John 6 (1): The Sign of Bread
Notes
Transcript
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.
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.
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?”
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.
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.
The Setting
The Setting
Jesus chooses a time and a place for the signs of chapter 6 that should call to mind the story and themes of the Exodus from Egypt. Keep in mind where we have just been: the last thing Jesus said in his discourse of chapter 5 was that Moses wrote about him, the Son of God.
Location: Tiberias
Location: Tiberias
The narrative of chapter 6 begins with Jesus going to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which verses 1 and 23 both mark for us that he comes near the city of Tiberias. Why does he go there? I don’t know for certain. But there is something interesting about Tiberias: we know from historical record that the city of Tiberias was only about a decade old at this point. It was founded in AD 18 by Herod Antipas, the son of the king at the time. He built it practically from the ground up to be his capital city in the region of Galilee.
There was a problem, however: as Herod was clearing the land to build, they discovered that the location he had chosen was a graveyard. There were tombs there. For religious Jews, that was a problem, because proximity to tombs meant ritual uncleanness. Because of that, Herod had trouble populating his new city. He ended up actually freeing numbers of slaves and offering land and houses to anyone who would come and live in Tiberias. Even so, Tiberias maintained a kind of stigma that kept most observant Jews away until the mid-second century when a prominent Rabbi, Shimon bar Yochai, conducted a purifying ritual over the city.
Afterward, it eventually became a major center of Jewish culture and religion. There even arose a tradition in the Jewish Talmud that Tiberias would be the beginning point for the final resurrection of the dead. Why? Well, Tiberias is over 200 meters below sea level. It is the second lowest city in the world and the lowest of its size. So, Jewish Rabbis reasoned, if the promise of Daniel 12:2 is that those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, then it might make sense that those closest to the center of the earth will be the first to rise. And so Tiberias, the lowest Jewish graveyard, would be the place where it would all begin. I find that tradition interesting, particularly in light of the things Jesus has been discussing in John 5, and the allusion to Daniel 12 that he made there, directly before John describes him crossing to Tiberias.
That tradition came much later, of course. At the time that of Jesus’ ministry, Tiberias was populated only by slaves, the odd Gentile, and Jews that were poor or desperate enough to ignore the Torah’s purification requirements in order to find cheap housing.
Exodus Symbolism
Exodus Symbolism
So, let’s note the way this narrative begins: Jesus crosses a sea, followed by a large crowd of desperate, hungry people (some of them, very likely, freed slaves), and he goes up on a mountain. And in case we’re so blind as to miss those connections to the Exodus narratives, John slaps us in the face with the temporal setting: it’s Passover time. It’s Passover, the Exodus meal. Passover, the meal that God told Moses to institute in preparation for the death of the firstborn. Passover, the meal that Jews eat to commemorate the salvation of God from slavery in Egypt.
Just like in the Exodus narrative, the first conflict after the crossing of the sea is a conflict of hunger. The people were hungry, in Exodus 16, and God through Moses provided bread from heaven. Manna, a miraculous provision ex nihilo. Here, Jesus sees the crowd and anticipates their hunger before they even express it. It’s Passover, and Jesus is going to prepare a meal.
Like God tested his people in the wilderness, Jesus tests his disciples as he asks Philip in verses 6-7: “Where are we going to buy bread for these people?” Like the Israelites in Exodus 15 and 16, Jesus’ disciples fail to anticipate the provision of their God, discouraged by their limited resources and the vastness of the crowd. There is an echo of Psalm 78, and an implicit challenge to the providence of God:
They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?”
Even in the structure of John, we see this same progression. Jesus has already talked about being the one to provide living water in chapter 4, and now in chapter 6 his ability to provide bread is challenged.
Jesus, though, has a plan. He invites the weary crowd to rest. John makes sure to mention that there’s plenty of grass—a detail that I think should remind us of Psalm 23 and the shepherd that makes his flock lie down in green pastures. That connection becomes even stronger when we consider that Mark’s account of this miracle describes Jesus looking at the crowd with compassion, seeing them like sheep that were without a shepherd.
Mark 6:34 (ESV)
When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
The Good Shepherd is here to call his people, to make them lie down in green pastures, and to prepare a table before them.
The Feeding
The Feeding
Finally, we come to the thing itself. Jesus takes the loaves and then the fish after them, gives thanks, and gives them out. The description is unmistakable: this is the same phrase that every account of the Last Supper uses to describe Jesus having given thanks before giving the elements of the meal to his disciples.
Imagine the scene, which John gives to us with infuriatingly little detail, especially considering all the other little details that he has provided. Ironic, isn’t it, that he gives thanks before the miracle becomes apparent? When he gives thanks, he’s still just holding 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. “What on earth is he giving thanks for?” the crowd may have wondered. Do we have the faith to give thanks for what seem like insufficient blessings, before it becomes clearly apparent how bountiful they truly are?
There’s another detail that is powerful to me. Jesus distributes the food to those who are seated. Now, the various gospel accounts of this miracle describe it slightly differently. The synoptic gospels describe the disciples both giving out the food and collecting up the leftovers. John, in verses 11-13, seems to draw a contrast between the distribution and the collection: Jesus distributes to those who are seated, and he tells his disciples to collect the scraps.
These few, perhaps even this one, walk through thousands and thousands of people (five thousand men, not counting women and children), handing food to every one of them. Was it the most efficient system? No, but it was the most selfless and compassionate. And what better way to visualize the extent of our participation in what Christ provides! We but receive.
And somehow, as Jesus begins distributing the food, there is always more. It never runs out. And they don’t even ration it to make it go further: everyone gets as much as they wanted (v. 11). Everyone eats their fill (v. 12). Everyone is satisfied. To add even more wonder upon this spectacular sign, there is more left over after the meal is complete than there was to start with!
12 baskets of leftovers are gathered. 12 baskets, collected by 12 apostles. 12 apostles, chosen to represent the 12 sons of Jacob. 12 is the number of the people of God. The significance of this part of the story cannot be overstated. The meal that Jesus has provided is not limited to those fortunate 5000 who sought him along the shores of the Tiberian sea 2000 years ago. No, there is enough to satisfy and sustain all those who will seek him. There is enough for all of the people of God.
Moses, but Better
Moses, but Better
As we noted earlier, the setting and the miracle itself both seemed designed to connect Jesus to Moses. The end of chapter 5 sets up the connection, and Jesus will make the connection explicitly clear in the sermon that follows later in chapter 6. Like Moses, Jesus provides bread. Like Moses, Jesus initiates a Passover meal. Like Moses, Jesus is gathering a nation and leading captives to freedom.
That’s significant because of how the crowd reacts to this miracle:
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
To understand that reaction, we have to look back to Deuteronomy 18.
And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
Through Moses, God told his people that he would give to them another great prophet. Another man who would fill the shoes that this great servant had filled. A man who would commune with God, intercede for the people, and lead them like a shepherd. The crowd understood the connection, at least the fundamental one.
For all those similarities to Moses, though, it’s interesting the way Jesus chooses to carry out his provision. Rather unlike Moses and the manna, where the bread appeared as it were out of nowhere during the night, Jesus takes something already present (though insufficient) and makes it more than it was.
In that way, this sign reminds us miracles performed by Elijah and Elisha. Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17); see painting by Cornelis van Poelenburch, 16th century Dutch painter. Elisha and a widow (2 Kings 4). Elisha and the 100 men (2 Kings 4), includes 20 barley loaves.
The feeding of these thousands has connections, not only to Moses, but to those other prophets that arose after him as well. Like both Elijah and Elisha, Jesus takes something that is already present but insufficient or almost gone and multiplies it into overwhelming abundance. The strongest connection is to Elisha’s miracle in which 20 barley loaves are deemed insufficient to feed 100 men, but Elisha makes it enough. Memory of that miracle should heighten our appreciation of Jesus’s miracle, that 5 barley loaves feed 5000.
Jesus didn’t have to do it that way. He could have spoken bread into existence. Some might even have thought that more impressive! Instead, he chooses to use what is already present. And in a chapter full of symbolic details, these, too, may hold something worth considering. Five loaves of bread and two fish.
Five books of the Torah. Two tablets of stone. That’s not really a stretch, by the way: the OT actually refers to the ten commandments as the “two tablets” far more often than it calls them the “ten commandments.” These numbers were significant to the Jews. In different ways, both represent the Law that guided the people, gave them hope, and facilitated their relationship with Jehovah. But as the writers of Hebrews and Romans point out, the Law was never enough. It was a tutor, not the end. It was entirely insufficient on its own, and only through Christ is the purpose of the Law realized.
Just like he did with the bread and fish, Christ takes something entirely insufficient and makes it enough. He doesn’t start from scratch, he transforms the Law into something greater and more satisfying. He fulfills the Law, becomes the sacrifice, and in so doing he provides the freedom that the Law could never provide on its own. And the meal his offers is no longer enough for only a few, but for all, even for the world.
So, the crowd is right when they see the sign and connect it to Moses. This is the prophet who was to come. But they’re not all the way right, because they don’t fully comprehend who this is or what he has come to do. No one does, yet. The Christ is like Moses, but it would probably be more accurate to say that Moses is “like” the Christ. Moses was the type, Christ is the fullness. Moses was the shadow, Christ is the reality. Everything that Christ provides is greater than what Moses could offer.
Through Moses, God provided bread that perished and couldn’t be kept longer than a day. Here Christ provides bread in such abundance that it must be gathered up so that it can be saved and not wasted. This bread lasts.
Jesus does signs like Moses, but his signs are greater. Jesus gives law like Moses, but his law is greater. Jesus intercedes like Moses, but his intercession is greater because he is a more faithful Servant. Jesus sets free more captives from a more horrible slavery and leads them to a greater land of promise.
The Feast
The Feast
This is a Passover meal, in some ways. But its a glimpse of a better one. Really, it’s a kind of Messianic banquet. Like the wedding at Cana, this is a marker of the Messianic age. Jesus has come to supply a feast for those who are hungry, and this miracle is a sign of that greater feast. We’ll have to wait until the sermon to see what kind of feast it will be. But we should remember passages like this:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
If this is a type of Messianic Passover feast, then the location becomes even more significant—as does the audience. Made up—not of faithful Jews or the religious elite, but those that are hungry, desperate, and defiled by their proximity to the dead. In fact, we should see some similarity between this crowd and the Samaritan woman of John 4. Jesus has chosen a surprising audience.
He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.
But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.
And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”
This is the crowd that Jesus sees with compassion. Of course, many in this crowd won’t stick around. Jesus will challenge them later in the chapter and his words will be too difficult for most of those who have sought him only because he offered physical bread. Even still, don’t miss the fact that this crowd gives us a glimpse of the Messianic banquet and those to whom it is offered: Christ’s meal is not a feast of favoritism for those who have the most power or prestige, not a banquet from which Gentiles are excluded in favor of hypocritical Jewish leadership. This feast is for the hungry and the needy. This feast is for all peoples (Isa. 25).
True Israel is being restored. Jesus is gathering to himself a new nation, made up of those who receive him and are sustained by him. He will eat them in a New Exodus across the waters and provide them with rich food. And in less than two years from this date, Jesus will leave his 12 apostles with a mission to, in a sense, take their 12 baskets and the news of his Messianic offering across the world to people of every nation, because there is enough at this feast to satisfy all.
