Carey's Bible Study Notes
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turning point
life of christ: John 6.1-21, Mark 6.32-52, Matthew 14.13-33
galilean ministry: Feeding the Five Thousand and the Bread of Life Discourse
introduction
Before we look at this episode, we need to understand its significance. Of all the events in the life of Jesus, with the sole exception of the cross-resurrection event, the feeding of the 5000 is the only event all four Gospels record. This is not to say that the other events recorded in the Gospels are not important; it is just to say that whereas we should emphasize these other events, we should even more emphasize this event. There is something unique to this event which requires our special attention. This event is one of the tent posts of the ministry of Jesus. In reconstructing the life of Jesus, you can leave out some incidents without violating the story of Jesus; leaving this story out, however, would do violent injustice to the life of Jesus. Why we shall soon discover.
When we come to the feeding of the 5000, we come to the turning point in the Jesus� ministry. Up until this time, Jesus� ministry has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success. Everywhere Jesus goes, He creates a sensation with not only His teaching but also with His miracles. At this point though, Jesus reaches a critical point in His ministry. Jesus has just received news that Herod Antipas has recently beheaded John the Baptist. Although Herod had been reluctant to execute John because he believed that John was a holy man, he nevertheless had succumbed to pressure from his wife Herodias and daughter-in-law Salome, and had John beheaded. When Jesus receives news of this event, He takes His disciples away from the crowds and from Galilee which falls under Herod Antipas� jurisdiction, and heads for the other side of the Sea of Galilee which falls within the authority of his more affable brother, Herod Philip.
Jesus withdraws not simply because He wishes to grieve for John but also in order to contemplate what lies before Him, namely the cross which will occur exactly one year in the future (we shall see this as we analyze the text). Jesus knows that He must spend more time with His disciples, subjecting them to intensive training so that they will be able to carry on the ministry once He has departed and gone back to the Father.
feeding the 5000 (John 1.1-15; Mark 6.32-44; Matthew 14.13-23)
John remarks that at this time (approximately 2 years into Jesus� ministry), Jesus heads with His disciples over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. From Mark and Luke, we determine that Jesus headed for the northeastern shore of the lake (1) where He will be out of Antipas� jurisdiction and (2) where He will be able to spend more time alone with His disciples. Although Jesus attempts to escape the crowds, the crowds are able to see where Jesus is going. The Synoptics inform us that Jesus embarks with His disciples in a boat and heads for the northeastern shore of the lake. Since it is faster to walk around the lake in order to get to this destination from Capernaum than it is to row to it, the crowd was actually able to get to the destination of Bethsaida before Jesus and His followers. When Jesus and His disciples arrive, the crowd is already there waiting for them. At this point Jesus ascends part way up a mountain and begins to teach the crowd.
At this point in the story, John informs us about the date in which this episode took place. According to John, the feeding of the 5000 occurred just before the Feast of Passover. Why does John mention this? First, he does so in order to help us see that Jesus has just one year left before He faces the cross. Second, he does so in order to help us understand fully the meaning of the miracle which is about to take place and the sermon which He will deliver on the following day.
John 6 falls in the middle of a major section of material (John 2-10) which deals with the theme of Jesus being either the fulfillment of Judaism or even better, the replacement of Judaism. The best of NT studies has determined that the apostle John was writing to Jewish Christians living in Ephesus who were being forced to choose between Judaism and Christianity (the episode in the 4th Gospel which best reflects this is the story of the man born blind who is forced to choose between Christ and Judaism). John gives us the miracle of turning water into wine to show us how Judaism basically fails to meet man�s deepest needs, whereas Jesus, on the other hand, abundantly supplies our needs. Nicodemus, the best man that Judaism can produce, still must come to Jesus if he is going to find fullness of life. Chapter 4 and 5 show that Jesus and not Judaism nor the Samaritan version of the OT gives life. The same theme continues from chapters 7 � 10. Here in chapter 6, John shows that although the first Passover was a tremendous event, it still fell short of what Jesus is able to accomplish in the lives of people.
As late afternoon approached, Jesus finishes teaching and notices that the people are hungry. He then turns to Philip and asks him where they can buy bread so that they can feed the people. Philip would be the natural person to ask since he came from the nearby village of Bethsaida (John 12:21). John hastily reminds us that Jesus was not asking for information because He did not know what to do but rather was asking in order to put Philip to the test. Would Philip turn to Jesus to solve the problem, or would Philip try to solve the problem on his own? Philip basically fails the test because he remarks that even 200 denarii will not be sufficient to feed the people. (The 200 denarii represent about 200 days� worth of wages; probably the amount in the apostolic treasury.)
At this point, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, brings to Jesus a young lad who has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. Usually the people ate bread made from wheat; only the poor used barley to make bread. The 2 fish were not 5-pound bass but most likely the small dried or pickled fish for which the fisheries on the Sea of Galilee were noted. After Andrew presents these to Jesus, he remarks: "But what are these for so many people?" It�s almost like he�s saying, "Now that was a stupid thing I just did." This element in the story along with Philip�s response though highlights the extreme nature of the event. There was no way that human resources alone were going to be able to take care of this situation. Either God was going to do something miraculous or the people were going to have to go away hungry. God loves just this kind of situation. The adage may sound trite, but it is still true: "Man�s extremity is God�s opportunity."
At this point, Jesus has the people to sit down upon the green grass in groups of 50. (Matthew tells us that there are 5000 men here, not counting the women and children who accompanied them). Jesus then takes the bread and fish, blesses them, and then distributes them to the crowd. The supply is not meager by any stretch of the imagination because John informs us that the people had as much as they wanted. Not only that but after the meal was finished, the disciples gathered up at least 12 basketful of fragments that they can eat later.
When the multitude realizes what has just happened, they begin to think that Jesus just might be the prophet that Moses predicted would come, who would be just like Moses. Wasn�t this miracle nothing less than a duplication of the miracle of manna that Moses performed in the wilderness? Their reasoning goes even further. Jesus is most likely the Messiah, the one God would send to deliver His people from the oppression of the Romans. Many of the Jews believed that the Messiah would come at the time of the Feast of the Passover. Well, it is the time of the Passover right now. That must mean that Jesus is the Messiah, and dadgummit, He�s going to be their Messiah whether He likes it or not.
At this point when Jesus realizes what is happening with the crowd, He first sends the disciples away from the scene so that they will not get caught up in the messianic frenzy and then tries to disperse the crowd. Many of them refuse to be daunted by Jesus� actions and continue to press for His coronation. When Jesus realizes that it is hopeless, He withdraws further up the mountain in order to escape the crowd.
meaning of the miracle
Just exactly why did John include this miracle in his Gospel? As was said earlier, the miracle of the manna supports the basic theme John is developing in chapters 2-10�Jesus Replaces Judaism, or rather Jesus is Superior to Judaism; more, however, is operating here.
First, the episode of the feeding has definite messianic overtones. When we were at Cana, we mentioned that the Jews pictured the day of the Messiah as being one of a great banquet. In Matt. 8 Jesus picks up on this idea when He says that when the kingdom of heaven comes that people will come from the 4 corners of the earth to dine with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Rev. 19 John describes the second coming of Jesus as that of a wedding banquet between the Lamb and His bride, the church. Well, that same theme is operating here in John 6. The Messiah has come, and it is now time to feast with Him.
For many Christians, this is not a time of feasting. While it is true that the feast we enjoy now is not as great as it is going to be when Jesus returns�by any stretch of the imagination, it is also true that now is a time of feasting for God�s people since the Messiah is here. The reason that many Christians do not enjoy this as a time of feasting is that they are not living obediently to Jesus. They are living ethical lives to be sure, but even the Pharisees were ethical and THEY KILLED JESUS. God�s Spirit lives dramatically only in the lives of God�s people who are following Jesus as Lord of their lives. Anything less means that the feasting is over for that person.
This passage holds a second meaning. At the beginning of this chapter, John remarked that these events occurred around the time of Passover. Moreover, when the people saw the sign that Jesus performed with the bread and fish, they associated Jesus with the Mosaic prophet who had come to deliver God�s people. (One of the signs which the people believed the Prophet like Moses would perform was the giving of manna in the wilderness). Right after this, Jesus will deliver a sermon call the Bread of Life Discourse which makes no sense at all if Jesus is not operating within the context of the Passover.
John is implying that the Second Exodus has begun to take place. Just like God send Moses to deliver His people form the clutches of Pharaoh, so now God Himself has come down to deliver His people from the clutches of sin, Satan, and death. This Second Exodus is not yet complete. God has achieved on the cross a tremendous victory over Satan. God�s Spirit continues to give Christians victory over sin on a daily basis; however, the completion of that Second Exodus will not occur until the last days when Christ will once and for all defeat His enemies and bring His people into a glorious land (as described in the book of Revelation.)
the sermon on the bread of life (6.22-71)
Introduction
Before looking deeper at the sermon, we need to remember the overall context in which the sermon lies. The time is the Feast of the Passover (6:3). In the section on the 2 signs, John highlighted certain incidentals which related to the Passover: mention of the Feast of Passover, feeding of 5000 (manna), organizing the people, mention of the Prophet (like Moses�Deut. 18:18), the crossing of the Sea of Galilee (Red Sea crossing), and mention of the divine name ("I AM.") In this second section, John will further highlight the theme of Passover: more mention of Moses and the manna in the wilderness, the grumbling of the people, and finally an explicit allusion to the Passover meal and the sacrifice of the lamb. John mentions all these in order to impress upon us the fact that the second great Exodus has just begun. We need to interpret the signs and the sermon in light of this. Through the ministry of Moses, God effected a great deliverance for His people; however, whereas it was a great deliverance, it pales compared to the deliverance He is effecting through Jesus. We right now are enjoying that deliverance; however, a day will come when Jesus will return and finish the Second Greater Exodus, and completely deliver us from Satan and the enemies of God�s people.
Also remember the more general context this sermon falls within (John 2-11)�Jesus being the replacement of Judaism, that is, whereas Judaism fails to meet man�s basic need, Jesus does. Once more, neither people, nor money, nor other religions, nor anything else can meet our most important needs. Only Jesus can.
The Sermon (6:22-71)
The next day after the feeding of the 5,000, some of the crowd which had been with Jesus on the previous day were taking note of the situation. The people noticed that on the previous day when the disciples left for the other shore there had only been one boat and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat. They begin to wonder what happened to Jesus. Just where is Jesus, and just how did He get to where He went?
At that moment some boats arrive from the other side of the sea from the city of Tiberias; maybe the owners of the boats had heard of the previous day�s events and were looking forward to profiting off the crowd by taking them wherever they wanted to go. The crowd surmises that Jesus must have made His way to Capernaum where His disciples were headed. They get into the boats from Tiberias and head for Capernaum.
When the crowd arrives at Capernaum, they immediately question Jesus about how He got to Capernaum. For the crowd, something smells really fishy. Jesus was there in Capernaum, but just exactly how did He get there? Jesus cuts right to the issue. The people are focusing on incidentals and not on what is really important. They are only interested in miracles�filling their bellies and the mystery of Jesus� mode of transportation, and have not sought for the meaning and purpose of the miracles, especially the miracle of the multiplication. Jesus, on the other hand, commands them to quit focusing on filling their bellies and instead focus on what Jesus is trying to communicate through the sign. Instead of focusing on physical bread, focus on the spiritual bread which the physical bread points to. It is bread which gives eternal life, bread which He as the divine Son of Man can give to people.
At the end of verse 27 Jesus declares that God has placed His seal on Jesus. In the ancient world, the seal represented stamp of approval. We still use the same custom today. People used to be impressed whenever a product was said to have the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. It meant that Good Housekeeping approved of the product, and we all trust Good Housekeeping! Well, God has placed His seal of approval upon Jesus. Just what exactly is that seal? The Holy Spirit (John 1:33-34). John the Baptist declared that the person God placed His Spirit upon permanently was the One God had approved and set apart to be His Messiah, the King in the Kingdom of God. When John the Baptist beheld the Spirit descending from heaven and remaining permanently upon Jesus, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was the approved Messiah. (This remark may seem incidental; however, the recurring theme of the role of the Spirit in this sermon shows that this is an important comment. The permanent presence of the Spirit in Jesus� life proves that He was truly the Messiah).
The people respond in quite an unusual fashion. Jesus talks about receiving the bread He has come to give, and they talk about performing some kind of work in order to find favor with God. Note the triple emphasis on works; "what shall we (1) do that we may (2) work the (3) works of God" (they really want to work!) Jesus in verse 27 is practically saying that God gives eternal life as a gift; they, on the other hand, refuse to accept it as a gift but demand to work for it. This is an example of the classic point of controversy between Christ and Jews; Jews claim you must work for eternal life, whereas Christ claims that it is a gift from God. Throughout the rest of the discourse, the people are going to operate on one level, while Jesus is going to operate on another.
Why work for eternal though whenever God wants to give it as a gift? The reason is that people don�t want to relinquish control of their lives. Whenever we work for something, we earn it and we are in control of what we�ve earned. I work 80 hours a week (just kidding) and when I get that paycheck, I and nobody else (with the exception of God and Nancy) determines what to do with it. I am in control. That is why we don�t want to come to God in response to grace; He remains in control and not we ourselves. This serves as the major reason throughout the rest of this chapter the people resist Jesus. They don�t resist Him because they don�t understand what He�s saying�in fact Jesus is quite clear about what He�s saying. It�s just that they refuse to admit they know what He�s saying so that they don�t have to obey Him and relinquish control.
Jesus responds that there is one work that must be performed if they are to receive this gift; however, God is the One who must perform this work, not them. "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (6:28). The work that God performs in this life is to draw people to a faith relationship in His Son Jesus. No matter what else God does, this is His primary activity. He�s not interested in glorifying Himself; He�s only interested in glorifying His Son who in turn glorifies Him.
The people quickly pick up on what Jesus is saying. They know that Jesus is claiming to be able to bestow the gift of eternal upon those people who come into a right relationship with Him. It�s just that they�re not going to buy it. (This is important to note because later Jesus is going to function in a way which deals with this. If we don�t respond positively to Jesus whenever He speaks clearly to us, He starts functioning in a different way.) How do we know that the people understand and yet refuse to believe? They demand that Jesus perform a sign (miracle) which will prove that He is really who He claims to be�the divine Son of Man who bestows the gift of eternal life upon those who believe Him.
Moreover, just any miracle will not do. They insist He perform a specific miracle, that of producing manna in the wilderness. Moses had prophesied that one day God would send a prophet just like him to the people who would speak God�s Word to them. The people had combined this concept of the Prophet with the concept of the Messiah so that they believed that the Messiah would perform signs and miracles, especially the miracle of the manna.
Notice though that this demand for a sign is really nothing more than a smoke screen for their refusal to believe Jesus is God�s Messiah. They are trying to find ways to discredit His claim. We can say this because of the fact that they are acting inconsistently. Just the day before the multitude claimed that Jesus was the Prophet because He had duplicated the giving of manna in the wilderness when He multiplied the loaves and fishes (6:15); now they are reneging because they don�t like the kind of Messiah He apparently is claiming to be. As long as He�s the bread-giving Messiah who will drive out the Romans, they will accept Him; when He starts demanding that they believe in Him and obey Him, then they�re no longer sure whether or not He really is the Messiah. This issue dominates the rest of the Sermon on the Bread of Life.
Jesus responds first by pointing to a fallacy in the way they interpreted Scripture. By quoting Exod. 16:4, the multitude claimed that Moses was the one who had provided manna for the Israelites in the wilderness. He did not! Jesus corrects this by informing them that God, not Moses, was the One who provided the manna to that generation and that He is right now engaged in giving bread to His people. Second, Jesus contrasts the bread God gave to the Israelites in Moses� time with the bread that God is giving right now. The first manna sustained physical life only temporarily, whereas this new manna sustains spiritual life permanently and one day will sustain physical life permanently. The crowd misunderstands and thinks that Jesus is claiming to have access to bread which will sustain their physical life permanently right now. This really excites the crowd. They beg Jesus to give them this bread.
Jesus now becomes more explicit. He has been speaking of Himself as the divine Son of Man who has come to give life-sustaining bread. Now He combines these 2 ideas. The divine Son of Man who gives this divine bread is none other than the bread itself: "I am the Bread of Life." It�s not that Jesus just gives eternal life; He is eternal life. In order to have eternal life, a person must be in a right relationship with Him. When we have Him, we have eternal life.
Jesus then describes what is required for a person to have Jesus/eternal life. "He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and He who believes in Me shall never thirst." This verse literally should be translated: "He who comes to Me shall never, no never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never, no never thirst." Jesus permanently meets the needs of our lives. The person who genuinely comes to Jesus and remains with Him will never lack spiritually again.
Note 3 things. First, the way a person comes to Jesus is by believing in Him. This is a case of parallelism we find in Jewish writings. After Jesus says a person must come to Him for eternal life, He then explains that the way a person comes to Him is by believing in Him. Second, according to Jesus a necessary element of belief is obedience: (John 3:36). The kind of faith which Jesus accepts is obedient faith. Anything less falls woefully short of the mark. Third, note the present tense of the verbs "comes" and "believes." It�s not a one-time coming or a one-time believing; it is a lifetime of believing in and coming to Jesus that results in eternal life.
The problem though is not that Jesus has not offered this bread to the people, nor is it that they don�t understand what they need to do in order to receive this bread. The problem is that they refuse to accept the bread on the terms Jesus lays down: "But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe" (6:36). It�s seldom if ever a question of knowledge or lack of understanding. If knowledge is all that�s needed, then why doesn�t Satan believe? Is it because He doesn�t really know that Jesus is God�s Son who has come to save God�s people? No! It�s because he doesn�t want to give up control. It�s always a question of the will and seldom if ever a question of knowledge.
Jesus then expounds on the results of coming into a believing, obedient relationship with Him. First, Jesus claims that the reason He came to earth from His Father�s side was to do His Father�s will. What essentially was God�s will for Jesus? To accept and keep all people God brings to Him for salvation. Not only will He accept them; He will also raise them up on the last day to make permanent once and for all the work He has done in their lives�giving them eternal life. In other words, neither you nor I have to worry about our eternal security once we come to Jesus. We come to Jesus only because God draws us to Him�we never come on our own. Second, Jesus would never reject us who come to Him; otherwise, He would be neglecting the very reason He came in the first place. Third, we can rest assured that our destiny is eternally secure with Him.
At this point the crowd begins to grumble at what Jesus has just said. (Note that the Jewish people were consistent throughout their history. They grumbled when God gave them manna the first time, and they�re grumbling now when He is giving them manna a second time�manna that is even better than the first manna). Look at how they operate and how we operate too when we are confronted with something we don�t want to accept. Instead of being honest, they will use every argument they can in order to discredit Jesus, even when they know that they�re being inconsistent in their logic.
Look at how they manipulate the data in order to discredit Jesus. They claim they just can�t understand how Jesus could go around making this divine claim for Him when they have known His mother and father for all these years. According to them, a divine man would never have had human parents. Well, this is bogus because later in John 8:41, we discover that a rumor about Jesus� illegitimate birth is circulating around Jerusalem. Where do you think they got this rumor about Jesus? From the very people in Galilee who were saying Jesus could not be divine because He had a human father and mother. The people of Nazareth in Galilee were the only ones who knew at first that Joseph was not the father of Mary�s child because he had been planning to put her away privately. They just knew that the natural course of events was running its course�Mary had played the harlot and had gotten caught. The rumor had started in Nazareth�with the very people who here are claiming that Joseph was Jesus� father.
Jesus warns the people to stop grumbling. They have a real faith problem. Jesus claims that they have not come to Him because the Father has not drawn them to Jesus. Their refusal to believe in Jesus has resulted in the Father not being able to draw them to Him. It is tragic that their faith has prevented them from being drawn to Jesus. They are missing out on the blessed event which is occurring�the very day prophesied by the prophets: "It is written in the prophets, �And they all shall be taught of God.�" Well, that day is right now. The person who listens to Jesus is listening to God Himself.
After Jesus once more claims to be the Bread of Life, He contrasts sharply the kind of bread that He is with the manna that enthralled Jesus� listeners. They claimed that Moses gave manna from heaven; well, it was not from heaven. How do we know this? They died. Bread from heaven would have never let them die physically.
Jesus continues by going into more detail the way a person is to appropriate Jesus� Bread of Life: "and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh." At first, this seems to be a really strange thing for Jesus to say. The Jews accuse Jesus of cannibalism because on the surface that seems to be exactly what Jesus is saying. Modern sacramentalists claim that Jesus is referring to the Lord�s Supper. They claim that Christians receive life from Christ when they partake of the Lord�s Supper. Look though at the context of this sermon. In vs. 3 John informs us that the occasion is the Feast of the Passover. One of the primary rites in the Feast was the slaughtering, cooking and eating of the Passover lamb. God had sent His death angel to Egypt to claim the first-born of every creature. By sacrificing the Passover lamb and eating it, the Israelites were letting the death of the lamb substitute for their own death. As a result, the Israelites escaped death and entered into life. When Jesus says this, He is claiming to be the Passover lamb who must be appropriated if a person is going to receive life from God.
The Jews take offense at this and claim that Jesus is promoting cannibalism. One of 2 things is true. They are either purposely distorting His statement, or else they genuinely do not understand. If the latter is true, then there is a principle operating here that operated elsewhere in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus at first spoke quite clearly and plainly to the Jews. After they refused to believe Him when He spoke clearly, He began to speak to them in parables and difficult statements. The purpose of the parables was to speak truth to unbelievers in a way that they would not be able to understand it. A harsh reality is that when God deals straightforwardly with us and yet we reject Him, then He may quit speaking plainly to us. He may then deal with us in mysteries. Look at the example of Pilate. In Jesus� first interview with Pilate, Jesus was very plainspoken; however, after Pilate rejected Jesus the first time, Jesus refused to answer him during the second interview. We need to respond positively whenever God speaks to us, or else we jeopardize His speaking to us at all.
Speaking this way was supposed to do one of 2 things: (1) leave them without excuse on Judgment Day because they heard the truth but didn�t respond properly to it (if they had properly believed in Jesus they would have understood what He was saying) or (2) because they did not know the meaning of the parables, drive Jesus� opponents mad to the point where they would do anything to understand, even to the point of properly believing in Jesus.
Jesus is unrelenting in His attack on their unbelief. He extends the metaphor of the Passover lamb to include the idea of drinking blood. The only way to have God�s life is by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, that is, appropriating His death and resurrection by obediently believing in Him. The person who does so shares not only in the life of Jesus but in the very life of God Himself. Jesus� life derived from His relationship with the Father. In other words, the Father�s life was the life of Jesus. He is not the Father; however, He has His Father�s life. As a result, the person who has Jesus� life also has the Father�s life. Jesus does not just promise a prolonged life (in many cases a life of misery) but a prolonged life of love and joy that the Father Himself enjoys.
After Jesus finishes, the crowd for the most part deserts Him. Giving them bread to eat on the mountainside was one thing; believing and obeying Him was another. At this point, the greater part of Jesus� following deserts Him. Jesus then turns to the 12 and asks if they wish to depart also. Peter responds to Jesus� question with a rhetorical question, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life." Peter is not saying that Jesus� words are easy to swallow; in fact, Jesus� words may make him feel uncomfortable. What he is saying is that when you come right down to it, Jesus� words impart eternal life. I may not like what Jesus tells me to do�none of us enjoys being under anybody else�s lordship; however, in our heart of hearts we know that Jesus is right and that obedience to His Word produces eternal life.
Next, in what is John�s parallel of Peter�s confession at Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16), Peter goes on to confess what he believes about Jesus: "And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God" (6:69). Peter is not simply saying that Jesus was holy. He was ascribing to Jesus a title found in the book of Isaiah which refers to God, the Holy One of Israel. Peter ascribes to Jesus nothing less than the status of deity.
Jesus in ecstasy rejoices that He had chosen the twelve. Yet even at this point of rejoicing, Jesus is fully aware of the fact that one of the 12 disciples is nothing less than the devil himself. Judas Iscariot is going to be so under the sway of the devil, that Jesus can call Judas himself the devil.