Commenting On All Of His Lord’s Wonderful Works as a whole, the apostle John said, “There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25). Of the four books about Jesus’ works the world does contain, it is remarkable that they all record the feeding of the five thousand. This miracle is John’s fourth sign.
Mourning the death of John the Baptist
Since all four gospel writers record this fourth sign of John, we can understand a great deal about its context from their collective contributions. When we consider these records together, we find that the events of John 6 immediately follow a tragedy in Jesus’ ministry. All four gospels place Jesus and his disciples as secluded from the multitude upon which Jesus would later have compassion — miraculously feeding them with bread and fish (Matt. 14; Mark 6; Luke 9). Just before the fourth sign, John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin and forerunner, had been murdered.
Many of Jesus’ own disciples were first disciples of John. His death would have hit them hard. It is in times like these that God’s true children have always prayed more earnestly for the kingdom. The deaths of their friends and loved ones have always transported their thoughts to the resurrection of life. Probably more than ever, the disciples wanted the kingdom to appear immediately.
Thus we find Jesus and his disciples on a mountain, isolated from the gathering crowd before them. But though hungry, tired, and sorrowful at John’s tragic death, Jesus had compassion. We can so easily read over those words. But when we look at the full picture, we see that Jesus had compassion in spite of his own personal situation. By the time he was offered on the cross, he had already offered every other part of his life in his Father’s service. He sacrificed himself daily, living for those he came to save — even for those whom he knew would eventually turn on him, and who followed him only for what bread or coin they might obtain in the process.
They would make him king
We learn from Mark and Luke that Jesus commanded the multitude to sit together in groups. Upon offering thanks for the five barley loaves and two fish, he distributed them to his disciples, who distributed them to the multitude encamped on the grass. After the meal filled all five thousand men (in addition to women and children), the disciples recovered twelve baskets of leftover bread at their Master’s command.
The multitude remembered what Moses did for Israel in the wilderness about fifteen hundred years before. Under his leadership, God fed Israel with manna. They remembered Moses’ words that God would raise up to Israel a prophet like Moses himself (Deut. 18:15). The multitude thought Jesus was “that prophet.” They thought he was the Christ, and they wanted the kingdom to immediately appear. Had Jesus dispersed them, they would have forcefully made him a king.
At this moment, it is likely that both the disciples and the multitude wanted the same things — for Jesus to ascend the throne, abolish Gentile rule, vindicate the death of John, and usher in the kingdom of God. It would have been easy for the disciples to get caught up in the multitude’s energy. As they distributed the bread and fish their Lord had multiplied, they would have heard the conversations. Because they didn’t yet understand Jesus’ sacrifice, they were ready for the kingdom at a moment’s notice. Maybe (they might have thought), this sign was the perfect time. This would explain why both Matthew and Mark record Jesus constraining his disciples to get into a boat — to flee from the temptation. With the immeasurable gift of the spirit, it was tempting for Jesus, too. And so, “when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray.”
Lessons of the miracle
After another miraculous sign that night on the Sea of Tiberias (the subject of next month’s article), Jesus encountered the same multitude on the other side. John recorded far more of Jesus’ words to them than any other gospel writer. In Capernaum’s synagogue, Jesus explained why he performed the miracle, and what it meant.
He talked about manna. When the people challenged him to give them bread from heaven, Jesus answered: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven…I am the bread of life.” This is one of the unmistakable lessons of this sign — that Jesus is the “true” bread from heaven. He was the true bread in that he was the real thing. He was the substantial, heaven-provided bread, of which the wilderness manna was only a prophecy. Wilderness manna “bred worms and stank” (Ex. 16:20). Though the Sabbath manna was free from corruption longer than the common manna, only a portion became incorruptible — hidden in the ark of God (Ex. 16:32). Jesus repeatedly declared himself to be “the bread of life” or “the living bread” in the synagogue that day. By doing so, he was not identifying himself with manna generally, but specifically with the incorruptible hidden manna of the ark. That manna truly was the bread of life.
The bread of God
It is evident that the multitude missed the crucial teaching of Israel’s manna experience. Moses explicitly declared God’s reason for sending the manna, and it had a much larger objective than merely supplying them with sustenance. To Israel, Moses said that the LORD “fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end” (Deut. 8:16). The manna experience was to make Israel “know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (Deut. 8:3). God sent the manna to determine Israel’s obedience to His words. He sent “the true bread from heaven” for the same reason — “the words that I [Jesus] speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” They needed to be “taught of God,” and find life through belief in His Son. “He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.”
Because manna came from the Father in heaven, it is called “bread from heaven.” And even though the phrase “bread of God” sounds identical, the Old Testament attaches another meaning to it. In the law of Moses, the bread of God refers to the sacrifices offered by the priests. Only the priests are spoken of as eating the “bread of God.” But in Capernaum, Jesus said, “The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.”
Jesus taught that he was the perfect offering foreshadowed in the sacrifices of the law. But unlike the law, according to which only a select few ate the bread of God, Jesus was for the life of the world. He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” In a certain sense, it is the same today as under the law. Now, too, only the priests can partake of the bread of God. But those priests are no longer after Aaron’s priesthood, but after the Lord’s. Years after witnessing the fourth sign, the Lord gave John the Revelation. In that vision John saw a multitude praising the once slain, but then glorified Lamb, who had redeemed them, and made them “a kingdom of priests” to reign over the earth. Only God’s people can sing those praises. They become priests by being baptized into their high priest.
That none may be lost
There is great significance in the words Jesus spoke after the multitude had been filled. “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” In addition to its practical application (that we should not be wasteful with the blessings God gives us), Jesus taught another spiritual lesson. The next day, on the other side of the lake, Jesus said, “This is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” He was teaching the resurrection. And whereas the third sign emphasized resurrection to judgment, the fourth sign emphasized resurrection of life. In fact, in this chapter, Jesus refers to resurrection four times (John 6:39,40,44,54).
The sacrifice of Christ
“The bread that I will give is my flesh.” This saying was too hard for many of Jesus’ disciples, and they “walked no more with him.” How, then, could this sign accomplish its purpose if they didn’t believe the Lord?
On behalf of the twelve, Peter confessed, “Thou hast the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Even though the disciples could not understand the Lord’s sacrificial language, it seems they had seen and heard enough to understand the manna experience. The LORD wanted Israel to hear his words, but those words were too hard for the crowd on the shores of Galilee. They wrote off Jesus’ words as the words of a madman. Not so for Peter. Are his words too hard for us?
Jesus used his miracles and signs to teach the world about himself. The manna (a test of obedience) and the sacrifices of Moses’ law (offerings for sin) pointed forward to his death. But Jesus’ teachings also specifically emphasized the resurrection to life. So it is no coincidence that one of Jesus’ apocalyptic promises (also recorded by John), speaks about a certain bread of life. “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna” (Rev. 2:17).
If we are accounted worthy of the resurrection of life, we will partake of our Lord in a way that now we cannot. We must partake of him now not only in symbols of bread and wine, but more importantly, in obedience being transformed by his words to live as he lived. If we partake of him in that way now, we will partake of the hidden manna in the resurrection, and become like him in nature — incorruptible.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One