| The setting was the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Mark said it was a desolate place (Mark 6:32). John added the that the feast of Passover was near (John 6:4). A huge crowd had followed Jesus and His disciples there. Jesus asked Philip a very powerful question: Where can we find food to feed such a crowd? But Jesus asked it, already knowing what He was going to do. Philip said, “We don’t have the money and even if we did there is no place to get enough to feed such a crowd.” Andrew chimed in with the observation that there was a little kid who had his lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish, but what is that among so many? I love the words of Jesus. “Make the people sit down” (John 6:10). John numbered the crowd at greater than 5,000. The disciples clearly saw what was happening. Many baskets appeared as Jesus gave thanks, and He began to distribute loaves upon loaves of bread and fish in miraculous numbers. The fish and bread multiplied as it passed through the hands of Jesus. The disciples saw the food with their eyes, handled the food with their hands, and suddenly became waiters, carrying food to the people. The food just kept coming from that little boy’s lunch. It was a miracle of magnanimous proportion! Where was all this food coming from? It was coming through the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was making it all happen. The disciples saw it all. They touched it! They ate it! The crowd likewise seized it and ate it. They thought that Jesus had to be the Great Prophet who had been predicted. They had the thought of seizing Jesus, taking Him to Jerusalem, and making Him king (Jn. 6:14-15). Jesus instructed the disciples to put the twelve baskets of leftovers in a boat and head to the other side of the sea. He was going to a mountain to pray, but He would meet them later. Picking up Mark’s view of the same incident (Mark 6:45-51), we find that the twelve already exhausted disciples had been rowing for hours. They were facing a strong head wind and were not making much progress. Jesus saw them from the shore and realized that they were struggling. He came walking on the water near them and would have passed them by. His faithfulness and tender heart wanted to let them know that He had not abandoned them. He was near. Then they observed Him walking on the water, and they perceived Him to be a ghost. Immediately Jesus spoke with them saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” He got into the boat, and immediately the wind ceased. The twelve were greatly amazed beyond measure, and they marveled. I have also been amazed at what God has taught me from this truth. Truth that I know did not come from man but from Him. But the disciples did not understand about the loaves, because their heart was hardened (Mark 6:52). The disciple’s hearts were hard? That’s quite a revelation. Unbelievers, people dead in trespasses and sins have hard hearts, that’s understandable. But the disciple’s hearts were hard and because of this hardness, they missed the spiritual impact of what happened that day. Oh yes, the twelve baskets of fragments were right before their eyes. They had distributed them to the people. They had loaded the leftovers in the boat. The baskets in the boat served as an object lesson of tremendous value. It is almost as if the loaves were crying out, “Remember us. Recall what has happened this day. Recall the One who made it all happen. Are you guys in?” No! Their hearts should have been rejoicing and at ease even in the storm. If our Lord has the power to feed this crowd of people, then He can surely protect us in any storms that this life may bring us. We are in His hands! How do we know for sure? Remember the feeding of the 5,000. Remember the baskets of food. But their hearts, believers’ hearts, were hard. And their hearts blinded them to truth. As I read these words, I wondered about my own heart. I have become so passionate about studying God’s Word, finding new truth, growing in my knowledge of Scripture and teaching others. It has become a passion. But how has my study made my heart any more tender and compassionate toward the God that I worship and towards people. Can I trust my future, the future of my family, my country, into His mighty hands? I have always been impressed with metaphors that God uses in His Word. God uses metaphors to make truth exceedingly clear. A couple of my favorites are sheep, representing believers (John 10:28), the Good Shepherd, representing Christ’s love and care for all who belong to Him (Psalm 23:1-6), wind, representing God’s Word (John 3:8), and water, also representing God’s Word (Isa. 55: 9-11; Jn. 15:3). This is just a short list. But, in my view, the metaphor to end all metaphors is found in this passage. There should have been a massive response to the bread and fish miracle from the crowd as well as the disciples, but most seemed detached, far away from the impact that the miracle should have made. I now revert back to John’s view (John 6:26-71). On the following day, the people found Jesus on the other side of the sea, and they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” Jesus told the crowd, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” What Jesus appears to be telling them is focus on Him. Learn of Him. Relate to Him. Love Him! The crowd heard the words “Do not labor for the food that perishes.” Work stuck in their minds. Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” They were still thinking of the fish and bread. Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” That truth seemed to go over their heads. They said, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” They were subtly leading Jesus back to the fish plates. Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The crowd was still fixated on the plentiful fish dinners. They cannot seem to shake it. They said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” What bread? The bread and the fish! And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” These verses changed the spiritual trajectory of my entire life and ministry, and they should change all of us. The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” You see, dear reader, this crowd has a one track mind. And it is not a spiritual mind. They are constantly trying to get Jesus off the spiritual subject and back to the bread and fish. Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” Stop right there. Can is a being verb. It implies ability. No one has the ability to come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him! No drawing, no coming! It is going to be a select group, a God-drawn group that will come to Jesus. Jesus continued, “And I will raise him up at the last day.” He will raise up all the ones who are drawn to Him by the Father. What else can it mean? “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. [That’s Jesus!] Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” Jesus drops the hint that will lead in my mind to the most powerful metaphor of all. The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” Is Jesus talking about cannibalism. No, to eat Him is to believe in Him, to trust totally in Him. Jesus gave them a metaphor to end all metaphors, a divisive metaphor. A metaphor designed to bring the hearers to the point of getting in or out, to commit to Him or go, to love Him or leave Him. “Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” Jesus had to use a powerful metaphor to drive the people away from the physical bread and fish and bring them to refocus on Him. How did He shake them to the very core of their being? He obviously knew that this would be a divisive metaphor, but that was exactly His intention. Therefore, many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” Again, He had a select group in mind. Those that have been granted to him by His Father. From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Jesus did not chase after them, begging them to come back. He did quite the opposite. He turned to His disciples and said, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve. Believers in Jesus Christ can have hard hearts just like unbelievers. We miss so much because we substitute gaining in Bible knowledge for growing in our love for Christ. In the end, it will not be our Bible knowledge, but it will be our love for Christ that will make the difference in our lives. Recall Christ’s word to Peter. “Peter, do you love me?” Peter answered, “Yes Lord, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep!” We are to feed sheep, and we must mix that feeding with our love for the One who feeds us. Our Teacher never quits teaching us, so our love for Him should never stop growing. |
