“After this” – after the
lecture to the hostile religionists about His identity, and after having
performed healing miracles as a witness to His identity, Jesus knew there were
no neutral people in the crowd who were following Him around. The multitudes
wanted to make Him their king. The Jewish authorities were angry and keeping
Him under surveillance, hoping to get an opportunity to kill Him. This would be
a good time to get out of town.
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.” John
6:3-7
Taking a breather from the Passover festivities, Jesus’
moment of quiet didn’t last long, because a great many of the people in town
for the Passover had observed or heard about Jesus’ miracles, and wanted to see
more. They were impressed with the miracles, the spectacular. They were not
impressed with His message. Physical food cannot compare to the Bread of Life.
In Jerusalem, the people were celebrating by offering
sacrifices which portrayed the atonement of the Lamb of God, but they had not recognized Him. This is ritual without reality. By
taking His disciples into the mountain for quiet teaching and fellowship, He
was separating Himself and them from apostasy.
His omniscience had seen, from eternity past, this whole
event. He repeatedly asked (kept on asking) Philip what they could do to feed the people. His
omniscience always knew, from eternity past, exactly what He would do about it.
His persistent questioning was to test Philip’s comprehension of Jesus’
omnipotence.
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?” John 6:8-9
Andrew, the keenly observant one, had noticed the boy with
his lunch. He pointed it out to Jesus, but was skeptical of any benefit from
it. After all they’d already seen the Master do; the disciples were still
seeing the details of life from their human viewpoint. They were with Him, they
were watching Him, they were “helping” Him; but even yet, they had no idea what
power He possessed.
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. John 6:10
That’s 5,000 men. Adult male humans. In Biblical narrative,
only adult males are accounted for. Therefore, we can assume at least that many more
women and children combined, and that’s probably a modest estimate. The people
sat down in the lush pasture.
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!” John 6: 11-14
Having given thanks to the Father for this provision, He
gave bread and fishes to everyone there. There was no rationing. Each got “as much as they wanted.” Jesus Christ,
the Bread of Life, has no problem multiplying physical bread. There is
emotional connotation here, for the people. They ate all they could hold of
delicious, satisfying food! Like an all-you-can-eat buffet. There was a lot
left. Twelve basketfuls, as a matter of fact. Now, that is rich! One basket of
miracles for each of the shallow-thinking, worry-wart disciples to carry,
as a reminder of the lapse of faith they had just shown.
After eating all they could hold, the people suddenly
realized the power of Jesus, and that He must be “the Prophet” mentioned by
Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18, who would be another like Moses, to the people.
Verse 15 - 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.
“Perceiving” their
desire to use Him to overthrow Rome, Jesus walked out on them. They were interested
in physical provision, not spiritual food. Jesus was not here to satisfy their
political motivation, but to provide their eternal salvation.
This time He went to the mountain alone.
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