Or, The Path of Least Believing
Scripture: John 6:1-15
Date: April 22, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The Lord is relentless. As certain as the sun rises, He is always showing Himself to us, always inviting us to know Him and to trust Him. He especially loves to lead His people into dark situations in order to train them to look for His light. He tells story after story of His gracious and abundant provision. He will not leave us or forsake us, but we are constantly tested to forget and lose faith.
John 6 tells one of the most familiar stories about Jesus in the Gospels. His feeding of the five-thousand is the only sign/miracle recorded in all four Gospel accounts (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17). The apostle John usually avoided overlap and consciously included other events in Jesus’ ministry than are found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Something about this sign, however, made this familiar story crucial in his own call to believe (John 20:30-31).
As with every sign, the miracle has catechetical value in that that Jesus is who He claimed to be. He was, and is, the Son of God, the eternal, omnipotent Word in flesh. Jesus does here what no mere man could do.
This story also prepares us to see that not only Jesus has the power to provide food for life, but it also prepares us to see that Jesus Himself is life. In chapter five, He healed the paralyzed man and set the stage for His confrontation with those who were paralyzed by something far worse: by their bondage to the praise of other men. In chapter six, His provision of food for a hungry crowd set the stage for His offer to satisfy an even more important hunger: the hunger of their souls for the imperishable, for food that endures to eternal life (verse 27). Sadly, we’ll see at the end of the chapter that the majority of the crowd, even many who claimed to be His disciples, turned away from following Him and, therefore, turned away from life.
This is a familiar story. John 6 is a two-day seminar on eternal life. It is a story of great need, miraculous provision, and a call to trust Jesus for all He is. We are always tempted to take the path of least believing, even as His disciples, so we need to hear again and keep telling the familiar story.
The setting is the sort of place where familiar stories happen, a place where there is nothing but need.
After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. (John 6:1–4, ESV)
After this means after the healing of the invalid and subsequent exchange between Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem. That sign took place around an unnamed feast (John 5:1), probably the feast of tabernacles, a harvest feast. This event occurs in the spring of the following year since the Passover…was at hand (verse 4).
Jesus heads toward the other side of the Sea of Galilee, the western side, the side opposite of Jerusalem where most of the action occurred. This was a wilderness area, undeveloped, and a good distance from the nearest villages of significance.
A large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick (verse 2). The number was at least 5,000 men (verse 10), and Matthew says there were also women and children (Matthew 14:21). Who knows what the total number was, maybe between 10,000 to 20,000, which is quite a crowd, especially since they weren’t close to civilization.
They were following because of His signs, especially what he was doing (imperfect tense) on “the ones being weak,” the same word (τῶν ἀσθενούντων) that described those around the Bethesda pool (John 5:3). These include the 38 year paralyzed man (5:5-9), the Capernaum official’s son (4:46-54), and the many other signs (2:23).
It seems that Jesus was going away with His disciples for a break (verse 3). According to Mark 6:31, Jesus was taking them to a “desolate place” to “rest for a while” since they had just returned from a ministry assignment and “many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” According to Matthew, they also had just heard about John the Baptist had been killed (Matthew 14:13). He went to a place where there weren’t a lot of other people in order to rest, though, based on verse 6, He also had other things in mind.
That the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand is no small historical point. The mention of this feast is more than a chronological help to outline John, though it does that, too. The Passover feast was an annual remembrance of God’s deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian captivity. It was, therefore, an event charged with political ramifications. We might imagine, as Americans, what a 4th of July on theological steroids might be like. The Jews remembered their deliverance by God’s hand as Moses led them through the Red Sea into the wilderness where God miraculously provided them with bread from heaven. They were, as a people, looking for a new Moses, the prophet Moses promised, who would deliver them and provide for them.
The story involves the sort of plot that familiar stories follow, a plot where God provides remarkably.
Jesus and His disciples didn’t have much time to relax. All three of the other Gospels mention that Jesus spent a good part of the day teaching and healing.
Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. (John 6:5–6, ESV)
Perhaps Jesus aimed His question to Philip because Philip grew up in nearby Bethsaida (1:44); maybe Philip knew the area. The disciples recognized the problem of feeding this group and, perhaps, they didn’t want to do the work. John doesn’t include that part of the story because he emphasizes Jesus’ plan. Just as Jesus arrived to meet the woman at the well at “just the right” time, just as He happened to heal the paralyzed man on the Sabbath, Jesus had this meal on His schedule.
The question is an impossible one. Where? with no WalMart or Costco or 7-eleven. No big city. Verse 6 tells us why He asked: to test [Philip, and the disciples] for he himself knew what he would do. I wonder how many times a day He says that in heaven. Do we know Him well enough to know what He has in mind?
Philip and then Andrew offer two answers with equal unbelief.
Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” (John 6:7–9, ESV)
Philip gets out his mental calculator. He computes the data from his spreadsheet and after running the numbers he concludes that two hundred denarii would barely be enough to give everyone a bite. As most of your study Bibles note, or as the NIV translates, this is about eight months worth of wages, since a denarius was the typical wage for a day’s work. In other words, they don’t even have the cash, let alone a store, to purchase this amount of provision.
The other disciples had apparently been doing some recon work. Someone must have brought something to eat. But the best Andrew could find was a young boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Barley bread was the poor man’s bread. Wheat bread was what you really wanted.
Barley was common food for the poor, its “lower gluten content, low extraction rate, less desirable taste, and indigestibility” rendering it “the staple of the poor in Roman times.” Philo (a Jewish philosopher, BC 20 - AD 50) writes that barley products are “suited for irrational animals and people in unhappy circumstances” (Köstenberger, 201).
Also, the word for fish (ὀψάρια) refers to small, perhaps dried or pickled fish. It was more relish than a main dish. The boy had a nice snack, not a meal for one, and certainly not enough to feed a crowd. Andrew asks, What are they for so many?
Both answers have unbelieving hopelessness in common. Jesus has brought them to this place, He has pointed out the need by asking the question, and they take the path of least believing. We almost always do. We can not see past the natural resources, or usually the lack of resources, in front of us. We are so slow to believe the stories we tell. We are such failures when He tests us to see if we know who He is.
”Lord, we don’t have the money! Lord, we don’t have the time! Lord, we don’t have any idea what to do!” Christian, the Lord loves to lead us to places of need. He loves to tell the story again and again and again. He wants us to believe and there is no reason to believe if you can see.
With no explanation as to what He was about to do, Jesus gave instructions to the disciples. No one would have believed what happened next.
Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. (John 6:10–13, ESV)
Who knows when His disciples caught on. It was quite a feat just to get such a large group organized, to communicate to 15,000 people to sit down in an orderly fashion.
Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks, a striking prayer that comes before the meal. He was not like a magician pulling a bunch of tied-together scarves out of His pocket.
The end of verse 11 stands out: as much as they wanted. Philip was concerned that not everyone could have a bite, now they are stuffed. Verse 12 emphasizes it again, when they had eaten their fill.
Next Jesus instructed His disciples to Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. Some commentators emphasize that God gives but He is frugal. I think the point is to keep the disciples from missing how much He actively made. There were 12 baskets of bread, more than He started with in the first place. This is a story of miraculous provision in the wilderness.
The story moves toward the sort of peak that familiar stories lead to, a peak where people don’t understand God’s supernatural work.
We don’t know how long the event lasted, perhaps the greater part of the day. As the food was served and then gathered, word spread through the crowd about how it happened, where it came from, and who did it.
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. (John 6:14–15, ESV)
Moses fed the people with manna in the wilderness. Jesus just fed the people bread in the wilderness and they see in Jesus a fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy of a prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15-19.
[Moses said,] “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— (Deuteronomy 18:15, ESV)
Their response escalated as Jesus [knew] that they were going to force Him into being king, just as He knew what was in their hearts (2:23-25). The word for take him by force is a word for grabbing suddenly, seizing vehemently, dragging away, so with a person, kidnapping. They were going to enthrone Him against His will. These are apparently not the same people from John 5:18 who wanted to kill Him. It’s unlikely that they went from wanting to kill Him to wanting to crown Him in six months. So Jesus headed into the hills by Himself.
Jesus was both the promised prophet and their King. He would be crucified as a king (see John 18:33-40). But they missed what kind of kingdom He ruled and that Jesus does not receive glory from men (think John 5:41). They also missed what they really needed, which Jesus will point out the following day.
This is yet another type of unbelief. It still isn’t believing Him for who He is. They received the miracle for their stomachs but not a Messiah who would save their souls.
There are at least two types of unbelieving that fail the test: 1) those who believe that He can’t provide and 2) those who believe that He will provide wrongly. In other words, some belief He is unable to take care of natural needs and others believe His only use is to take care of natural needs.
Why no teaching to the crowd about their wrong motivations? Or, why perform a miracle to satisfy their physical needs when a miracle to satisfy their physical needs is all they wanted?
The narrative value of this story is a 10/10. There is so much more than catechetical answers about the divine power of Jesus. The narrative effect reveals the divine purposes of Jesus: Our Lord loves to lead us where there is little so that we won’t miss who provided and so that we will learn to lean on Him.