John 6:1-15

Hey, everybody.

Welcome back.

Thanks for being with us.

We are in,

continuing the gospel of John.

Find ourselves today in the sixth chapter.

A familiar story.

One of the few stories that or at least one of the few

miracle stories that is in every gospel.

And John's version of it is,

not particularly different, but but interesting.

So, this is the feeding of the 5000.

I will let me see here.

Yeah, I think we'll go ahead and read through the whole thing.

Just 15 verses here. I'll go through it quickly.

We'll come back, have some conversation after this, Jesus went

to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberius.

A large crowd kept following him

because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.

Jesus went up the mountain to sit down with his disciples.

Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

When he looked up, he saw a large crowd coming toward him.

Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?

He said it to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.

Philip answered him, six months

wages would not be enough bread for each of them to even get a little.

One of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,

there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.

But what are they among so many people?

Jesus said, make the people sit down.

Now there was a

great deal of grass in the place, so they set down about 5000 in all.

Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them

to those who were seated, and also the fish as much as they wanted.

When they were satisfied, he told the disciples,

gather up the fragments left over that nothing is lost.

So they gathered them up from the fragments of the five barley

loaves left by those who had eaten.

They filled 12 baskets.

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say,

this indeed is the prophet who has come into the world.

Let's stop there.

Michael will leave that last verse in for a moment.

So, this is a

popular, maybe one of the most popular of Jesus miracles.

It's the most well known. It's in all four gospels.

You could certainly reason that with the numbers being impacted, the story

spread.

If there are 5000 people there, each of them are telling several people.

I mean, order of magnitude begins to happen very quickly with this story.

The nature of the story itself is also amazing.

The idea that there's not enough.

And then there's more than enough.

The miracle of abundance is, I think, you know,

the healing stories are certainly impressive in the resurrection stories.

But the idea here that those who are hungry and don't have

get their moment to have more than enough, and that's that's

compelling to us who live in a first world society.

And I suspect if you're watching this on your phone or computer,

you probably have enough to eat.

If you don't let us know, we'd be glad to help.

But imagine how this story lands with people

who live day to day with subsistence living, and with shepherds and herders

and people who are kind of scrambling day to day to get enough to get by.

And this is, I think, part of the power of this story,

Michael, is this abundant response to scarcity.

You know, there's not enough.

Everybody knows that five little loaves and two fish isn't going to.

And yet with Christ, those things are made enough.

So there's rich metaphor here, there's rich imagery.

It's also just a powerful story in itself.

But I think that's part of its appeal.

The the power of the story, I think, is to account for how it appears

in the other gospel accounts that, you know, each gospel writer

uses this story in subtle but yet meaningful ways

to be part of their whole telling of Jesus's story.

The the fact that you have it in these gospels is also very important.

It it clearly means that this story left an impact.

It left an impression.

And I think there's some details here that are worth noting as we look at it

from John's perspective.

First of all, note that the reason why,

they are

following Jesus in verse two is because, and I quote,

they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.

And this is doing a couple things for us in terms of the storytelling.

It's reminding us. Right.

We just had a whole red leather section here in John where Jesus was offering

this teaching that was in many ways against the religious leaders,

but also simultaneously was, theological exposition about who he is.

You know, he's the revelation of God.

So John is, in a way, sort of

tipping the hat again to remind us

that now Jesus here has done healing.

He healed the man by the pool. Right?

And he told this woman everything that she'd ever done, the woman

at the well and he has, multiplied,

the water into wine at the wedding.

So these are all miracles have happened already.

And, he's healed the Roman centurion's servant.

Now, here, these crowds have seen these signs.

And notice the word sign and the gospel, John, that they point to Jesus.

These are things he's done that reflect the truth of who he is.

And now they are here.

And and what happens in this story is not just that

Jesus heals, as has happened before, but now it's an increasing

revelation of the nature of what Jesus Christ has come to do.

He's not just come to heal, he's not just come to multiply.

Water into wine, or he's not just come to be the person

who has that supernatural knowledge, know he has come here

to provide food as you've already said, Clint so well, he's come to provide

for those who have little that which they need their their daily bread.

And I think what's really powerful about the way that John's going to tell

this story is the fact that when Jesus shows up

that he is Lord, not just of the things in life that are broken in our body,

but also the ways that our bodies need to be sustained, we need food.

We need to be cared for.

And and when Jesus proclaims the word, that word becomes bread.

That word becomes for the people nourishment and, sustaining life.

And this is all both a spiritual reality

and also a physical reality united into one.

Which, of course, Clint points us to who the nature of who Jesus is.

This itself is a sign of who Jesus is and what he's come to do.

Right?

Which I think is why, again, this story is the only

miracle story shared between the four gospels.

There is something compelling in this narrative to those

who wanted to tell the story of who Jesus is.

You know, they have all these differences,

they have these nuances, they have these different emphasis.

And yet, for some reason, they all look to the story as something

powerful in terms of giving us an insight into who it is that we have here.

And, John does a couple of interesting things.

As you mentioned, Michael, the one detail that I've always loved,

when you get a random detail in John,

it it should

it should raise questions.

You should say, I wonder why John would tell me that.

And I think the one that stands out to me here is, is. Yes.

The idea of the baskets, or of the loaves and fish.

Five and two.

Okay. They add up to seven.

That might matter to John.

We're going to see bread and fish again at the end of this book.

And we'll remember to circle back to this.

But that's going to be a powerful imagery.

But to me, the most interesting detail is that they take up 12 baskets of leftover.

And what I've always thought that that meant, and I join,

you know, commentators, I it's not my idea

is, interestingly enough,

the disciples each everyone who doubted that it was enough

has to now pick up a box, a basket of leftovers.

There is a a literal example of the abundance

that each of the disciples have to carry.

And again, I think that sets up the story that we'll see late in the Gospel of John

really well.

But for each of those who doubted that Jesus could do this thing

or that something could be done, maybe they didn't even doubt Jesus.

They just thought, we can't feed all these people to then

be confronted with a literal basket

of leftovers that they were each carrying, after all, had.

And John tells us, had eaten all they wanted.

I just, I think that's really nice storytelling,

that the doubters become the bearers of abundance.

There's there's something beautiful in that, in that imagery,

in that transition, in the story, in that symbolism.

I think it's always tempting to jump in there when you preach this text

and really when the when the doubters become

the people who see more than enough that that's really interesting storytelling.

Well, and don't forget who the doubters are here, right?

I mean that we've already had Jesus arguing

with outside doubters, although they're not really outsiders.

They're people within the faith.

But realistically, I mean, we're talking about doubt from inside

Jesus's inner circle about, you know, how we're going to provide for these people

because there's a lack of theological understanding at this point,

as John tells the story, that Jesus is the source of all of that fulfillment.

And the other thing

I want to note, and Clint, I promise to not burden us with this.

Okay?

But this was indeed one of the text that I actually wrote

a Bible lit paper on in seminary, so I'm not going to burden you with it.

I assume that's published somewhere.

And I'm certain it's not.

But the argument that I made that paper and I continue to see resonances of it in

this reading, is the fact that

we had earlier in the story, the miracle of the water turned to wine.

Here we have the miracle of the bread.

That is enough for the entire crowd.

And I think that there's a beautiful under the surface kind of reference there

to the fact that Jesus gives communion this idea that you have the cup

and that you have the bread, it is clearly not intentionally, lifted out.

It's not clearly evident that, you know, you have to make a case for it.

But I there's so much rich symbolism and there's so much rich theological

meaning that when we come to the table of Christ today

and we take the cup and we take the bread, and it's more than enough for everyone

that's there, that is a practice happening when the community receives this book.

And I think that there's a beautiful kind of image of that that's been laid out

as this book continues.

Yeah, yeah, I've made that case.

I don't know how I did on the paper, but I made the case.

I have no doubt it's an airtight case.

At at the very least, I think we could say, Michael, that later in this book.

And certainly if you look at John's other work like revelation,

the idea of banquet, particularly the idea of the banquet in the kingdom

where there is enough for everyone, where there's abundance,

where there is the best, I think certainly, John, is

is taken by the idea

of abundance and of Jesus as the host, Jesus

as the one who serves Jesus as the one who provides and through the years,

you can imagine there have been attempts to explain this story.

And people say things like, well, maybe people saw that boy being generous.

And so they got out their own lunches that they hadn't told anybody about earlier.

And you know what we're going to make of those explanations?

I the story doesn't care about that.

The story is a miracle story.

And when you try to explain how it could happen outside of Jesus

doing it, you've really parted company with the Gospel of John.

John.

John has already told us what happened in his,

in his understanding, in his way of telling the story.

And sure, you can look for logical explanations,

but only you care about that.

The Bible, the Bible, and I would say particularly the Gospel of John,

just not something it's concerned about.

So, if you need to have that kind of explanation, they are out there.

You can find them.

But but I, I, I just think

whenever we're trying to explain how something happens,

we're missing the bigger point of what happened.

And I certainly think that's true here.

Well, I know and I know you're prepping for the next section here.

I just want to transition to it here and make note of the fact that

I think John is making it clear by

what we're about to read, that it was also

misunderstood and misappropriated, even in the moment that it was happening.

I think John wants to make it clear that this is a sign

which should point us to the reality of who Christ is.

But not everyone saw the sign for what it actually meant.

And so let's just if that's where you stand,

I think that John actually does already conceive

of that person who sees this story, but it's not compelling to them for what

John intends it to mean.

And you maybe you can check me on this.

Michael, I think this is accurate, but I believe that only John ties

this next verse to the conclusion of the feeding of the 5000 souls.

So, let me read verse 15 here for you.

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force

to make him king, he withdrew again

to the mountain by himself.

And so you have the strangest ending

to this story, which is a again, sort of typical John.

John has a way of taking us where we didn't know we were going.

And here

the people

decide, and you can follow their logic pretty easily.

This guy's great with you.

Yeah, we should definitely get this guy on our team.

And let's get this one locked.

Yeah, let's 100%.

We're going to make him king.

We're going to march him into Jerusalem.

We're going to take him to Rome.

We're going to we're going to tell the Romans

we got a guy and he's better than your guy.

Let's get that done.

And and Jesus.

Because in John, Jesus always knows what's happening in people's hearts.

Jesus realizes this and no fanfare.

He he withdraws.

He goes by himself up the mountain,

which again lacks any kind of explanation.

How did he escape 5000 people?

You know, it.

Those aren't the details John cares about.

John cares about that.

There were a group of people who thought Jesus could serve their will,

and Jesus wanted no part of it.

Jesus has served them.

Jesus has given them abundance.

Jesus has fed them

literally and

figuratively, probably by body and soul.

And yet, when Jesus is aware that they have a plan

to use Jesus to benefit themselves,

Jesus is out.

He he, he wants no part of it. And,

it'll probably be a day or two, but this reference

is going to come back again.

So put a mental note here that this happened because Jesus is going

to reference this event again in a way that I think, helps unpack this verse.

The fact that we have this editorialized comment in

John is one of my favorite aspects of this telling this story.

Clint, the fact that at the end of the day,

the people who saw in Jesus the means towards full stomachs

missed the reality that what Jesus wanted to offer

them was a soul that would be filled forever.

A life that would be never without or never with want.

And I think that what we discover here in a text like this is how easy

it is to see a sign that points us to one direction,

and then have that sign point us towards another direction.

So we receive that wrongly.

And I think John is up front about that.

Clint, in a way that is unique to John.

It put so much emphasis, this entire book on the fact

that what Jesus does reflects the truth of who he is,

while also, in moments like this, critical and important moments like this,

it admits this gospel just straight up admits to us

that just because you see the sign doesn't mean that you will see the sun.

Just because you have a moment of mystery and miracle

does not mean that that will grow within you towards a life of full faith,

that the amazing truth of a story like this is you can be in the crowd

and eat the food and want to make Jesus a literal king

that will continue to feed you instead of recognize

the King of the universe who has come to save you.

And that is the

transformation of imagination that John make sure is in the book.

It's it's real to our human experience in a way that shouldn't just be passed

over, that this is a full throated, honest, humble account.

Jesus does an amazing thing, and many, if not most or all of the people

there didn't understand the depth of what it meant.

And John wants us to know that.

Absolutely.

I mean, who wouldn't want to be led by someone

who was going to do what you wanted?

All right.

That's yeah, that's a wonderful human temptation.

However, John makes it clear that that's not what Jesus is about.

And I think to your point, Michael, John also leaves that there as a warning.

If you follow the logic,

eating with Jesus and receiving from Jesus

is much easier than following Jesus

and understanding Jesus. And,

John has a way of sort of

bringing a little rain cloud in at the end.

Sometimes.

But I think, I think if you

if you give it some time,

there's usually a reason that it's there and there's usually a lesson in it.

And certainly that's true here.

This is a very interesting asterisk to this story.

And we're indebted to John for helping us pause at the end of

what would otherwise be a big celebration and say, yeah,

but don't forget, you're still human, Clay.

I've always thought that this is stories, a kind of medicine or antidote.

If you're a young believer, an early Christian,

you know, you might find yourself saying, if I could just see Jesus

do a miracle, then I believe, then my faith would be strong.

And this is here in this book.

And I think one of the purpose it serves is it gives a kind of medicine

for that false idea that it's the miracle that will convince us of the truth of who

Jesus says no, literally, the people who saw the miracle,

who literally ate the food and were filled, they missed the truth.

So therefore, anyone with faith has the same exact shot

of seeing Jesus for who he is, not just those who have seen the miracle.

Yeah, yeah. And they profess it, right? I mean, they get so close.

This is indeed the prophet who was to come into the world,

and then let's make sure that's good for us.

And so, yeah, a wonderful,

interplay here between the miracle

and the interpretation of the miracle in, in the people who saw it.

It's this is really good stuff.

Thank you so much for being with us here today.

Hope that this story has been encouraging for you.

And our conversation through it has been challenging.

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We look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Thanks.