Bible Study Notes - John 6:1-15

Bible Study Notes - John 6:1-15

As a child, I found the story of the feeding of five thousand men not counting women and children, meaning practically the miracle extended to more than fifteen thousand persons if each man had a wife and one child, to be one of the most exciting stories in the New Testament.  I wondered how amazing this miracle seemed to so many hungry people who literally had nowhere to go for food.  The Ancient Near East did not have convenience stores, coffee shops and gas stations with aisles of snacks and other types of junk food. There was not a Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts on practically every corner as it appears in Manhattan or Queens NY.  The text stipulates the crowd followed Jesus into a remote area secluded from the hustle and bustle of Main Street’s daily commerce.  Yet, I envisioned the bulging eyes, wide smiles and breathtaking gasps as innumerable fish and loaves of bread emanated from a greasy brown bag containing buttered bread and a few sardines.   I thought how exciting it must have been for the little boy whose mother dutifully packed a lunch for him so that he could go listen to “Mr. Jesus.”  The lad could not possibly imagine he would factor so significantly in a divine miracle.  I most wondered whether I too could be God’s agent to help countless people.

Often, we seal indelibly Hollywood’s depiction of biblical narratives and miracles.  These characterizations focus mostly upon the suspension of natural law.  How does a person take two fish and five loaves of bread and feed satisfyingly more than fifteen thousand people?  Allowing our ability and willingness to override the inherent skepticism of our rapidly advancing scientific, technological and empirical worldview, we may dwell upon the mechanisms of the miracle instead of its enduring meaning and lessons of eternal truths.  Arguably, the real miracle embedded within this story is the possibility of service to countless need persons with meager resources of a person is willing genuinely to devote them to God’s exclusive use.  Conceivably, the young lad could have resisted the disciples’ appeal to commandeer his lunch prepared ever so lovingly with a mother’s foresight that her son would become hungry as the meeting progressed.  Yet, this little boy who remains nameless to human history with a child’s faith and pure heart sacrifices his lunch.  He offers it to “Mr. Jesus” who performs miracles. On that day, the little boy participates significantly in this divine plan as he miraculously surrenders his needs to those of the crowd by offering to the Lord the fullest extent of his resources.  Authentic selfless giving is a miracle!

As you study and reflect upon the text, consider the following questions and ideas.

·         What leads John to specific the time interval, “Some time after this?”  Is this phrase merely a literary transition?  What is the amount of time?  What is its significance?
·         What is the meaning of traversing the far shore of the Sea of Tiberias?  Admittedly, it offers geographical location and a reader the possibility of authenticating the story were he to investigate John’s sources.
·         According to the second verse, the crowd follows Jesus in pursuit of free healings and they had witnessed other amazing signs of divine visitation, mercy and grace.  As a clergy colleague of mine aptly posits, “Anyone passing out free healings can command the allegiance of a crowd.”  My colleagues somewhat cynical assessment indirectly alludes to a very important movement in the drama of this passage.  The crowd in seeking satisfaction of their physical ailments and the exacerbation of their hunger which the Lord addresses in providing them food misses the enduring lesson about His spiritual teachings which are eternal food for spiritually hungry people.  In focusing on their bodies, the crowd negates the importance of their minds, hearts and souls.
·         Verse three refers to the three and a half years of seminars which the Lord spends with His disciples educating them about the kingdom of God.  The disciples throughout the public ministry harbor in the crevices of their minds and closets of their hearts the personal and collective dreams of Israel’s restoration to her former glory as in the reigns of David and Solomon (Acts 1:6).  In fact, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, proactively ask for the two places of honor in Jesus ‘ new kingdom which they expect Him to inaugurate at any moment with a final, irreversible militaristic overthrow of Rome and all other Gentile, pagan powers.  Similar to the myopia of the infirm and hungry crowd of onlookers who desperately want physical healing and food, the disciples suffer from a type of Daltonism whereby they do not comprehend the Lord’s teachings.  Rather, they determine He is God’s agent to accomplish their dreams and goals which the Jewish people nurtured for thousands of years and countless generations.  Practically speaking, they await the revolution which they resolve they will win because Jesus will utilize divine power to ensure their victory.
·         John notes the approach Passover to supply the reader with a chronological demarcation.  Moreover, this fact contains literary and theological significance as the Passover was a perennial celebration of Yahweh’s liberation of Israel from Egyptian slavery.  Ironically, many in the crowd would have had a consciousness toward spiritual lessons yet they still miss the meaning of Jesus’ teachings as they dwell upon physical desires.  Self-centered fear and self-seeking motives reliably prevent anyone from seeing a larger purpose.  Contemporarily, the crass commercialization of Christmastime greatly undermines the eternal meaning of God’s gift of His “One and Only Begotten Son” for the salvation of the world.
·         Jesus shockingly asks Philip where and how they will feed the crowd as the hour became late and they had not eaten since breakfast.  This startling question parallels myriad predicaments in millions of American households each month when there are more bills in seemingly infinite amounts than there are funds in bank accounts to remit those invoices.  What do you do when life compels an impossible question?
·         In today’s parlance, Philip responds by stating the obvious fact that they would have to use the maximum allowable credit limit to given a morsel to each person sitting on that large countryside.  Essentially, Philip considers the question to be asinine and the situation to be hopeless. 
·         Sardonically, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, observes a little boy with two fish and five loaves of bread.  He suggests to Jesus that the lad’s miniscule lunch might be able to feed the crowd.  In His sovereign prerogative, the Lord transforms Andrew’s fears, sarcasm and doubt into a miracle that touches the lives of thousands of people.  Likewise, He can utilize your pain and problems to encourage and empower other people who suffer similarly.  What impossible questions come to mind as you survey your life landscape?  How may God perform a mysterious, majestic and magnificent miracle in your life?
·         Note the role of prayer and thanksgiving in Jesus’ performance of this miracle.  Also, note that John’s summary of the feeding of the five thousand parallels the synoptic writers depiction of the Eucharist.  The Lord takes bread.  He gives thanks.  He breaks the bread.  He gives it to His disciples, saying, “This is my body which is broken for you.  As often as you eat it, do so in remembrance of Me.”  The broken bread of this miracle symbolizes the future offering of His body for the crowd.  Jesus’ crucified body becomes the atoning sacrifice and propitiation for the sins of the crowd although they are unaware of His selfless gift.  This miracle is a foreshadowing of the Eucharist as Jesus’ most amazing miracle culminates in the crucifixion and resurrection.  The bread symbolizes Jesus’ body which represents the gift of His life.  The food restores this famished crowd to new life as they hunger pains dissipate. 
·         The twelfth and thirteenth verses record the superabundance of the miracle. Everyone had more than enough to eat.  Actually, a tremendous amount of food was leftover.  They could eat again.  The seemingly infinite supply which the miracle generates is a lesson to us to avoid jealousy.  From the superabundance of the universe’s infinity, the Lord blesses each nameless person in the crowd whether man, woman or child.  There is enough for everyone.  Accordingly, we not fear that anyone else’s blessing emerges at our expense.  Our Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need and will bless us with it in accord with His time and will.
·         After the meal and the crowd is satisfied physically, they conclude Jesus “is the Prophet is to come in to the world.”  Do they now understand the full implications of their remark?  Yes, Jesus is the long awaited Messiah for whom their forebears prayed for centuries.  However, do they comprehend the essence of His message about the kingdom of God?  In contrast, do they retain their presumptions about a militaristic Messiah who will wage the final battle with Gentile authorities before restoring Israel’s former glory?
·         Sensing the crowd’s designs to make Him king and soon request commencement of the final war, Jesus withdraws to the mountainside by Himself.
·         Jesus’ withdrawal from the crowd’s machinations demonstrates the importance of authentic spirituality and the practice of spiritual disciplines.  Easily, a person’s ego would succumb to the cacophonous pleadings and intense drama of this moment.  “I deserve to be king!  The people are demanding it.”  “I will glorify myself.”  Any number of arrogant, egotistical and self-serving ideas would arise within the mental consciousness of a person who fails to seek God’s guidance relating to his use of his talents, gifts and abilities.  Jesus was not sent to earth to fulfill any longstanding political, economic and social goals of Israel.  The Father sends the Son to share His unfailing love, establish the Church and build His kingdom which is eternal.  Had Jesus allowed the crowd’s very human, self-centered and earthly concerns to distract Him, those understandable and perhaps commendable intentions would have thwarted the eternal plan of salvation.
·         Howard Thurman, an African American Baptist mystic theologian, suggests periods of withdrawal are necessary to achieve clarity and self-mastery.  It is important for disciples to withdraw from daily busyness to attain the “strange freedom” of integrity of word and deed and symmetry between the Lord’s will and personal willingness.

Finally, William Barclay, author of the Daily Study Bible, a seventeen volume collection of New Testament commentaries, offers a non-traditional insight as to the real miracle of this passage.  He posits that many other people in the crowd follows the lad’s example and brings a brown bag lunch to this sermon on the mountainside.  As evening approaches in this remote place and food is scarce with nowhere for those without feed purchase it, the people with food begin to share.  This massive act of generosity ensures everyone is fed.  The sudden and impromptu willingness of large numbers of people to share their resources with strangers is a miracle considering how intractably selfish humankind is.