Words for The Wise, John 6 NASB, Feeding the 5,000

 

 John 6New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Five Thousand Fed

6 After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). ² A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the ^[a]signs which He was performing on those who were sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. ⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. ⁵ Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, *said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” ⁶ This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. ⁷ Philip answered Him, “Two hundred ^[b]denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” ⁸ One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, *said to Him, ⁹ “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?” ¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people ^[c]sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men ^[d]sat down, in number about five thousand. ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. ¹² When they were filled, He *said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” ¹³ So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴ Therefore when the people saw the ^[e]sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Jesus Walks on the Water

¹⁵ So Jesus, perceiving that they were ^[f]intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

¹⁶ Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, ¹⁷ and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸ The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. ¹⁹ Then, when they had rowed about ^[g]three or four miles, they *saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. ²⁰ But He *said to them, “It is I; ^[h]do not be afraid.” ²¹ So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

²² The next day the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone. ²³ There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴ So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. ²⁵ When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

Words to the People

²⁶ Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. ²⁷ Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” ²⁸ Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” ²⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” ³⁰ So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? ³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” ³² Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is ^[i]that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” ³⁴ Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. ³⁶ But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. ³⁷ All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. ³⁹ This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

Words to the Jews

⁴¹ Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” ⁴² They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” ⁴³ Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. ⁵⁴ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

Words to the Disciples

⁵⁹ These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

⁶⁰ Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? ⁶² What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would ^[j]betray Him. ⁶⁵ And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

Peter’s Confession of Faith

⁶⁶ As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” ⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” ⁷¹ Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, ^[k]was going to betray Him.

The IVP New Testament Commentary Series

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (6:1-15)

Jesus has said that Moses wrote about him, and now, when he miraculously feeds the five thousand, the people conclude that he is the prophet Moses wrote about (6:14; cf. Deut 18:15). Jesus is indeed the prophet, but he is also something much greater. He is not only the prophet that Moses wrote about but the God that Moses wrote about, the one who gave bread in the wilderness.

Once again we find Jesus in Galilee with people attracted to him because of the signs he has done (cf. 4:45). The crowd's faith is defective, as was the faith of the earlier crowd. The fact that it is described as a great crowd at the outset (6:2) contrasts sharply with the desertion of all but the Twelve at the conclusion of the story (6:66). As we watch the dynamics that lead from acceptance to rejection we learn something about the nature of discipleship.

The reference to the Passover (6:4) alerts us to another developing motif in this Gospel. At a previous Passover feast (2:13) Jesus made reference to his coming death (2:19-22; 3:14-15), and the opponents sought to kill him (5:18). Here, again in the context of Passover, he provides one of the most profound discussions of his coming death, which is to occur at a later Passover. The exodus of this new Moses is accomplished in his own sacrificial death as the Passover lamb, whose flesh and blood give life to the world (6:51-58). "The multitude, by coming to Jesus instead of going to Jerusalem, finds in him the true meaning of Passover" (Talbert 1992:131-32).

The account of the feeding begins with Jesus' asking Philip, Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? (v. 5). Since Philip is from the area (1:44) this could come across as a simple question of where the shops are located posed to a local boy. But in fact it is a test (v. 6), and Philip fails. He is asked "where" and can think only in terms of "how." It is a very difficult test because Jesus refers to "buying" bread. A correct answer, in keeping with faithful responses earlier in the Gospel (for example, 1:38; 2:5), might be something like, "Lord, you know." Or perhaps even more could be expected: Jesus' question echoes that of Moses in the wilderness (Num 11:13), and if Philip caught this allusion and remembered that Jesus has turned water into wine, he might have said, "You, Lord, are able to provide." But Philip does not grasp the full significance of his earlier confession that Jesus is "the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote" (1:45).

Thus the test is ultimately concerned with the recognition of Jesus' identity and the graciousness of God. In fact, even in this test itself Jesus' identity and God's graciousness are evident. Jesus is acting like God, for in testing Philip, Jesus is treating him like God treats his own people in the Old Testament. Indeed, in the Old Testament, God tests only his own people, not those outside the covenant relationship; and the only individuals God is said to test are the godly, not the ungodly. What God is looking for is faith, trust that God will be loyal to his covenant obligations to care for his people (Schneider and Brown 1978:799-800). This question is meant to reveal Jesus as the presence of that gracious God who is providing the ultimate blessing—eternal life.

God's children continue to be tested in this same way today. We who have the benefit of the revelation of the New Testament and the witness of the Spirit still find ourselves in situations that challenge us to think and act in keeping with our recognition of God as the ultimate reality in every situation, even situations of great fear or grief, when God seems absent or cruel (cf. comments on 6:20 and 11:27). Such testing is not comfortable, but it is part of God's graciousness, for it achieves a deepening of our faith by revealing our own weakness and God's all-sufficiency.

Philip has called attention to the enormity of the problem. Then Andrew points to the meagerness of the resources (v. 9). The availability of twelve baskets for collecting the leftovers (v. 13) suggests this child was not the only one who had brought food. But there is no suggestion that this feeding was accomplished by getting people to share their lunches. Indeed, the reference to this event as a "sign" rules out such an interpretation (6:26; cf. Mk. 6:52). Rather, Jesus takes a child's lunch and from it provides for all. Andrew does not see how the child's lunch can be of help, but just such weakness is characteristic of the way God provides. He produces sons from barren women (Gen 18:11) and even from a virgin (Mt 1:18); he chooses what is foolish, weak, lowly, despised and even nonexistent (1 Cor 1:27-28). He is the God of the impossible (Mk 10:27), as the salvation of each of us testifies.

Given the allusions to Moses and the stress on both the enormity of the need and the meagerness of the resources, the actual account of the miracle is striking in its spare simplicity. The disciples are told to get the people to sit down. The disciples play no further role, unlike in the Synoptics where they are the ones who distribute the food (Mt 14:19 par. Mk 6:41 par. Lk 9:16). John does not suggest otherwise, but his focus is entirely on Jesus. He took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed (v. 11). Jesus is clearly in charge from first to last, having taken the initiative (v. 5; contrast Mt 14:15 par. Mk 6:35-36 par. Lk 9:12) and now distributing the food himself. He is acting as the father of a family, but in giving thanks he refers it all back to his Father, as will be developed in the following discourse. Everyone received as much as they wanted (v. 11), they were all full (v. 12), and twelve baskets full of food was left over (v. 13). This leftover food echoes the account of Elisha's feeding a hundred people from only twenty barley loaves (2 Kings 4:42-44). Here we see the same gracious abundance evident in the provision of more than one hundred gallons of wine at the wedding (2:6-9). It is a sign that reveals Jesus' identity and the Father's gracious gifts. All food and drink come from God, so Jesus here continues to do what he sees his Father doing (5:19). But provision of nourishment for physical life is itself a sign of nourishment for life in a deeper sense, as will become clear later in the chapter.

The people who have been following him because they saw signs now interpret this sign correctly. They identify Jesus as the prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15) and want to make him king. Among at least some Jews, Moses was viewed as both the greatest prophet and the ideal king (Meeks 1967), a connection that seems reflected in the response of this crowd. But, like the disciples in chapter 1, they are applying correct titles to Jesus with no real understanding of what they are saying. They think of kingship in earthly, political terms whereas Jesus' kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18:36). Furthermore, their attitude is as wrong as their understanding. The desire to come and make him king by force (6:15) is totally opposite to the humble and docile attitude that is characteristic of true disciples. They are working on their own agenda, not God's, and thus ironically they share a chief characteristic of Jesus' opponents. Jesus escapes from them, just as he will escape from the opponents later (8:59; 12:36).

Each of us probably knows from experience how easy it is to come up with our own ideas and confuse them with the Lord's will. Only great humility and docility before the Lord and his revelation can protect us. Part of God's grace is seen in his continual correction of our false views. In the discourse that follows in this chapter we see him trying to correct and deepen these folks' understanding, but to no avail. We should fear lest we also are as obtuse as these people. True receptivity is itself a gift from God for which we can trust him.

The Bible Panorama

John 6

V 1–3: SIGNS AND SITTING Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee and many follow Him because of His signs in healing diseased people. After that, He goes to a mountain and takes time to sit down with His disciples. Jesus is as interested in personal time with His disciples as He is in working in the lives of others.

V 4–14: POWER TO PROVIDE A huge crowd, including 5,000 men, are fed by the miraculous multiplying by Jesus of five loaves and two fish. All are filled. The disciples are involved in the distribution of the food and in the collection of what is left over. This sign convinces the men that Jesus is the Prophet who is to come into the world

. V 15–21: WALKING ON WATER Jesus resists the popular acclaim and goes to a mountain to be alone. His disciples start rowing to the other side of the lake, towards Capernaum. It is night and a storm arises while they are three or four miles out. Jesus walks to them on the water and assures them of who He is. When Jesus enters the boat, it immediately reaches its destination.

V 22–42: GIVEN FROM GLORY The people, still impressed by the feeding of the huge multitude from a few loaves and fish, come to find Jesus. He warns them about seeking Him just because they are taken up too much with the miraculous feeding itself rather than with what that shows about the character and Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ, and tells them that the important thing is to believe in Him. He declares Himself as coming from heaven in just the same way as manna was given from heaven in the wilderness. He is the Bread of Life. He gives eternal life and fulfilment to those who come to Him. The Jews complain, because they recognise that He is talking about His heavenly origin and they know that He is the ‘son of Joseph’, probably remembering that Joseph was not the natural father of Jesus. They dispute that Jesus is given from glory

. V 43–66: DIFFICULTY IN DOCTRINE Jesus teaches that those who come to Him are drawn by the Father and then develops the thought of Himself as the Bread of Life. He says no one may have everlasting life without eating His flesh and drinking His blood. The disciples are offended by this difficult saying and do not understand it. Jesus then explains that He is speaking spiritually. This is merely an illustrative parallel, and not a literal cannibalistic requirement! He is talking about spiritual faith in Christ, and stresses that it is belief that saves. (Over the years, some people have sought to support a wrong view of the meaning of holy communion from these verses, but Jesus is clearly teaching a spiritual belief in Him through a dramatic illustration. Nowhere in the Bible is it taught that the bread and the wine actually become His body and His blood. If that were a requirement for everlasting life, then all of His physical disciples would be lost because at the time they ate communion with Him, He had not even died upon the cross, and clearly His body and blood were intact.) Some go back and walk with Jesus no more when He tells them that He knows those who believe in Him, and who will betray Him.

V 67–71: DISTINCTION IN DISCIPLES Simon Peter confesses that Jesus has the words of eternal life, and that He is ‘the Christ, the Son of the Living God’. Jesus reveals that one of the twelve is against Him but He does not reveal that his name is Judas Iscariot.

Warren Wiersbe BE Bible Study Series

1. Jesus Feeds the Multitude (6:1-14)

The problem, of course, was how to meet the needs of such a vast crowd of people. Four solutions were proposed.

First, the disciples suggested that Jesus send the people away (Mark 6:35-36). Get rid of the problem (see Matt. 15:23). But Jesus knew that the hungry people would faint on the way if somebody did not feed them. It was evening (Matt. 14:15), and that was no time for travel.

The second solution came from Philip in response to our Lord’s “test question” (John 6:5): Raise enough money to buy food for the people. Philip “counted the cost” and decided they would need the equivalent of two hundred days’ wages! And even that would not provide bread enough to satisfy the hunger of all the men, women, and children (Matt. 14:21). Too often, we think that money is the answer to every need. Of course, Jesus was simply testing the strength of Philip’s faith.

The third solution came from Andrew, but he was not quite sure how the problem would be solved. He found a little boy who had a small lunch: two little fish and five barley cakes. Once again, Andrew is busy bringing somebody to Jesus (see John 1:40-42; 12:20-22). We do not know how Andrew met this lad, but we are glad he did! Though Andrew does not have a prominent place in the Gospels, he was apparently a “people person” who helped solve problems.

The fourth solution came from our Lord, and it was the true solution. He took the little boy’s lunch, blessed it, broke it, handed it out to His disciples, and they fed the whole crowd! The miracle took place in the hands of the Savior, not in the hands of the disciples. He multiplied the food; they only had the joyful privilege of passing it out. Not only were the people fed and satisfied, but the disciples salvaged twelve baskets of fragments for future use. The Lord wasted nothing.

The practical lesson is clear: Whenever there is a need, give all that you have to Jesus, and let Him do the rest. Begin with what you have, but be sure you give it all to Him. That little lad is to be commended for sharing his lunch with Christ, and his mother is to be commended for giving him something to give to Jesus. The gift of that little snack meant as much to Jesus as the pouring out of the expensive ointment (John 12:1ff.).

But did Jesus really perform a miracle? Perhaps the generosity of the boy only embarrassed the other people so that they brought out their hidden lunches and shared them all around. Nonsense! Jesus knows people’s hearts (John 2:24; 6:61, 64, 70), and He declared that the people were hungry. Surely He would have known of the existence of hidden food! Furthermore, the people themselves declared that this was a miracle and even wanted to crown Him King (John 6:14-16)! Had this event been only the result of mass psychology, the crowd would not have responded that way. John would never have selected this as one of the “signs” if it were not an authentic miracle.

It is significant that twice John mentioned the fact that Jesus gave thanks (John 6:11, 23). Matthew, Mark, and Luke all state that Jesus looked up to heaven when He gave thanks. By that act, He reminded the hungry people that God is the source of all good and needful gifts. This is a good lesson for us: Instead of complaining about what we do not have, we should give thanks to God for what we do have, and He will make it go further.

Yours by His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport, Merseyside,  United Kingdom

30^th July 2015.