John 6:1-21

In this passage we have two miracles or signs that point to Jesus as creator and Lord of creation with the Father( John 1:1-5). The location of this story is possibly Decapolis, the Gentile region or the northeast region under Philip the tetrarch. The mountain side on which the feeding of the 5,000 takes place may be the modern day Golan Heights. The Passover is near, we are told, and this will become important in the following teaching.

When the people are hungry and need to be fed Jesus tests his disciples as to what to do. Phillips response to Jesus is that 200 denarii, which equates to about 8 months wages, would not be enough. This gives us some idea of the task. All they do have are 5 barley loaves, which is poor people’s bread. So, Jesus takes the bread and the fish and blesses it. The blessing would go something like this ‘Blessed be thou, Yahweh our God, king of the world who causes bread to come forth from the earth’. Unlike the provision of manna in the wilderness, where nothing could be kept, this bread is collected up when all have finished. The people, happy to be fed, want to force Jesus to an earthly position of kingship, but this is not why he came. Besides this, their only interest is in being fed, not in the spiritual food that Jesus came to give them. The disciples leave to cross the lake without Jesus, who comes later, miraculously walking on the water. Some of the disciples are fishermen, the waves don’t scare them but Jesus’ arrival does! The other gospels contain fuller accounts of this event, but John’s concern here seems to be to remind us of Jesus’ sovereignty over everything including the natural world.

Response: Choose a word, phrase, idea or action that strikes you as significant at this moment in your life and spend a few minutes reflecting on it.