John 6:1-9

¹Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ²and a great crowd of people followed Him because they saw the miraculous signs He had performed on the sick. ³Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with His disciples. ⁴The Jewish Passover Feast was near. ⁵When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" ⁶He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do. ⁷Philip answered Him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" ⁸Another of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, ⁹"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle, apart from the resurrection, recorded in all four Gospels. In our tour of the tabernacle, we’re looking at the table of the Bread of the Presence (Exodus 25:23-30). This table, especially in light of the name that God had given to it, would immediately call to mind the invitation to enjoy fellowship with God, in the manner of a great and joyous feast, thanks to the sacrifice provided. It was bread for feasting in blessed fellowship with Him. Although believers have spiritual life, we still need this bread for the sustenance of spiritual life, just as we need physical bread to sustain our physical life. And just as Jesus has fulfilled the previous elements of the tabernacle imagery, He also fulfills this symbol of the table of the Bread of the Presence. He is the Bread of Life.

John sets a new context for us as we move into chapter 6. Jesus crosses the sea (to Bethsaida) to escape Herod after the death of John the Baptist and to rest and spend some quiet time with His disciples before the Passover Feast – as the other three gospels declare. And we can say that this is rightly Jesus’ desire in His humanity. But God’s will was to display His glory here and now, and so a great crowd of people – probably between 8,000 and 20,000 people – tracked Jesus down. They wanted to see more of His miraculous deeds. The other gospels also explain that Jesus, no doubt exhausted in every sense of the word, submitted to God’s will and had compassion on them; He taught and healed among the crowd for most of the day. Notice that they were eager for Jesus. They came to a distant place and left their concerns for other things at home to hear and see Jesus. We are ashamedly not that way; the slightest inconveniences often keep us from coming to Jesus. We must strive to reach the point where nothing of this world’s concerns could possibly keep us from meeting with the Lord. But to their shame, the crowd was only there for the miracles; they weren’t looking for physical or spiritual food, but Jesus was about to give them both. For us, we can grasp that Jesus often (but not always) meets our needs before we realize we have them when we are seeking first His Kingdom, when we leave this world behind and draw near to Him. Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

According to the other accounts of this event, it was getting late, and the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowd home. How does that fit with John’s record of Jesus’ actions in v5? What other similarities and differences do you notice between this account and the other three gospel accounts? See Matthew 14:13-36; Mark 6:30-56; Luke 9:10-17.

We also read here that Jesus asked Philip where to get bread for the people, while in the other accounts, Jesus tells the entire group of disciples to feed them. But we gather from the fact that Andrew responded to the question that Jesus had indeed spoken, though directly to Philip to test him, to the group as a whole. Philip’s test was essentially a question of Jesus’ ability. Is Jesus big enough for this problem? Philip didn’t pass the test. He thought it would be impossible; eight months pay wouldn’t cover the tab! But as we know, nothing is impossible with Jesus. Just as Jesus tested Philip, He can test us as well.

Following Philip’s depressing response, Andrew spoke up. He had found a boy with five barley loaves and a couple fish. A barley loaf was poor man’s bread. And the fish were blue gill types. Andrew offers a bittersweet sentiment – “Here’s a kid with a little food! But it won’t even get a handful of people a bite…” These are guys who saw Jesus’ miracle at the wedding feast in Cana. They should have known that Jesus could provide. There is no problem that Jesus cannot overcome. And we ought to live as if we believe that (Coram Deo). Liberals love to point at this miracle and say that Jesus teaches the crowd how to share their lunch. But that’s not at all what this is about. It’s about Jesus, who “already had in mind what He was going to do” (v6). We see here that Jesus knows the future not by foresight but by foreordination. In other words, He didn’t just look down the corridor of time and see what would transpire; rather, He determined to bring the future into the present by His sovereign will and for His good pleasure (Ephesians 1:11).