Joh 6:4 | 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 6:4

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.