Joh 6:1-15 | KingComments | STEP | The previous chapter shows the Lord Jesus as the Son of God Who gives life and will judge as the Son of Man. In this chapter we see Him as the humble Son of Man Who gives His life in order to give life to the world and after that is glorified. The reason of the Lord’s teaching about His humiliation is the feeding of the five thousand. John does not describe many events of Christ’s life. The few times that he does, we often find at the beginning of a chapter as the reason for a lecture, an explanation of which that event is an illustration. In John 5 it is the story of the lame, in John 6 it is the feeding of five thousand men, in John 7 it is the Feast of Booths and His presence or absence thereon, in John 8 the adulteress who is brought to Him and in John 9-10 the born blind who is given sight by Him. In the Lord goes to the other side of the sea of Galilee, or of Tiberias. This sea is in the east of Galilee, in the north of Israel. The Lord has often sailed over this sea. He taught the crowds on the shore from a boat, silenced storms there and walked across it. It is a familiar journey. Many follow Him. He has become known by the signs He has done to the sick and which the crowd had seen. That is why they want to follow Him and later even take Him away by force to make Him king ( ). The seeing of signs does not work conversion. Yet the Lord does not reject them. Through the wonder of the multiplication of the loaves, He wants to teach them about Him. Before that time, when they have come ashore, He sits down on the mountain together with His disciples. He does not yet avoid the multitude, but takes a place where they can all easily see and hear Him. John does not often speak about the disciples. Here we have one of those rare occasions. The disciples as well as we are here taught by the Lord. John also tells us what time of the year it is. It is around the Passover. If we assume that the feast mentioned in John 5 ( ) means the Passover, he speaks about the Passover for the third time. In that case a year has passed since the previous chapter, without John mentioning specific words or deeds of the Lord Jesus. From the other Gospels we know that at that time the Lord was rejected in Nazareth, sent out the twelve and that John the baptist was killed. John the evangelist mentions the Passover and calls it a “feast of the Jews”. He portrays the background for the feeding of the five thousand men and the subsequent teaching. In that teaching the Lord tells us that only eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood gives part with Him. This means that He will surrender His life into death and that thus the Passover will have its fulfillment and will have come to an end as a feast of remembrance. As a remembrance feast of the redemption from Egypt, it had already lost its meaning because the people as a whole had deviated from God.

‏ John 6:1-15

Back in Galilee

The previous chapter shows the Lord Jesus as the Son of God Who gives life and will judge as the Son of Man. In this chapter we see Him as the humble Son of Man Who gives His life in order to give life to the world and after that is glorified. The reason of the Lord’s teaching about His humiliation is the feeding of the five thousand.

John does not describe many events of Christ’s life. The few times that he does, we often find at the beginning of a chapter as the reason for a lecture, an explanation of which that event is an illustration. In John 5 it is the story of the lame, in John 6 it is the feeding of five thousand men, in John 7 it is the Feast of Booths and His presence or absence thereon, in John 8 the adulteress who is brought to Him and in John 9-10 the born blind who is given sight by Him.

In Jn 6:1 the Lord goes to the other side of the sea of Galilee, or of Tiberias. This sea is in the east of Galilee, in the north of Israel. The Lord has often sailed over this sea. He taught the crowds on the shore from a boat, silenced storms there and walked across it. It is a familiar journey. Many follow Him. He has become known by the signs He has done to the sick and which the crowd had seen. That is why they want to follow Him and later even take Him away by force to make Him king (Jn 6:15).

The seeing of signs does not work conversion. Yet the Lord does not reject them. Through the wonder of the multiplication of the loaves, He wants to teach them about Him. Before that time, when they have come ashore, He sits down on the mountain together with His disciples. He does not yet avoid the multitude, but takes a place where they can all easily see and hear Him.

John does not often speak about the disciples. Here we have one of those rare occasions. The disciples as well as we are here taught by the Lord. John also tells us what time of the year it is. It is around the Passover. If we assume that the feast mentioned in John 5 (Jn 5:1) means the Passover, he speaks about the Passover for the third time. In that case a year has passed since the previous chapter, without John mentioning specific words or deeds of the Lord Jesus. From the other Gospels we know that at that time the Lord was rejected in Nazareth, sent out the twelve and that John the baptist was killed.

John the evangelist mentions the Passover and calls it a “feast of the Jews”. He portrays the background for the feeding of the five thousand men and the subsequent teaching. In that teaching the Lord tells us that only eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood gives part with Him. This means that He will surrender His life into death and that thus the Passover will have its fulfillment and will have come to an end as a feast of remembrance. As a remembrance feast of the redemption from Egypt, it had already lost its meaning because the people as a whole had deviated from God.

Philip Put to the Test

The Lord does not get tired to convince His people by blessings that show the goodness of God, in order for them to return to Him. The feeding occurs in all four Gospels, but only here there are no introductory circumstances. The emphasis is entirely on the glory of the Son that fills the whole scene. Everything is in His hand. We see His Godhead because “He Himself knew what He was intending to do”, and we see His dependent Humanity as He gives thanks for the food (Jn 6:11).

He takes the initiative by asking Philip where they will buy bread to feed them all. With His question, He wants to put him to the test. He wants to see how much Philip has already understood of His glory and power. As the eternal God He knows that, but He wants to bring him to an answer that will show Philip himself, how he judges a situation, whereby it comes down to faith in Him. We sometimes hear the Lord asking us such questions as well. How do we react to situations where it comes down to faith in Him?

To Him that situation poses no problem, because in His Divine omniscience He knows what He will do (cf. Jn 2:24-25 ; Jn 13:3 ; Jn 18:4) and that He has the power to do so. Philip’s answer shows that he judges the situation according to human standards and that he is not above the crowd in his assessment of Christ. He looks, so to speak, into the purse, sees what is in it and says that this is insufficient. As if the Lord did not know that.

Then one of the other disciples comes to the Lord. It is Andrew, the brother of Peter. Just as he brought Peter to the Lord (Jn 1:42), so now he brings a boy with five barley loaves and two fish to Him. Andrew is someone who brings others to the Lord Jesus. That is a beautiful characteristic. Also Andrew compares what they need with what they possess, without taking into account the Lord and His power (cf. Num 11:22). That is why, according to him, the breads of the little boy are not enough.

But this is exactly what the Son wants to use to do His work. He could have done it with much less or even made loaves of stone to satisfy the crowd. In His grace, however, He uses what we give Him, even though we do not believe that it is of some value in the light of what is needed.

It is remarkable that of the four descriptions of this feeding, only John mentions that they are barley loaves. This is reminiscent of the first fruits, which are made of barley. The barley is the first fruit of the land brought to Yahweh (Lev 23:10; Exo 9:31; Rth 1:22 ; Rth 2:23). The first sheaf speaks of the resurrection, about which Christ speaks several times in this chapter. He Who went into death is also the resurrected Christ. We can therefore view this chapter in particular as a ‘resurrection chapter’.

The Multiplication of the Loaves

The Lord uses the disciples to bring peace and order to the crowd. This is possible because the place has a lot of grass. He has consciously chosen that place and thus led the crowd that has followed Him, to, as it were, green pastures. They all sit on the soft grass. John mentions the number of men. Men are the power of the nation, but they are completely dependent on the provisions of the Lord Jesus.

Before the Lord in His Divine omnipotence distributes the loaves and the fish among those who sit there, He first gives thanks. He always does everything in connection with His Father. The work of multiplication is a work that He has seen the Father do and therefore He does it (Jn 5:19). It is characteristic of this Gospel that we read that the Lord Jesus Himself distributes the loaves and the fish, while we know from the other Gospels that He used His disciples for that. Here He is the Son of God Who uses His power for the benefit of people and gives blessing. The blessing is abundant and everyone gets as much as he wants. There is no limit to His giving. It is up to us to make the best use of it.

The Lord has multiplied so much that there is a leftover. That appears when all are filled. The leftover is not a mistake, but a proof of the abundance of His benefits. With Him, abundance is never waste. The leftover may not be lost and must therefore be collected. What has been left by those who have eaten is good for filling twelve hand baskets. It is possible that each of the disciples received a basket with fragments. The number twelve is reminiscent of the whole nation. The leftover indicates a supply for others yet to come, not so much for Israel alone, but for the whole world, for He is the Savior of the world.

The People Want to Make Him King

The wonder of the feeding is again called a sign by John. It is the fourth sign mentioned of the Lord. This sign was done in front of a large crowd. They are so impressed that they come to the correct conclusion that He is the Prophet Who would come into the world (Deu 18:15 ; 18; Psa 132:15; cf. Jn 4:19 ; Jn 7:40 ; Jn 9:17). They even want to make Him king.

The Lord Jesus certainly fulfills the conditions attached to kingship. He has just proven that. He has provided for their temporal needs and that is the reason why they want to make Him king. They do want Him as their political leader. In this the crowd lets itself be guided by the devil. They want Him, like the devil at the temptation in the wilderness suggested to Him (Mt 4:8-9), to take dominion without having to die. What matters is that He meets their national pride.

The Lord knows that the people do not meet the conditions to enter His kingdom. He also does not take glory from people, as He has said in the previous chapter (Jn 5:41). That is why He avoids them. He will not and cannot be made their King by them, because their motives are no good. They see in Him a benefactor, but not the necessary Savior, as the Samaritan woman has come to know Him.

He goes away from them and again takes the mountain as a refuge. He first went there with His disciples (Jn 6:3), but now He goes by Himself alone. In this we can see a picture of the place He has taken in heaven, where He is now to intercede for His own as Advocate and High Priest. And they need that, as we see in what happens to the disciples during His absence.