John 6:1-15: The King Feeds Five Thousand

(1) Bible Study Questions

Acknowledgement: A few notes and questions here are adapted from those written by Ray Galea. I thank him for permission to do so.

Discuss: When you cater, do you like to have too much food, or exactly the right amount? Why? How do you feel when you don’t have enough for your guests, even the unexpected ones? What do you do if or when you are confronted with that problem?

Jesus, the Disciples, and the Crowd (vv. 1-10)

1. Is Jesus at this point of his ministry looking for crowds to teach and minister to? Why or why not? (vv. 1, 3-4, 15; cf. Mark 6:31-32)

2. Why is the crowd coming to Jesus? (v. 2) Is that OK? Why or why not?

3. What do you notice about the way John the Evangelist describes the size of the crowd that comes to Jesus? (v. 10, cf. Mark 6:44; cf. vv. 2, 5) What might be the significance of the description in verse 10? (cf. v. 15)

4. Why does Jesus ask Philip the question he does? (v. 5-7, cf. John 1:44, 12:21)

5. Given the actual question Jesus asks (v. 5), is Philip’s answer in verse 7 reasonable? Why or why not?

6. What can we learn from the actions of the little boy? (v. 8-9, 12-13)

7. What resource does Philip and Andrew have that they are not yet recognizing? (cf. John 2:1-11)

The ‘Sign’ of Feeding in the Desert and What it ‘Signified’ (vv. 11-15)

8. What was the solution that Jesus had in mind to the catering problem? (vv. 6, 10-11)

9. What was the point of Jesus’ command to the disciples in verse 12-13? What do they learn from that part of the experience?

Note: Two Old Testament incidents provide background for us. The first is the 40 years Israel spent wandering in the desert after their exodus from Egypt under Moses. The desert provided nothing to eat or drink, and they cried out to Moses (cf. John 6:32) to feed them.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” (Exod 16:4)

The crowd no doubt new of the promise of a prophet like Moses who was to come (John 6:14; Deut 18:15-19)

The second is Elisha’s feeding of the hundred men with twenty loaves:

42And a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, being twenty loaves of barley bread, and fresh ears of corn in his sack. And he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat.” 43And his servant said, “What, shall I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, “They shall eat, and some will be left over”. 44So he set it before them, and they ate, and some was left over, according to the word of the LORD. (2 Kgs 4:42-44 ERV, modernized)

10. What does the sign of the feeding miracle say about who Jesus is and what he came to do? (vv. 12-14, cf. vv. 35, 51, John 1:3, 2:1-11, 10:10; Ps 145:15-16)?

11. Why do you think the crowd wanted Jesus to become King? (v. 15, cf. vv. 26, 34)

12. How do we know that the crowd had misunderstood the nature of Jesus’ kingship? (v. 15, cf. John 18:36)

Application:

What do you need to learn from Jesus’ change of plans in verses 1-4?

What do you need to learn from Jesus’ testing of his disciples in verse 5?

What do you need to learn from the little boy in verse 9?

What do you need to learn from Jesus’ command in verse 12?

What do you need to learn from the abundance of the twelve basketfuls in verse 13?

What do you need to learn about Jesus’ kingship in verse 15

(2) Sermon Script

Introduction: Unexpected Dinner Guests

Do you know the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Remember the scene where the white Anglo parents meet the Greek parents. The Greek mamma peels oceans of potatoes while the Greek pappa stands guard over the spit outside as the slain beasts slowly turn to roast. Sixty Tula cousins gather around. And then two middle class, middle age, skinny white Anglo’s present their ‘bunt’: a cake with a hole. What was deemed adequate for catering for the needs of the day, so far as the Anglo or the Greek were concerned, were vastly different.

In catering, Anglo-Australians like to get it exactly right. Thirty people are coming over, so let’s make sure we don’t undercater nor overcater. Precise, neat, well-timed, well-balanced, meat and three veg brought out hot on the plate and synchronized for presentation at 6pm: that's food the Anglo way. A minimum of wasteful overcatering is hoped for. So the Anglo mum wants the call first from the teenager, “Hey mum, I’ll be there at 6pm and I’m bringing Georgie and Joey over”.

And Middle-Easterners and Mediterranean’s like to overcater, don't they? After all, you never know, some of the cousins might turn up, right? They love to hear the words from the overawed guest, “There is so much food here. It's impossible to eat it all.” That's exactly right, it is impossible to eat it all, that's the idea. And so you end up eating spit roast lamb and cold chickens with tabouli for the next 2 weeks, as was always intended.

But whether the family is Anglo Aussie or Ethnic Aussie, nobody wants to be embarrassed. Nobody wants to be caught short, not having enough for everyone at table. And mums in every culture know the tricks to stretch out the dinner. They know how to make the meal go further when unexpected dinner guests arrive.

But no mum, Anglo or Ethnic, should ever ever ever have to face what Jesus faced in our Bible passage. On that day in the Galilean wilderness, what was required was a feast fit for a king, and the resources for catering, again, were hopelessly inadequate, at least humanly speaking.

The Feeding of the 25,000 (vv. 1-4)

Jesus has attracted a great crowd. Verse 2:

6:2Now a great crowd was following him, because they saw the signs which he was doing for the benefit of the sick.

The crowd found Jesus by following the signs, and that’s OK, because that’s what signs are for. Follow the signs, and you find Jesus to whom the signs point. John tells us that the crowd consisted of 5000 men, or husbands (v. 10). This count did not include women and children (cf. e.g. Mark 6:44; Luke 9:14). So probably my guess is that the crowd was 25,000! The feeding of the 5000 was really the feeding of the 25,000.

The Test: Where Can We Buy? (vv. 5-9)

And we know that Jesus cares about the crowd. Mark tells us that Jesus had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So Mark records that Jesus taught them many things (Mark 6:34). Jesus expressed that compassion by teaching. Teaching the truth is a fruit of love, when it is done in love. We often don’t think of teaching as an act of compassion, but Jesus did. But teaching, true teaching, is always compassionate.

We mustn’t divorce compassionate action, doing things for people, from compassionate teaching, telling people the truth about God, Jesus, and God’s world. This world will only thank us for the first. But true, Jesus-like compassion is to do both.

However, Jesus wanted his disciples to share his compassion for crowd. Verses 5 and 6:

6:5And Jesus, lifting his eyes and seeing that a great crowd was coming toward him, said to Philip, “From where can we buy bread so that these people can eat?” 6:6But he said this to test him, for Jesus himself knew what he was about to do.

The immediate and presenting difficulty is an opportunity to test and teach the disciples. And so it is with us. Our immediate and presenting problems and dilemmas are opportunities for God to test our faith. Well does Jesus teach us to pray, “lead us not into temptation”. For we and he knows our weakness, and testing is not very pleasant. But well does James teach us to count it joy when we face tests of many kinds, because the testing of our faith produces perseverance.

But our Lord Jesus is full of compassion towards his disciples also, and not just the crowds. And when Jesus tests his followers, like every good teacher, he also knows the answers to the test. I was taught at the college of law in cross-examination, “never ask a question you don't know the answer for.” Jesus has in mind already what he is going to do about the problem. So Jesus turns to Philip, the local boy among his disciples, who grew up at Bethsaida (John 1:44; Carson 1991: 269). Philip, of course, had been at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-12, Carson 1991: 159). He saw Jesus turn six big jars of water, precious enough as that was, into the best wine the wedding MC had ever tasted, in our parlance, the equivalent of between 480 and 720 litres of the best bubbly. And now in the middle of the desert, and with 25,000 hungry mouths gathered around him, in verse 7 John records Philip’s incredulous answer about the catering task at hand:

6:7Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarius worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to take a bite.”

It would be easy for us to say, “Oh well, there is Phillip again, not trusting that Jesus can do all things, being forgetful of what he has seen.” But at one level, Jesus’ question led him down to this way of thinking. It was Jesus who asked, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Phillip is only answering the specific question Jesus asked. And we can see why Philip’s mind ran this way.

Andrew also is there, trying to be helpful. Andrew is the great helper among the disciples. John records that the first thing Andrew did when he encountered Jesus was that he brought his brother Peter to him (John 1:41). And here is Andrew, in the desert, who has found a small boy prepared to share his lunch. Two small pickled fish and five small cakes of barley are presented as an offering. This was the staple diet of the seaside and agrarian poor of first century Palestine. It was, humanly speaking, only designed to satisfy the lunch-time tummy-growls of the boy who offered it to Jesus.

It’s a beautiful picture, really: a little boy who sees the need and wants to share his lunch. It’s a small child who sees mum and dad worrying about the mortgage and says, “I can give you my pocket money.” It’s the widow who gives two copper coins. And in the hands of Jesus, it will be enough to feed an army.

As a church we have have plenty of challenges in front of us. We live in this world, with all its demands on our collective purse, and that's before we get to our ambitions for the spread of the gospel. We need to remember the boy who offered his lunch to Jesus. Let's not despise the day of small things. In the hands of Jesus, the little that we have and offer to him can satisfy a multitude. Given to the Lord Jesus Christ, our little will be multiplied into a lot, enough for the needs of the hour. Let us not shun the little gifts given from a big heart, for in Jesus’ hands, such generous gifts can be transformed to meet our pressing demands.

Perhaps you could apply that to your family as well. Perhaps you cannot give your children everything you would like. But the little you can give them, if you give it through Jesus, committing it to him, will be sufficient for achieving the greatest things for the children you are bound to provide for.

Now, you ladies who cater for others, at church or elsewhere, it takes some organisation ito feed a party of 30 or 35, doesn’t it? You can’t just rock up on the day into the kitchen without having thought about how to feed such an assembly, can you? But imagine you’ve catered for your usual little group, it might be 10, or 25, or it might even be 100. Anyway, you cater for your normal group, and 25,000 turn up! That’s literally feeding an army! And I’m sure if it was catering for a church event, and that happened, you’ll be getting yourself off that roster pretty soon!

The disciple’s best estimates for humanly dealing with the needs of the day are hopelessly inadequate. Eight months wages won’t even get each one a bite. And what they have at hand, five small barley dinner rolls and two pickled fish, seems an irrelevance. Yet Jesus wants to show his disciples that they do indeed have among them what is required. They cannot meet the needs of the day from their own resources. No, they rightly see they are in a hopeless situation as far as that’s concerned. But they have Jesus. That must count for something! Yes, they have Jesus with them. The Word who was with God, who was God, who became flesh, who is God the only begotten, God the Son (John 1:1-3, 14, 18), they have him. They have the one who created the universe. As John says in his first chapter:

1:3All things came about through him, and apart from him nothing which came to be came about. (John 1:3).

Feeding 25,000 for this Jesus is nothing. Every day since the creation of the world, Jesus has provided every meal for every creature for whom food has passed teeth and gums. Every day Jesus feeds seven billion hungry people and counting, as well as every animal, bird, and fish, three square meals a day, or whatever is the animal equivalent. The psalm of king David, the psalm of the Christ, the Son of God, tells us as much.

The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. (Ps 145:15-16 NIV)

Jesus has no problem catering for this picnic, for he did seven billion the day before, and the next day, the day after the feeding of the 25,000, Jesus will cater for the seven billion again, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The ‘Sign’: Abundant Feeding (vv. 10-13)

So when Jesus comes in the flesh, when he made his dwelling among us, we should not be surprised that we find him in the catering and hospitality industries. For this miracle is rightly called a ‘sign’. It points out who Jesus is and what he does. And it says that Jesus is God who feeds the world. He feeds people from earth just as he does from heaven. He sits them down, and thanking his Father, bids them join him in a free all-you-can-eat-bread and fish meal deal until every last one of them are full and satisfied and can eat no more. When you think of feeding the 25,000, don’t think communion. We are not talking a tiny square each of neatly cut sliced white. This is more like an enormous sausage sizzle for 25,000 hungry mouths, with the Lord Jesus at the BBQ, apron on, multiplying food into being, dishing it out to his busy disciple helpers as fast as they can carry it to the hungry picnickers.

The feeding the 25,000 is food to fill hungry stomachs and doggy bags to take home. And notice, Jesus is not stingy. He left washing tubs full of quality wine left-over from the Cana wedding. Now he leaves twelve large basketfuls of bread rolls and fish pieces. In other words, Christ’s resources are more than enough for his own people, Israel. He came to his own people, the Jews, to give them abundantly. But will they receive him?

Jesus came so that we can have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10). That’s why he goes Middle-Eastern on them, and over the top. And indeed, not only is there enough for his own people, the twelve tribes of Israel, in the twelve basketfuls left over, but here is enough for the whole world. Jesus in redemption is the same as Jesus in creation: he comes to satisfy the whole world, if they would but have him.

But even though Jesus can produce food for an army with a word, he doesn’t countenance waste. He goes Anglo as well as well as Ethnic. Verse 12:

6:12And when they became full, he said to his disciples, “Gather the left-over pieces, so that nothing will be wasted.”

If you are a bowerbird, if your shed is full, if your cupboard is packed, if you recycle and store and conserve, here is your proof text! If you don’t like to waste food, here is your passage. While Jesus is generous and not stingy, he commands that there not be waste. Wastefulness is a horrible sin amongst the rich and well fed, isn’t it? That’s us. The consumer mentality is buy, use, and throw out when no longer convenient. It is the arrogance of we to whom material things come so easily: esay come, easy go. And it shames those who do not have. But the creator commands his disciples not to waste the things he gives them. “Let nothing be wasted.” We are slowly learning the value of God’s precious resources. It is our ethical duty not to waste: water, wood, electricity, housing, shelter, food.

Jesus command “let nothing be wasted” bids us asks, “How do I waste?” It is not a call to stinginess. Stinginess says “I waste if I give”, but Jesus says, “Don’t waste so you can give”. It is not “I waste if I give”, but “give and don’t waste”.

The former CMS Mission Aid Group is a brilliant example of that. They used to gather under St Thomas’ Kingsgrove Hall Basement. They would collect and store and labour and work and pray and then give, by the container load. Anglicare do the same thing, collecting for refugees and the poor. Sure, the Bible calls us to be self-sacrificial, and not just to give from our surplus, but we can all start by not being wasteful with the surplus, but being resourceful.

The Thing Signified: The Banquet of the King (vv. 14-15)

Well, how do the 5000 men read this sign? Where, for this army of 5000, in military terms, this first division of men, do the signs lead? What for them is the thing signified by the sign? Verses 14-15:

6:14So when the people had seen the sign which he had done, they said, “This man is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.” 6:15For this reason, since Jesus knew that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

This great army sees through the sign to the Prophet promised long ago in the Old Testament: the one that Moses spoke about, the one who is coming, the king. In other words, they see the Christ, the Messiah. They see what John wants us to see: "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: (John 20:31 NIV). This much they see.

But they do not see that by believing they may have life in his name. They seem him as their Commander-in-Chief and General and Champion, who will by force of arms will overthrow Roman rule. They do not see him fighting the rule of sin, death, and the devil as the lamb of God, slaughtered to take away the sin of the world. For them, Jesus is a freedom fighter, a mujahadin, the great warrior king who will fight their battles for them. And because Jesus knows this, he withdraws up the mountain, and escapes across the lake.

They think that Jesus has come to help them with their presenting problem, but they have no idea about their real problem. For the hungry crowd, the presenting problem is Roman rule and the need for food. Their real problem is sin, death, and hell, and the need for forgiveness, rescue from God's wrath, and the gift of eternal life.

And that is the same with us. Our media and TV is full of talk about the economy and money and politics. Our presenting problem is, “Will I have a job, feed my family, pay my mortgage, and have enough money?” There will be no problem finding an audience to talk about these things.

But our real problem is sin, death, judgement, hell, the devil, God’s anger, and our need for forgiveness. And the media never talk about those things, except to laugh at us, say that these are outmoded concepts, narrow minded, and not worth worrying about. But Jesus came the first time to deal with these problems. So Jesus withdrew. He rejected the 5000 strong army, and their desire to have a king who will fight the wars they want fought, and he instead accepted the will of his Father, to be the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And we should all thank God for this.

Let’s pray.

(3) English Translation

[1] Greek, ‘of Tiberias’.

[2] Greek, ‘upon’.

(4) Exegetical Notes

John 6:1-15—The Fourth Sign: Feeding the 5000

This is Jesus’ fourth sign recorded in John’s Gospel, after turning the water to wine (John 2:1-12), healing the royal official’s son at Cana (John 4:43-54), and raising the paralyzed man in Jerusalem (John 5:1-47). Jesus has travelled east of the Sea of Galilee (Carson 1990: 267). This miracle is recorded in each of the four canonical Gospels: cf. e.g. Mark 6:30-44.

John chapter 6 has a similar structure to chapter 5, in that there is a miraculous sign followed by a lengthy discourse. The discourse’s climax in John 6 is the departure of certain disciples, followed by Peter’s confession (John 6:66-69).

The Old Testament background to this feeding sign is probably in the first instance Elisha’s feeding of the hundred men with twenty loaves (2 Kgs 4:42-44).

42And a man came from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, being twenty loaves of barley bread, and fresh ears of corn in his sack. And he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat.” 43And his servant said, “What, shall I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, “They shall eat, and some will be left over”. 44So he set it before them, and they ate, and some was left over, according to the word of the LORD. (ERV, modernized)

There are some clear similarities when this account is compared to John 6:1-15. First there is a human provider who brings a real but inadequate amount of food which is applied to the needs of the gathers. Second are the barley loaves, which are described with exactly the same Greek phrase (ἄρτους κριθίνους; 2 Kgs 4:42LXX; cf. John 6:9). Third is the question of the servant and the similar question of Andrew, “Τί δῶ τοῦτο ἐνώπιον ἑκατὸν ἀνδρῶν;” || “What! Give this before each of the men?” (2 Kgs 4:43 LXX), cf. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα τί ἐστιν εἰς τοσούτους; || But what are these for such a crowd? (John 6:9). Fourth is the promise and report in 2 Kings 4:43-44 that some will be left over, compared with John’s report of leftovers. But the similarities only enhance the clear differences that accent the superiority of Jesus’ sign. Jesus’ crowd is bigger—100 men against 5,000—his available resources are smaller—five loaves and two fish against 20 barley loaves and a sack of corn—and the left-overs are astounding—the specific report of twelve large wicker baskets as against simply the report that “some was left over”. Jesus is the prophet greater than Elijah and Elisha (Carson 1990: 270).

A further significant Old Testament allusion is to Moses and the feeding miracles in the Exodus narrative, given that Moses is specifically mentioned in the subsequent narrative (John 6:32). God’s provision of manna to Israel in the wilderness during the time of Moses almost certainly stands behind the Johannine narrative (cf. John 6:14, ‘the Prophet’ with Deut 18:15-19).

The great crowd follow Jesus because they were impressed by his signs. This is not a positive reflection on them for neither John nor Jesus (e.g. John 2:24, 4:45, 48). ‘The signs which he [Jesus] did’ (τὰ σημεῖα ἃ ἐποίει) are unlikely to be just the three specific signs thus far described at length by John (water to wine, the healing of the royal official’s son, and that of the paralyzed man), nor is there any necessity to limit them to those for which general reports are provided by John (John 2:23-25, 3:2), but they could be any of the signs and miracles that Jesus did but John doesn’t report (John 20:30-31, 21:25).

Verse 1 has a text critical issue, with the reading τῆς Γαλιλαίας τῆς Τιβεριάδος having a strong external attestation (P^66c, P^75vid, A, B, D, etc), but τῆς Τιβεριάδος is omitted in P^66*. The other readings have weak external attestation. The reading then should be taken as τῆς Τιβεριάδος being a genitive of apposition, explaining τῆς Γαλιλαίας (Carson 1991: 268). Tiberias was a city founded in AD 17-22 by Herod Antipas and named in honour of the Emperor Tiberias. The name gradually was transferred from the city to the lake (Carson 1991: 268).

The reference to the Passover is explicit in verse 4. This is the second of three Passover feasts that are covered in John’s Gospel (cf. John 2:13, 23, 11:55ff). The naming of the particular feast suggests it is theologically significant. At the heart of the Passover festival was the slaughter of the Paschal lamb, which John has pregnantly evoked by the description of Jesus as the lamb of God (John 1:29, 36). At the first Passover, Jesus points to his death under the figure of the destruction of the temple of his body (John 2:13, 23). The third Passover is at the time of his death (John 11:55ff). This Passover in chapter 6 precipitates Jesus’ discussion of his own flesh being the true bread given for the life of the world (John 6:33, 51: Carson 1991: 268). In these ways John shows that Jesus fulfills the Passover feast.

In verse 5, Jesus lifts his eyes and sees the approaching crowd. This evokes the imagery of the people coming to their Messiah with all their needs and hopes. They are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (cf. Mark 6:34).

In verse 7, we again have an example of the theme of the misunderstanding of Jesus’ words. Philip’s answer “Two hundred denarius worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to take a bite” (v. 7) to Jesus’ question “From where can we buy bread so that these people can eat?” (v. 5), shows that he takes Jesus’ words literally. In this Phillip is like Nicodemus in relation to being ‘born from above’, the Samaritan woman in relation to ‘living water’, and the disciples in relation to the food they went off to buy and which Jesus already had—they all stumble over the literal understanding of Jesus’ words instead of seeing that Jesus’ realistic language conveys spiritually truths. The crowd of people acknowledge Jesus as both ‘the Prophet’ (v. 14) and understand him to be the ‘king’ (v. 15) because of the sign they have witnessed, but they misunderstand the significance of Christ’s kingdom, as they are focused on food (v. 26), not on the Son himself and what he reveals about himself and his Father. The prophet was thought of as a worldly βασιλέα (‘king’: v. 15), but Jesus denied that he was a king of this world, and that his kingship was from another place (John 18:36).

In verse 9, the barley loaves (ἄρτους κριθίνους) are a poor person’s lunch.

In verses 10-11, the three reference to reclining suggests a banquet, and not just a normal meal. In verse 10, the reference is to “much grass”, though Mark mentions to “green grass”. With Jesus’ thanksgiving for the food comes the use of eucharistic language, εὐχαριστήσας, which is expanded later in chapter 6.

In verse 13, Jesus satisfies the hunger of 5000 men or family units and twelve basketfuls are left over. The twelve baskets are filled by the twelve disciples with the leftover pieces to show that Jesus can abundantly supply the needs of the twelve tribes of Israel, and indeed the Messianic provision is enough for the rest of the world too. As did the provision of the best wine at the wedding at Cana, the feeding of the 5000 points to Jesus’ eschatological abundance and his Messianic authority bestowed by the Father. Those who ate at the banquet understood the miraculous sign in an eschatological sense, namely as evidence of the coming of the Prophet like Moses (v. 14; Deut 18:15-19).

‘’“”—