life by giving our lives away. Maslow would call this self-actualization or transcendence.
Spiritual growth moves us beyond our own wants, needs, and desires. It focuses us outward, looking to the needs of others. Instead of being curved in upon ourselves, as Luther puts it, we strive to usher in the Kingdom of God here on earth by thinking beyond our own wants and desires. Jesus tells us,“Seek first the kingdom of God. Seek the living water Jesus has to offer. Seek the bread of life.
And yet, I have one bone of contention with Maslow. I believe we can strive to attain higher levels on Maslow’s Pyramid, but we can’t do it alone. As Christians, what truly motivates us, helps us to attain self-actualization and transcendence is God. God sends us the Holy Spirit which empowers us to attain all we can be.
Little did I know years ago, that I would end up using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in a sermon as a pastor. It is the spoken word of God that enables us to love and be loved. It is Jesus who infuses us with the Holy Spirit which motivates us to obtain higher levels and to use all of our learnings, experiences, and talents to share our faith and to further his kingdom on earth. And it is Jesus’ example and the Holy Spirit that helps us be all we can be, to rise to self-actualization and to give ourselves to something beyond ourselves. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. It is the spirit that gives life. I give you words of spirit and life.”
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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