Jesus feeds 5,000+
Escalating widespread popularity
Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.
(vv.1-2)
John now introduces another cameo of the interaction of Jesus with people. In this cameo, John covers his interaction with a crowd compared to his previous cameos featuring the interaction of Jesus with individuals.
By now, large crowds were looking for him. John cites the primary reason for these crowds was Jesus performing multiple healing miracles. John would have observed a good spread so far on his journey with Jesus. That is not an everyday occurrence in any one’s life. It would be a spectacle to go and see. Jesus had only recently chosen his first small group of six disciples including two sets of brothers working as young fishermen on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. So far they had only begun to see examples of what he meant by becoming fishers of men, if his aim was for them to do what he was doing. What they were witnessing following him was out of the ordinary. It was supernatural. Did Jesus actually intend that one day they would do supernatural healings in their task of fishing for men?
Matthew provides more insight into the rapid growth of large crowds from a sizeable geographic region following Jesus so early in his public ministry.
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
(Matthew 4:23-25)
The variety of healings was large. The geographical area covered by the makeup of the crowds was significant. Only one of the ten Hellenistic city-states of the Decapolis lay on the West of the Jordan River in Israel. The rest were spread out east of the Jordan. Therefore, Jesus had covered a sizeable area in his early ministry demonstrating his power in effectively healing a range of medical and demonic conditions, as described by Matthew. No wonder the crowds kept growing, and with that the concerns and opposition of the religious authorities. The challenges facing disciples in journeying with Jesus were intensifying. They needed time with him alone to learn and strengthen resolve.
Withdrawal for recuperation and teaching
As often happened during the life of Jesus, he made himself scarce when people wanted to use him for their ends. He needed time with his Father to regain perspective and energy. His disciples also needed time with Jesus alone to understand his ministry and their role. Consequently, Jesus now retreats to a mountain to be alone with his disciples to recuperate and refocus in preparation for the Passover.
3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
With the coming Passover festival, this free time of rest and interaction with his disciples was essential, particularly because of the demands that would be placed on them by crowds over the Passover Festival. But their free time was short lived.
The test
5 When 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?" 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
John gives no indication how long Jesus and his small band of disciples were able to be alone. The point is that Jesus turned what the disciples may have considered to be an interruption into another demonstration of his power over creation.
"Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"
Jesus turns to Philip to engage his thinking about the situation. It is easy to witness a situation and yet be left untouched by it, because we have not stopped to place ourself into the situation. We treat it as an interruption to our agenda for the day. Hence, although physically present, we remain as an untouched observer detached from what is facing us, whether it be an event, or a person trapped in a situation of desperate need. We merely observe, even though our body language may fake some interest, yet we do not open our being to be touched.
The question Jesus directs to Philip is one that forces him to engage with the physical needs of the crowd, i.e., their empty stomachs. This would particularly have concerned the mothers with infants in the crowd. The stomachs of children cry out before adults.
"Where shall we buy (ἀγοράσωμεν, agora-somen) bread for these people to eat?"
In posing this question to Phillip, Jesus uses a form of the Greek word agorazo, which meant to "buy in the agora, i.e., in the marketplace". In each Greek township, the "agora" was the marketplace/town-centre. Clearly, on the mountainside they were far from any town centre with its agora. They could not buy (ἀγοράζω, agora-zó) anything. Phillip had no solution he could offer. John saw more in the question unexpectedly directed at Phillip and adds his editorial comment to the situation,
6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Did Jesus at some time later give this insight to John, or is John taking some editorial license here? Either way, this crowd of 5,000 men, plus women and children, needed feeding. Jesus placed addressing this need above the needs for healing that would be in the crowd. Phillip had no answer. His quick calculation of what it would cost to feed such a crowd put it out of the realm of immediate possibility.
7 Philip answered him, "It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"
Andrew, on the other hand, looks to see if any of the crowd have come prepared with a packed lunch to satisfy their hunger while following the Healer. Maybe he thought those who did could be encouraged by Jesus to share.
8 … Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish…
What Andrew finds is minimal, so he questions its practical value. "… how far will they go among so many?" I would have done the same.
Who can visualise five small barley loaves and two small fish being any other than five small barley loaves and two small fish? Even if they were broken up into small pieces they would hardly feed any more than a few. Andrew’s imagination could only go that far. He was not yet tuned in to the focus of Jesus to turn every situation into an opportunity to display his glory. Often I am not. Yet that is always God’s objective. We have lost sight of God’s glory and can’t even imagine it. Jesus came that we might see it. That is his objective for journeying anyone. He proceeded with a totally unpredictable miracle to demonstrate his glory to each of his followers and the growing crowd.
The miracle
Preparation
10 Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there).
The Jewish practice derived from Persia was for men to recline around a meal table as the disciples did with Jesus, while women and children sat on steps or the floor. Jesus turned to his disciples and instructed them to make the 5,000 men in the crowd recline on the grass, as if about to be served a meal. The women and children present are not mentioned but would have had to sit or stand. The presence of the young boy with his lunch points to the strong likelihood that this crowd did include some children. It was most likely a crowd of men, women and children. If it had many family groupings, then we could assume that, say one half of the 5,000 men, could have been accompanied by a wife and one child. If this was the case, then the feeding miracle Jesus was about to perform would have addressed the hunger of 5,000 + 2,500 + 2,500 persons. The point is, that whatever the actual number was needing food, the miracle Jesus was about to perform was a spectacular demonstration of his control over the physical realm that could not be debated or diminished by the religious authorities wanting him silenced. They may challenge a physical healing but not such a visible and measurable miracle in the realm of nature.
Procedure
11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
Gratitude
Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks…
Before Jesus performed the coming miracle he directed his heart to his Father with thankfulness. In other words, he thanked his Father for the miraculous provision of food that He intended to provide for the sustenance of the individuals in the crowd. Every miracle performed by Jesus in his lifetime was initiated by his Father as an act of good grace, with Jesus being the Father’s present touch acting in obedience to his Father. This remains true today for any miracle in our life. The Father continues to touch those of us in his family with miraculous acts of love through Jesus.
Abundance
…and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.
He did the same with the fish.
John was an observer of the miracle. He helped seat the people and then helped in the distribution of the food and the later clean up. He is careful to record this interesting feature of God’s gracious provision of food to the people. They had as much as they wanted. This was not restricted by their location. They had let their passion to see more of Jesus spur them to take the risk to pursue him in an isolated place, where there was nothing to address their physical needs – fathers, mothers and children. God’s grace always supplies what is needed according to our need, whether that be physical, social or spiritual.
The grace did not run out with the bread. It also extended to the fish.
Measured result
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
Jesus did not rush the crowd in their eating. He imposed no time deadline to finish. He waited until the last had eaten to their satisfaction and then instructed the disciples to clean up the left overs.
Why do that in an open field on a mountainside? Was Jesus merely setting an example of being a good environmentalist? Hardly. Jesus gave the clean-up instruction for the disciples and the crowd to see the dimensions of the physical outcome of the feeding miracle and talk about it accurately from then on as a clear example of Jesus’ power over creation and love for each of us. We still benefit today from reading the measured result of the multiplication miracle: five small barley loaves expanded into twelve baskets full of left-overs! Incredible! John was on the spot to view the count. Each person was amply fed. God’s grace is never stingy. His abundant blessings are readily available to each person who places their confidence in his character and purposes as revealed in his promises and teachings over centuries.
Learning result
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world."
The response of the crowd is instant when seeing the measured result of Jesus having multiplied the five barley loaves, in order to feed everyone to their satisfaction. The stunning miracle linked immediately to their national aspiration of a day when the Prophet described by Moses would come and lead them to freedom from their Roman oppressors as he had from the Egyptians.
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die."
(Deuteronomy 18:15)
Was Jesus this prophet: The Prophet? Clearly they concluded that he likely was and their response was swift and determined.
15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force…
Withdrawal to the Father
No one was going to set the timing of Jesus becoming a king. His actions and statements during his ministry consistently demonstrated that his Father controlled the moment through the obedience of Jesus when he will rule, not just in the response of this amazed crowd, but over the entire world. Therefore, Jesus withdrew, as he had done before now to the attempt of the incensed attendees of his hometown synagogue to throw him off a cliff. It was only in the previous hour that he had begun his public ministry in that synagogue by announcing himself as the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah, who would come to free Israel and rule the nations. He warned the attendees that their familiarity with him over the years interacting with him as the growing son of Joseph the town carpenter did not give them any special privileges. He proved his point citing God’s provision for a widow in Sidon using the prophet Elijah and God healing the leprosy of the Commander of the Aramean army using the prophet Ezekiel. Yet at those times in Israel there were plenty of widows in need and people with leprosy. The synagogue congregation were furious at his claim that they would receive no favouritism from God as neighbours and forcibly dragged Jesus to the top of a hill. As they were attempting to throw him off the cliff, Jesus
walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
(Luke 4:28-30)
His time had not yet come. He was in control of that time and no one else. He had only just announced the beginning of his Messianic ministry. Somehow he miraculously freed himself from their tight grip and passed right through the pressing crowd. He immediately went down to Capernaum on the shores of Lake Galilee to continue his synagogue ministry on the Sabbath that he had just started in his home town, and cast a demon out of an attendee. His fame spread from there.
Not long before this, his mother had attempted to promote his ministry according to her timing (John 2). Jesus responded to her sense of urgency for him to solve an embarrassing planning disaster at a wedding where the wine had run out at the height of festivities. His response to her was swift,
Woman why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.
This was not his timing. It was not his hour. It was hers. The Father had not yet told him to get involved with a miracle. Nevertheless, after questioning her motivation for seeking to involve him, he proceeded with the miraculous provision of an abundance of top quality wine. God’s glory was seen by his disciples serving the water transformed into wine, and they believed in him. Now they saw this glory again distributing the results of another feeding miracle.
Jesus maintained control of his life, and his ministry time, nature and place in obedience to his Father. He still does with each of us. At the beginning of his ministry, his hometown crowd wanted forcibly to kill him. Now, in this case, the nourished recipients of a staggering miracle wanted forcibly to crown him. Kill or crown? In both cases Jesus withdrew. He controlled the time of his execution and crowning.
15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
It seems that Jesus did not inform his disciples of his intention to withdraw, or for how long, because they hung around for a day waiting for him to return. Finally their patience ran out.
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them.
The priority of ministry
The disciples’ impatience must have been palpable. As fishermen, they should have known better not to venture out at night onto the Lake for an arduous row over several miles in a stiff breeze. Their impatience created a dilemma for themselves that cut short the fellowship and rest time of Jesus with his Father. He became aware of their dilemma of being caught on an agitated Lake in a mega wind and went to their rescue as a priority.
18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.
19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened.
Who wouldn’t be frightened seeing a human figure walking across a whipped up sea towards them? Now fear had overlaid their impatience and exhaustion. They were in a state of emotional disintegration.
20 But he said to them, "It is I; don’t be afraid."
How often have people down through history needed to hear such words? (I am the Creator of all life who loves you. Do not be afraid.) There was weight and hope in these words for these early disciples, because they had experienced enough of Jesus thus far to know that he loved them and had the power to change physical situations instantly. They had already watched him perform miracles of control over nature. Walking on water was just another example. Consequently, his words of assurance to them instantly dispelled their fear, and they welcomed him into their boat.
I like this account by John, because it serves as a metaphor for any person being buffeted by a storm in their life feeling like they can no longer survive alone and wondering if God cares. He does. All we have to do is invite him into our boat. That is what the disciples did, because they had seen enough of the love and power of Jesus to trust him. Many people today don’t, because they have not sought to be informed sufficiently about Jesus in the Bible to realise that he is the only one who knows them fully, and that he consistently sets free every person entwined in a situation from which they need to be set free. Instead, he remains a ghostly image off at a distance in their storm rather than the Son of God who came to love them up close and rescue them from the consequences of their relationship storms. The disciples had seen ample demonstrations of the love-driven power of Jesus to have no hesitation taking him on board. Their boat would not sink.
21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.
John records this event for us to see the love and power of Jesus in action. He does not give any details in his description of how the boat reached the shore immediately. Was this another case of Jesus miraculously controlling a physical situation as he had before passing through a hostile crowd seeking to kill him? The point is: the disciples moved from danger to safety the moment Jesus stepped into their boat, and that is the personal lesson to take from this account. When we invite Jesus to step into our tumultuous life, he calms our storm.
The pursuing crowd
22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone.
The crowd woke up next morning finding that Jesus and the disciples had left in their boat during the night. Possibly, before they could process what they should do next, other boats happen to arrive from Tiberius on the western shore of the Lake.
23 Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
The reason for their arrival is not clear. They would have been unaware of the feeding miracle that had just taken place. No doubt, the crowd, who had been fed miraculously by Jesus, related their incredible experience to the new comers. Clearly, this person Jesus was worth chasing down to receive more things miraculously from him. He could make existence a whole lot easier keeping families fed and free from the need to work. Consequently,
24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
The pursuit was on. Now the crowd was swollen with more boats.
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"
They were pursuing him for physical reasons and used a physically-based time and location question as their conversation starter when they caught up with him: "Rabbi, when did you get here?"
The focus of Jesus was not on the physical dimensions of events, such as time and place. He ignored their time and place question and instantly exposed their motivation disguised beneath it.
26 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill".
They were not interested in the signs Jesus was using to demonstrate his glory. Their focus was not on him. It was on them. It was on their physical needs, on nothing more and nothing less. Jesus wasted no time exposing their core motivation in chasing after him. The moment we become aware of the supernatural identity of Jesus demonstrated by hundreds of his miraculous signs, we face the focus challenge just as this crowd did. It cannot be avoided. What is causing my initial interest in Jesus? Am I curious about how I might use him to enhance my social or family status?
Will my focus in life remain on me and what I want, or am I willing to switch it to Jesus and what he wants at any moment? This is the challenge of every moment of every day after becoming aware of his divine identity. Their stomachs were their priority and the means they could use to keep themselves satisfied in life. Culinary TV shows continue to make money off that priority. Jesus challenged them to lift their focus from perishable food to food that lasts and satisfies forever. This is always the challenge Jesus places before us. What drives the focus of my life? Where is it today?
The Bread of Life
Essential and available
After challenging the crowd’s self-centred motivation for hunting him down, Jesus urges them to shift their focus.
27 "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life…
Working for the food that spoils when food is on offer that endures to eternal life is obviously madness and meaningless. Consequently, it begs the question, "Where do I find this food that will satisfy me forever?", and "How do I work for it?" In anticipation of such questions, Jesus positioned himself in their minds as the Son of Man, who has been given God the Father’s seal of approval to be the provider of food that endures to eternal life.
27 "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."
In other words, the Son of Man is God’s chosen provider of eternal life, to whom every person must go to receive eternal life.
Is Jesus the only one, however, with this God the Father stamped seal of approval, or has it been given to other religious leaders, prophets and wise men throughout history and now? No it hasn’t, because every person who seeks to promote themselves as having unique spiritual authority was born with a flawed sin nature separated from God by their sin. Buddha was. Mohammed was. Every modern day celebrity seeking their TV and internet following was, as was every militaristic leader seeking to marshal an urban army. Jesus, however, was born by God the Father’s implantation of divine sinless seed in a virgin’s womb. His identity from eternity as one with his Father was sinless. His beginning was sinless. He was always marked with his Father’s seal of approval in perfect unity with him. His obedient act to enter the human race at his Father’s request to become the sinless sacrifice for humanity’s sin did not for a moment cause the Son to cease existing at his moment of entry. He was the sinless seed implanted in the virgin’s womb. He carried the Father’s seal of approval always and carries it today to give eternal life to any person who comes to him. No one else can give eternal life. No sinner, no religious leader has ever, or can ever, carry that sinless seal of approval to give eternal life.
To sum up, do not miss the unchangeable fact that the bread that endures to eternal life is available now and it is only available through Jesus. As the conversation continued, Jesus made clear how.
Obtained through work
Jesus had urged the crowd to focus on working for the food that endures for eternal life. That naturally led to the question,
28 Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
Most people would like to do good works at various times in their life, about which they feel God would take notice and put in the positive column of their balance sheet to be weighed up in their day of judgement.
What kind of work fits that criteria? How do I make sure that God will take notice of what I consider to be good deeds and balance them off with my sins and obvious failures so that I arrive at judgement with a surplus of good deeds? What kind of good deeds must I do for them to be counted? Have I done enough to outweigh my sins and avoid hell? Such concerns can lurk in most minds in quiet moments. The answer given by Jesus would have caught this crowd by surprise. It may also catch you off-guard.
The work of trust
The outspoken in the crowd asked a specific question: "What must we do". So Jesus gave a specific answer:
29 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
His answer is brief and to the point. It could not be clearer or stated more simply. Jesus defines that the work the crowd must do is to believe in him continuously as the one sent by their God. To believe in him is more than believing a few words he said. It is to trust in his consistent portrayal of himself in words and actions, both small and large, just as we come to believe in anyone over time. By now the people had enough evidence of this. The work Jesus requires of us today remains unchanged. The one who God sent is to be accepted and believed in for every aspect of our life every day, and not ignored or rejected. This is the work God places before every person. We have to decide if we want to take up this work of trusting in Jesus in every situation we face, or run our own race. Jesus taught that few choose to do such work.
No amount of religious, community or charitable activity can substitute for doing the work of trusting in Jesus. Such activities may be appealing work, because their visibility to others can subtly enhance our community status or religious pride. But none of it is the work of God as defined by Jesus. If I do not believe in him continuously, I have not even started to do the work of God. We can’t even fake it to make it. God sees my heart, and sees it in far more detail than I can ever remember. His sight sees every detail in my full history – the positive and negative impacts on me from others, and impacts on others by me. He sees how far I am prepared to trust him in the current moment no matter what I am seeking to project to others.
Searching for signs
The clear definition of the work of God given by Jesus was not enough for the crowd, nor was the magnitude of the recent feeding miracle on the mountainside. They still wanted more proof that he carried God’s seal of approval to be able to give them eternal life, even though they had already spontaneously attempted to make him their king, based on the magnitude of the feeding miracle.
30 So they asked him, "What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?
Why the regression? What more than feeding a large crowd is needed to be seen to believe? Yet now the vocal ringleaders of the crowd wanted another sign from Jesus to believe his claims, or was this simply a delay tactic to avoid putting their trust in him? Have you noticed that our insecure pride instantly resorts to any creative resistance it can conjure up to prevent releasing its control to God’s plan for our life? We need to be honest and identify if we are in a "holding pattern" or "rejecting pattern" and giving ourselves excuses for failing to believe in Jesus.
Hence, the crowd instantly switches the focus Jesus placed on their need to believe in him, in order to do the work of God, to what more he will doto substantiate his identity for them to believe in him. They not only seek to place the onus on Jesus in this delay tactic, they also seek to justify it by sanctimoniously quoting from their scriptures.
W will you do?** 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’"
The pointed challenge
The crowd’s treatment of this interaction with Jesus was now at the point where they needed a direct challenge of their attempt to compare him with Moses, and of their persistent unbelief.
32 Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
Firstly, Jesus corrects the crowd’s claim that Moses had given their ancestors bread from heaven. The Source of that perishable bread was his Father and not Moses. God gives the bread from heaven. That true bread from heaven does more than feed Israelites starving in a desert at a specific time. Far greater. God is giving the true bread from heaven continually to give life to the world. It is not confined to one place, one time, one limited group of people with their limited causative need. It reaches the world. It does more than satisfy an empty stomach. It gives life to the whole person. It could therefore give life to them immediately. The response of the crowd seems to indicate that this true bread had instant appeal.
34 "Sir," they said, "always give us this bread."
The true bread
Having heard the crowd’s enthusiasm to receive the bread from heaven that gives life continuously, Jesus clearly and boldly identifies himself to them as that true bread that comes down from heaven giving life to the world.
35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life.
He adds a certain promise to the person who believes in him as the bread that came down from heaven to give life to the world,
"Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty".
Having given such a certain promise to the crowd, Jesus instantly contrasts his offer to them with their attitude to him:
Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.
In other words, the problem of their disbelief did not lie with him giving insufficient miraculous signs to build their belief. The problem of unbelief was in them, Therefore, Jesus makes it clear to the crowd that the responsibility for their unbelief could not be passed off onto him. It rested squarely with them, just as it does for any person today who has ‘seen’ him and chosen not to believe.
Given by the Father & raised up by the Son
At this point in his interaction with the unbelieving crowd, Jesus introduces a greater influencer on how a person relates to him. He moves into a lengthy explanation of the causative role of his Father in the life of an individual. Does this raise the question whether or not we possess free will in how we choose to relate to Jesus, or a confined will where the Father has set its boundaries? Jesus continues,
The fact
37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
There are two certainties in this statement of fact by Jesus:
- All who the Father gives will come, and
- Jesus will never drive away anyone who does come to him.
The second certainty is for all to hear and grasp. There comes a time in life when a person begins to be aware of Jesus and develops a desire to find out more about him. Often that individual is aware they carry much sinful baggage with them – sins committed by them and sins committed against them. For that reason they avoid any activity, group or belief that causes them to feel guilty and condemned. Even though their heart is weighted down and isolated, something begins to stir over time that draws them to want to know more about Jesus. An attraction and inquisitiveness begins to shine through into their consciousness that was not there before. At this point, it is encouraging to hear that no matter how we perceive our likelihood of rejection or acceptance, Jesus commits that he will never drive us away as we approach him. He invites all who come to discover him.
Regarding the first certainty stated by Jesus, what is not clear is ‘who’ the Father gives to Jesus and what determines his choice to give. My simple view is that the Father gives to Jesus whoever he sees wanting to know him. His timeframe of seeing this is different to ours. His frame of reference is eternal and his actions are eternally initiated. God sees our heart’s response to him from his eternal timeframe before we exist in our physical timeframe. He responds immediately to the person he sees wanting a relationship of love with his pure love.
The process is central to the debate between scholars who embrace the 5 core beliefs of Calvinism and those who align more with Arminianism. Since the disobedience of Adam and Eve, mankind has been unable to initiate a saving response to God because his spirit is completely separated from the Spirit of God. It is spiritually disempowered, inert, dead. The brain of every newborn child in the fallen human race is active but their spirit is dead, no matter how cute they may look and act. Every parent enamoured with their newborn taking every opportunity to promote their cuteness, needs to keep the reality in mind that their cute child is as dead as the child next to them in the nursery. Otherwise, they will lose sight of their critical role to mentor this gift through each growth stage to become increasingly aware of the love of Jesus for them and his desire to begin a trusting relationship with them.
The Calvinist belief is that, as a consequence our dead state, God must initiate any reuniting of his Spirit of life with our disabled spirit of sin. Accordingly, God chooses individuals based on his Sovereign will for reasons within himself, which he does not have to justify to anyone. His choice of an individual is therefore an unconditional act of grace, He chose before the creation of the world those who would be saved by his grace and brought to repentance and belief in Christ.
All those the Father gives me will come to me… Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
The Calvinist understanding is that I believe because God chose me to do so and gives me to Jesus. His work is to choose and give, and my work is to believe in Jesus because his Father’s grace has made it possible.
Those who are classified by theologians as Arminian agree with the Calvinists that God elects, but that his election of an individual is based on his foreknowledge rather than solely on his sovereign will. God elects those whom he knew beforehand would believe in him. In this case, election is based, not on the sovereign will of God, but ultimately on man’s response to the Spirit of God’s revelation about the truth of God the Father, Jesus his Son and the status of the individual’s relationship with the Father and the Son. The work of the individual is to believe in Jesus in response to God’s work of preparing their mind-set and heart-set to recognise Jesus and believe in him. This gracious work of God is called prevenient grace in Arminian belief. It is open to all.
Whether I take the Calvinist view or the Arminian view, this fact remains true:
37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
What a hopeful redeeming fact! It is based on the solid foundation of the obedience of Jesus to his Father amply demonstrated by him every day leading up to his execution on a Roman cross. He obeyed until all our sin was judged and needing no further judgement on us. That was his Father’s will. The is why he was sent. That is why he came as completely one with the Father’s will.
The basis of choice
Because of this obedience/love of Jesus, living with undivided unity to his Father’s will, and not based on our performance, the Father can give us to Jesus, free from any additional judgement. God does not judge the same sin twice.Neither do our law courts.
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
Jesus never drives away a sinner, who approaches him and calls out to him for salvation, solely because he has committed to his Father never to do so. That is where my eternal security lies – in the unwavering commitment of Jesus to his Father’s will, and not in the consistency of my obedience to Jesus. It lies in the eternal unity of the Son with his Father that he sustains by his obedience. Therefore, I will never be driven away from God, because the strength of the commitment of Jesus to his Father holds me there, and not the strength of my commitment to him. My commitment wavers. His remains unchanged. Jesus came to earth to do the will of his Father perfectly, and so remain in perfect unity with him based on love. That was his driving motivation at all times, and when he comes again it will continue to be so.
This certainty sets my mind free to focus on, "What does the end goal of the Father’s will look like for me?" Can I imagine where am I headed in my wholistic growth and development?
The end goal
Jesus now proceeds to describe clearly the end goal of the Father for each person. It embodies three states of love, as follows,
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."
Hence, the three outcomes of God’s will for his creation, as expressed and fulfilled in his relationship with his Son Jesus are:
1. None are lost
The Father’s heart is that his Son should lose none of those he has been given by the Father. Jesus therefore perceived his role as the good shepherd who guides, feeds. protects and lays down his life for his sheep. (John 10) He perceived this role as a continuation of God his Father as a shepherd protecting and guiding his chosen people Israel (Ezekiel 34, Psalm 23). Yahweh continues to relate to his followers as their good shepherd through Jesus. He loses none of his sheep.
2. All are resurrected
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall… raise them up at the last day.
The end goal of Jesus as the Son is to raise up at the last day those given to him by the Father. Everyone who does the continual work of believing in Jesus will be raised up at the last day. We can be confident of this certain future, because we can be confident of Jesus continually obeying the Father’s will. What will it be like to be raised up? I cannot imagine it but I can believe Jesus for it. This hope sits in the heart of every believer learning to trust Jesus for every detail of their life.
3. Eternal life is received
40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."
The Last day is in the future when the believer in Jesus will be raised up, but Jesus taught the gift of eternal life is in the present for anyone who believes. Jesus had previously made this clear to his attackers,
"Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
(John 5:24)
According to Jesus, every person who does the work of believing in him for their full forgiveness, daily life and eternal destiny has already crossed over from death to life, Their life is now acquiring the attributes of God’s life: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, meekness and self-control. Therefore, they certainly will be raised up into new eternal existence on the future Last day.
Meanwhile, my security in the new heaven and earth will continue to be established upon the indivisible unity of the Son’s will with his Father, Every person’s security will. Any person who claims to provide eternal life and resurrection on the Last day on some other basis is therefore a deceiver and a liar no matter how sanctimonious and loving they may seem. They are a false god.
The crowd response
Jesus had just made astounding, mind-altering claims about spiritual life that should arrest the thinking pattern of everyone. The crowd response tragically showed that a person can reject and remain deaf to such a gift of love from their Creator. We can choose our destiny to be trapped in a physical world or set free to experience spiritual life. The crowd response showed their tragic state.
A physical focus
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?"
Had I lived in Nazareth seeing the son of the local carpenter often playing in the streets, I don’t think my response to his claim of being the bread of God that came down from heaven would have been much different. I may have thought he was becoming delusional with his success in repeatedly doing amazing physical miracles. But I could not deny the miracles and the intellectual dilemma they created for me.
We live in a physical world and naturally respond instantly to situations from our familiar physical framework of observation we have developed since birth. For example:
"How come this son of Joseph and Mary, who we know well, now claims to have come down from heaven? Yes, he is doing some astounding miracles. I have no explanation for them, because there are so many and so varied. There must, however, be some explanation for them, because we know where his parents say he was in a manger, which is definitely not heaven, and he definitely was never seen coming down from heaven."
We instinctively don’t consider any spiritual reality that cannot be defined by sight, sound, touch, smell and time. That is our learned habit. We stay locked in our physical framework of perception developed over our life time and miss the spiritual that is happening in front of us. We debate, grumble and don’t see. The crowd was blind. They needed a jolt. Without the jolt from Jesus, we don’t see. We need his rebuke for our dishonest delays and excuses.
Jesus’ rebuke
Jesus responded with a rebuke,
43 "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered.
He had to grab the crowd’s attention for them to listen to the spiritual focus behind his words.
A spiritual focus
After all, he was trying to talk to them about eternal life that cannot be explained in physical terms! In trying to process what was happening with his miracles, they had not made the shift from their familiar physical world to what existed before it began, even though they religiously attended their synagogues to worship the God of eternal existence, the I AM, who was the centre piece of their recorded history and reason for their national existence. The books of Moses, the Psalms and Israel’s prophets record I AM’s many promises backed up by his miraculous actions to forge Israel into his nation specifically chosen to reveal his plan of love to the world.
They worshipped the eternal I AM each Sabbath in obedience to his commandments. They read his prophets repetitively who predicted his rule of the entire world through his promised Messiah in the last days. They also knew from their scriptures that I AM would determine their spiritual destiny when they appeared before him for judgement after their physical life ceased.
There is a more powerful reality than our current physical state that draws us to our destinies. Yet many of us, like this crowd, never shift our observations beyond our physical existence and completely miss seeing spiritual reality happening around us. The crowd was missing it.
Jesus attempts to snap the ringleaders of the crowd out of their physical world with a rebuke and an astounding claim that he, who they saw as the son of the local carpenter Joseph, was united with his eternal Father in determining their spiritual destiny.
43 "Stop grumbling among yourselves, " Jesus answered. 44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.
To add weight to this claim, Jesus authenticates it with a quote from one of their major prophets.
45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’
A spiritual climax
Riding immediately on his claim to raise up on the last day those who go to him, Jesus now pushes the spiritual understanding of the crowd further towards a spiritual climax in understanding God’s relationship with mankind,
45 Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
Jesus claims a unique role in the history of salvation of the Hebrew race and all mankind. No one other than Jesus could make this claim. He follows this immediately with the certain declaration,
47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.
Jesus could not have been more forceful with the certainty of this declaration. He begins it with "Amen, Amen I tell you, " translated as "Very truly I tell you". This is like beginning a sentence with a large placard with the word TRUTH displayed on it. In other words, "Pay attention, dispel even the slightest of your doubts, what you are about to hear is absolute, provable truth". Jesus is putting the challenge unmistakeably before his listeners that if they live believing his claim to be the only human to have seen the Father, because that is from where he came, then they have eternal life now and forever. (See footnotes for the Greek tenses Jesus uses to state this continuous certainty.)
On this basis, Jesus reaffirms what he stated earlier to correct the crowd’s misuse of the feeding of the Israelites in the desert each morning with manna.
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.** 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.
The spiritual climax in the teaching of Jesus is that anyone may eat the bread of life by doing the work of continually believing that Jesus is the bread of life and live forever. The choice rests in the hands of each person to choose or reject eating the bread of life.
Only Jesus has seen God
46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
The corollary of this new claim made by Jesus is that we might be able to have times of clear spiritual insight about our spiritual identity and the nature of our journey in this life, but we never actually see God. No one has. Yahweh, the eternal I AM, is beyond our imagining as physical creatures in a physical world. Jesus, however, was not making claims to the crowd about his identity based on imagination. He claimed to be from God and to have seen the Father.
No human can make that claim. We cannot even articulate a full spiritual understanding of the oneness of God as the Father and the Son, unified by love, trust and unwavering obedience of the Son to the Father. God’s Spirit within controls how much and what we come to understand. This learning is not the result of intellectual analysis in theological institutions, but of revelation to the humble spirit of a person doing the continual spiritual work of God of believing in Jesus.
The bread of life is his flesh
Based on this claim that only he has seen the Father, Jesus climaxed his teaching about his role in our salvation. He transitions his metaphor of our relationship with him from bread to flesh. Just what kind of relationship does this indicate that he wants to establish with each person? He had already pictured his desired relationship with us as a continual work on our part of placing belief in him, "The work of God is this: to believe continuously in the one he has sent". (v.29).
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.** 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
T bread is my flesh**, which I will give for the life of the world."
Now he advances his imagery of our belief him from bread to flesh. The work of eating bread is a very different metaphor to eating flesh. Every person eats bread. Only depraved cannibals eat human flesh.
To those in the crowd who had not made the switch from physical to spiritual awareness, Jesus could only be considered to be promoting cannibalism. How deranged and repugnant! To the person, however, seeking spiritual awareness of the nature of a relationship with Jesus, the following words are profound.
53 Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.** 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."
What is the closest I can come to another physical entity? It is to consume them so that their physical being is fully merged with my own at a cellular and chemical level through digestive processes. Although the visible form of a steer is no longer seen after devouring a barbeque steak, the atoms that comprised it continue to exist within me. They continue to live in me as me in some new state.
What does this image become if I seek to understand it spiritually? How would Jesus continue to live spiritually as me? Certainly the answer is far more than ticking a box after listening to a sermon that moves me. It is far more than becoming a member of a religious or social organisation. It is a description of relationship at the most intimate level of undifferentiated unity.
53 Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
His flesh is food and his blood is drink
Jesus has arrived at the most critical and vivid description he could give of a relationship with God that results in eternal life beginning in the present within a person. To draw the attention of his listeners to its critical nature, he begins his statement in Greek, "Amen, amen I say to you". He could not have been more emphatic in signalling the need of the crowd to give their highest regard to what he was about to tell them, "Amen, amen I say to you…" In other words, "Pay attention! I could not be more sincere and truthful in what I am about to say".
…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
There is no way around this statement. Jesus uses a Greek third class conditional statement with an aorist subjunctive active verb to propose our possible response to him: ἐὰν μὴ φάγητε ("if you shall have not eaten…"). The choice of this probability of not eating rests with each individual, but the conditional outcome Jesus states that follows this choice is irrevocable, "if you shall not have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man,… you have no life in you". Hear it? Jesus is declaring as emphatically as possible that we may exist physically, but the life of God that is eternal does not exist in us. Jesus then further clarifies this fact so there is no doubt,
54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
Then comes his explanation of why this is so. How it works. This is the impassable truth that every seeker of a relationship with God has to face.
Remaining in Jesus remaining in the Father
55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.
Remaining in Jesus
Earlier we discussed what happens when an animal is eaten and the same would happen if the animal were a human. At the atomic level, they continue to exist although no longer seen. They remain in the cannibal, and, in a real sense, he has also become part of them. This spiritual explanation by Jesus why his flesh is real food and blood is real drink is similar. "Eating his flesh" means spiritually that he remains indivisibly in us and us in him. Such a relationship cannot become any closer. It may mature but not grow any closer than him being in us, and us in him. That is the level of intimacy that God wants us to have with his Son, and therefore with his Father.
Jesus remaining in the Father
Jesus then draws upon the nature of his relationship with the Father to illustrate the relationship he wants with his followers.
57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Jesus is stating that the essence of his relationship with his Father is what the essence of our relationship with him is to be. His was an eternal life of love maintaining unity, obedience and trust in his Father and of his Father in him. He lived with life drawn from his Father. In the same manner, Jesus states a person can live because of him. This is his desire and the will of his Father: that the one who comes to him for spiritual, everlasting life chooses to live in love focused on unity, obedience and trust in him in all situations for all things. This is eating the bread that came down from heaven!
58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.
59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
The challenge from Jesus to each of us, therefore, is to test the intention of our will and what we have chosen to do about the nature of the relationship that Jesus wants to have with us. To the devout attendees of their formal religion, Jesus presented a relationship far more than He becomes our life. Ours become his. Therefore, the apostle Paul who faced death for him on many occasions said,
"For me to live IS Christ"
We can take Paul’s statement and apply it to every aspect of our daily life as follows:
"For me to live IS Christ"
My body is his body to serve with today
My touch is his touch to touch with today
My ears are hisears to hear with today
My eyes are hiseyes to see with today
My voice is his voice to speak with today
My mind is his mind to think with today
My feelings are hisfeelings to embrace with today
My will is his will to surrender wholly to the Father today.
Such is the height of spiritual intimacy that the Father wants with us through his Son.
Rejecting Jesus, the Father and the Spirit
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"
There comes a time for any pupil of a teacher to decide how far they will embrace that teacher or philosopher’s teaching in their life style. What is being requested and expected by the teacher may become too difficult and acceptable. In this case, many of the people following Jesus to learn from him considered this teaching too harsh, severe or difficult. Who can hear and comprehend it? They reached a watershed in the relationship.
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!
Jesus again detected the smouldering discontent that was building among the crowd at his severe teaching. He immediately challenged them using the word σκανδαλίζω (skandalizó) meaning cause to stumble, sin, shock or offend, from which English derives the word "scandal"
"Does this scandalize you?"
Jesus asked this question for each budding disciple in the crowd to assess their reaction to his teaching. It remains standing as the critical question for each person today, who has become aware of Jesus and a measure of his teaching. Does the level of commitment and love Jesus requires as the Bread of Life that came down from heaven cause you to stumble? Does it scandalize you? If so, Jesus then asks how you would handle seeing him ascend to heaven? With shock? As too hard to grasp and comprehend? Later his apostles witnessed this very event.
9 … he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
(Acts 1:9-11)
In that day, many will be caught off guard. Shock will be rampant when he comes to exert his global rule that no one will be able to avoid or dismiss.
Jesus now affirms that the words he has been using to describe the nature of his relationship to the Father, as the basis for his relationship with a disciple, are spiritual words of the highest order. They give life. His words are not intended for intellectual debate, which is merely the flesh being used leading nowhere.
63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you — they are full of the Spirit and life.
Jesus concludes his teaching of the crowd with the crux of every person’s existence. Their life, i.e., their spiritual life, that energizes all the wholesome development and expression of an individual’s life, can come from only one source, viz., the Spirit, Jesus was full of the Spirit and had always been from eternity past. Therefore, any word that he spoke was full of the Spirit and life from eternity. His words are eternally life-giving and spirit-energizing for those who want this quality of life and not just existence created by their own ambitions and plans.
64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them."
How does the Father enable us to want to enter into a relationship with Jesus? By the Spirit who gives life through the words of Jesus that are full of the Spirit and life. Reading and listening to the words of Jesus becomes the life focus of the disciple of Jesus and not activities of the flesh driven by pride and the god it has fashioned for itself.
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Self-desires or his desires? Self-control or his control? Living by the flesh or empowered by his Spirit?
To whom shall we go?
As has been true with Jesus ever since, not all people seeking to understand and relate to Jesus join the majority who stop following him when the nature of the relationship he desires becomes clear. Some remain. Jesus turned to the apostles to test their hearts having heard his recent teaching,
67 "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
Do you want to leave too? Do you? Peter acted as the voice for his companions.
69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God."
68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Peter and ten of his twelve companions were later executed for preaching that Jesus is the Holy One of God prophesied in their scriptures. My sacrifices are small in comparison to the Christians being executed for their faith this decade. What would cause me to stay with Jesus to the point of death for his sake? For the same reason as for the apostles: viz., to come to know Jesus, not just believe in his words and identity as recorded by those who wrote about him. Those who seek him daily, ask to be filled with his Spirit daily, obey the promptings of his Spirit throughout the day based on their trust in him, come to know him in intimate relationship, not just know about him. The apostles engaged in the work of God, eating living bread full of the Spirit and Life that continually comes from heaven. As a result, they came not only to believe in the identity of Jesus but to know that he was, who he claimed to be. Their understanding had moved beyond their mind and become clear in their spirit.
Consequently Peter answered Jesus with a rhetorical question, "Lord to whom shall we go?" and answered it himself with a clear declaration, "You have the words of eternal life". His statement echoed the claim just made by Jesus that his words were "full of the Spirit and life".
To whom can I go? To whom shall I go to receive life-giving life?
Post-script
John concludes this teaching session by Jesus with a post-script clarification about possibly the most tragic sin in human history, since Eve and Adam ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and birthed the necessary coming, betrayal and execution of Jesus.
70 Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Flesh and blood intimacy, or flesh and blood betrayal? What will be your post-script?
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.