In John 6 (Read Chapter here) there is A LOT that takes place. This chapter is 71 verses in all, but it is broken up nicely into 4 different sections.
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (verses 1-15)
This is a miracle of Jesus that is talked about very regularly. All four Gospels give an account of this particular miracle which gives a clue as to the level of amazement and impact this miracle had on Jesus' followers. You can find the other accounts in Matthew 14 (includes Jesus walking on the Water), Mark 6 (also includes Jesus walking on the Water), and Luke 9. It is rare to find an event in the Life of Jesus where ALL four gospels talk about it so this particular event was extremely important to the gospel writers.
In short summary of this account, we see Jesus crossing the Sea of Galilee and a crowd of people follow him, these people had seen him do a number of miracles and healings and are amazed enough by Jesus to walk away from home, work, family, responsibilities, etc to watch Jesus do more miracles. Jesus notices the crowd and sits down on a mountainside. He decides that he and his apostles need to feed the crowd, but the crowd is at minimum, numbering 5000 because that is how many MEN were there. This number doesn't include women and children; so the number could easily be 10k-15k. Think about trying to feed that many people a decent, filling, lunch...very expensive Philip told Jesus it would take 8 months of wages to pay for everyone to simply have a bite; let alone a full meal. Then Andrew brings a boy he found who has 5 loaves of Bread and 2 small Fish, but this can't do anything to help feed 5000+ people. Jesus tells the people to sit, he "gave thanks" then distributes the food and there is enough to feed all the people so they "all had enough to eat". Then the disciples gather 12 baskets full (like bushel size baskets is my understanding) of leftovers.
The people there who witnessed the miracle talked amongst themselves saying this guy is the real deal, he has to be from God. And Jesus knew that they wanted to make him their King so he slipped away alone.
One thing that I wanted to point out was that Jesus provided. This wasn't something the people asked for. They didn't come to Jesus saying we're hungry, please feed us. Jesus saw the crowd coming, the other 3 gospels tell us it was late in the afternoon, late in the day, and becoming evening; so seeing that these people were probably hungry he decided to feed them. They had a need and he met it.
God delights in providing for his children just as most parents delight in giving their own children what they need. There is great Joy in being a dependable provider for one's children. There is a sense of fulfilled responsibility and purpose, "a job well done" kind of feeling...except there is a deeper more personal emotion attached to it that creates a deeper feeling of Joy than simply completing a task. Providing for one's children could easily be described as a labor of Love. Jesus shows us in this miracle the fulfillment of one of God's primary promises to us throughout scripture, "Provider".
Jesus Walks on Water (verses 16-24)
So Jesus has disappeared on the apostles and they are probably thinking, "not again" cause he tended to do this to them from time to time. So they are making their way across the sea to Capernum and they had gone, John says, 3 or 3.5 miles and the water would starts getting rough and the wind starts blowing and they are rowing hard fighting the waves in the dark of the evening; then they see this guy walking towards them on the water. What would your first reaction be? FEAR is a good word for it. But he spoke, telling them it was just him, Jesus; their fear was eased and they let him in the boat. Then interestingly the boat immediately reached the shore where they were heading. We don't know if they were actually really close to the shore at this point or if there was a divine transport to the shore, but much like Jesus walking on the water, we don't necessarily need to know everything to have faith in the sovereignty of God.
The next day the crowds realized that Jesus and his disciples were gone so they hopped some ship that had just arrived and went to Capernum looking for Jesus.
This section is heavy on the Sovereignty of God; meaning God has power over all things. Nothing is outside of his abilities. God created the winds and the waves and so he can do with them what he wants, walk on them, stop them, start them, etc. Jesus as God's son has this same sovereignty over all things and he shows it here by doing this great feat of walking on the water.
Jesus the Bread of Life
In the Old Testament, God provided daily food (Manna) for the Israelites while they were wondering in the desert/wilderness on their way to the land God promised would be theirs to begin a nation in. Jesus tells the crowd once they find him that yesterday he gave them bread that filled them for a few hours, but they need to eat of the bread of life, bread that allow them never to be hungry again. They want this bread, of course, and ask how to get it and Jesus says, I AM that bread, but you don't get it. You want more miracles and signs from me to "prove" that I am the one sent by God. Then Jesus goes into this really weird bit of talking where he literally says I am the bread that has come down from heaven (meaning I am of God), unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you are will not have eternal life.
There are 2 Major problems here for the crowd: 1) By saying he is the bread of life come down from heaven, he is claiming divinity and specifically he is claiming to be the son of God. These people knew Jesus from his hometown, they knew his parents, some probably watched him grow up and now he claiming to have come down from heaven. They can't bring the 2 ideas together and reconcile that the sovereignty of God could allow something like this. Plus the Jews fully expected the coming "Savior" to be a "knight in shining armor" kind of character that would throw down the Roman Government and reestablish the Jewish nation as a the power of the world. So you can probably see the problem they have with a poor carpenter's son who hangs out with fishermen and tax collectors claiming to be the Divine son of God. 2) By telling the people they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, they really think he intends for them to become cannibals and gain eternal life through eating his body. But the problem is that this crowd has so deceived themselves that they can't listen to what Jesus is trying to plainly tell them because they are so caught up with what they want to hear. Jesus is speaking very basic metaphors and they are listening with literal ears. Jesus is trying to compare the manna that gave daily nourishment to the Old Testament Jews in the wilderness to him as Savior who gives eternal life. They hear flesh and Jesus is speaking spirit. They are actually asking some decent questions, but because Jesus already shot down their attempt to make him king, they have began to turn negative against him and "can't see the forest for the trees." No matter what Jesus says here they are caught up in their own personal ideas of what the "Savior" will be and are blinded by themselves to the Savior who is right in front of them. These people are asking for signs and miracles from Jesus to prove that he is of God as he says he is when just the day before he fed a ridiculous amount of people front nearly nothing. Miracles he gave them, but they weren't really looking for a Savior all they wanted was a free meal and a show.
Ultimately what this interaction does is begin the downward spiral of Jesus' popularity as he increasingly reveals who he is as the Son of God, Savior of the world, Messiah, etc.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
After this discussion that seems to take up most of the day and the reality that these people aren't going to see any more miracles they decide Jesus isn't what they were hoping he was and he definitely is not what they were looking for and they leave. Jesus' disciples comment to him saying, Jesus, this hard stuff for you to say, and he basically responds by saying "if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen." And a number of his disciples desert him. Jesus then turns to his 12 apostles and says do you want to leave too? And Peter despite his often thoughtless comments makes one of the most simple yet profound statements I have ever seen; he says, "LORD, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." In other words, what other option is there? We believe you are who you say you are and so therefore, where else could we go? This is a major statement of Faith by Peter. BUT...
Jesus takes this response and says, you may believe I am who I say I am, but remember something: I chose you, you didn't choose me. These people were trying to choose me as king. I am not campaigning for a position here, I am teaching with words of truth. These people have seen me do many miracles and yet they still can't believe my words. I chose you and the father gave you the ability to believe in me. I chose you, and yet one of you is my enemy/the devil (referring to Judas Iscariot who would later betray him). This statement by Jesus gives some insight. It reminds us that we can only come to Jesus when invited to come, which we see multiple times from Jesus that through the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection all are invited, but not everyone will come. So there is an open invitation, but there also must be a response. Secondly, that response MUST be a continual response. Judas Iscariot responded and followed Jesus for almost his entire ministry, but he then betray Jesus to be turned over to the Jewish leaders and turned his back on him. Salvation doesn't come just through a one-time response to the invitation of Jesus. Salvation come through a lifetime of continual following the call of Christ to take his Gospel to the world.
There was a lot that happened in this chapter, please ask questions and make comments if something needs more details or if something leads you to a question about something else. Any comments are welcome. thanks.
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