John 6:1-14, Feeding the 5,000

John 6 contains two of Jesus’ miracles: feeding the 5,000 and calming the stormy sea.  The first one is recorded in all four of the Gospels.  Why was it so important?  The large number of witnesses made this miracle significant, for sure.  It was another “Creation” miracle, creating bread as He had created wine at Cana.  That is interesting when we think about the bread and wine representing Jesus’ body and blood given for us on the cross.  In the other gospels there is a strong emphasis on this miracle being an important training time for Jesus’ disciples.  They would be sent out to serve Him and they needed to know that He, Jesus, would be their sufficiency, as He was in the miracle (we see that here, in 6:6, that Jesus was testing His disciples).  In John’s account, there is a special emphasis on the fact that the Passover feast was near (6:4), the two miracles are followed by the great “I Am the Bread of Life” sermon (6:22-59).  And, of course, in John’s Gospel, the miracles are recorded that we might believe in Jesus (20:30-31).

A large crowd followed Jesus.  It was Jesus who raised the question, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”  He knew what He was going to do, but He wanted it to be a teaching situation, an opportunity for His disciples to grow in faith.  We ought not run from difficult situations in our lives.  God is always at work, seeking to build us up in the faith.

In response, there were two problems as far as the disciples were concerned, problems that made this impossible.  First, the job was too big (from Philip, v7; “Lord, don’t you see how many people there are?”).  Second, the supply was too small (from Andrew, “we have five loaves and two fish; what good will that be”). 

Nevertheless, Jesus proceeded to show His glory.  He provided through the obedience of the disciples, who had the people sit down even though they had to be a little worried.  He provided through their orderliness, while they were resting, and in the end, He provided beyond the bare essentials: they had more left over than they had in the beginning.  What God did was to provide for the massive crowd through His Son.  Jesus blessed the bread (He trusted His Father) and then multiplied it abundantly.

It was an important lesson for the disciples.  But, as with the other miracles John recorded, there was a lesson about who Jesus was (the Creator, God Almighty, God the Provider).  The Jews knew of God like this, but here they were seeing the Man who was God, revealing His glory.  There was a lesson about faith.  The people had to prepare themselves for a feast when there was no evidence of a feast in front of them.  They had to take Jesus at His word.  And the bread, the most basic of foods in Israel, spoke of the eternal life that Christ came to give.  The sermon later in the chapter will make this clear.  What a day this was for a lot of people!