Introduction
We come now to the
fourth miracle recorded by John, in which Jesus feeds a multitude.
This miracle took place near what we call today the Golan Heights. Read 6:1-14 (6:10 is an eye-witness comment; Jesus fed them
through his disciples [Mk. 6:41]).
This was a bona
fide miracle. The "miracle" was not the boy’s
generosity shamed many of the rest into sharing
—this makes all 4 gospel authors liars. Jesus supernaturally multiplied
five dinners rolls and two sardines to feed as many as 10,000 (6:10
says there were about 5000 men) hungry people to the point
that they pushed their plates away. This is why the people responded
the way they did (6:14): "If he can feed us this way, he can
also defeat the Romans" (6:15).
But while it was a
real miracle, it was more than a miracle. Like all seven of the
miracles John records, this miracle helped real people by meeting
their real physical needs (hunger). But it was also far more than
that; it was a "sign”—an "attesting miracle,"
meaning that its ultimate significance is not in the miracle itself,
but in what it reveals symbolically about Jesus' unique identity and
ability to meet humanity's spiritual needs (read Jn. 20:31). In
this case, Jesus clearly explains the meaning of this "sign"
when he meets these people the next day at the synagogue in
Capernaum.
Read 6:25. Jesus'
response (6:26) cuts through their small talk to the heart of the
issue. They haven't tracked him down because they seek understanding
of the spiritual significance of yesterday’s miracle, but
because they want another free lunch. They don't view him as the
REVEALER OF TRUTH, but rather as a MOBILE McDONALD'S. In the
dialogue that follows, Jesus keeps trying lift their eyes to see the
meaning of the miracle, while they keep trying to extract another
free lunch. Jesus begins by giving them a solemn warning and a
fantastic offer . . .
The Warning:
"Don't try to satisfy spiritual hunger through non-spiritual
means."
Read 6:27a. Is
this a prohibition against working for a living so they can provide
groceries for their families? Is Jesus reminding them to be sure to
buy bread with preservatives so it doesn't mold quickly? No, he is
speaking figuratively to warn them (and us) against the tendency to
try to satisfy spiritual hunger through non-spiritual means.
We are physical
beings and we live in a temporal world, so we need food, rest and
shelter. We also “need” recreation, comfort, work
accomplishment, romantic relationships, aesthetic and sensual
pleasure, etc. But this is not all that we are. We are also
spiritual beings—created in God's image and needing above all
else a personal relationship with God. This relationship with God is
the only integration point around which all these other things find
their rightful place. And if this relationship is not in place, all
of the perishable food in the world is not enough to keep the hunger
at bay.
This is why no
amount or combination of this "food" will ever satisfy this
spiritual hunger. This is why the American
Dream inevitably turns into the American Nightmare. This is why the
basic ideology behind American advertising is a soul-destroying lie.
This is why “mid-life crises” (“Is this all there
is to life?”) are spiritual crises (QUOTES).
And so Jesus, out of love, issues this warning and immediately
follows it with an amazing offer . . .
The Offer: "I'll
give you spiritual food that will fully satisfy your spiritual
hunger."
Re-read 6:27b.
Jesus is echoing an Old Testament passage with which they were
familiar (read Isa. 55:1-3a). He is saying, "I'll give you
spiritual food that truly satisfies and lasts forever." But
they are so intent on getting more “perishable bread”
that they don’t understand his obvious meaning. (Sound
familiar?)
Read 6:28. Jesus
is offering this food as a gift, but they think they must earn
through their good works. Read 6:29. Jesus says they don’t
need to earn it; they need only believe in him (we'll come back to
this later).
Read 6:30. This
is a pretty stupid question, since they had just seen him perform a
miracle so great that they wanted to make him King. What they really
want is another free lunch (read 6:31): "Hey, Moses was the
BREAD MAN every day—how about it? What have you done
for me lately?"
But Jesus refuses
to do another miracle feeding, because this would only reinforce
their wrong mind-set. This is why God in his love often refuses to
grant our requests for things like the LOTTERY, a NEW LOVER, that
GREAT PAYING JOB, etc.—because this would only help us keep
looking in the wrong places . . .
Instead, he
continues to correct their thinking (read 6:32,33). Moses only gave
their ancestors manna, which perpetuated physical life (bios).
But God is offering them true spiritual ("life" is zoe)
food—the very life of God itself.
Their request
(6:34) is still for temporal “bread,” but it gives Jesus
the opportunity to make a block-buster claim . . .
The Claim: "I
am the sole source of spiritual life."
Read 6:35. Bread
was the essential food of the ancient Mid-East—just as it is
today in many cultures. No bread, no physical life. Jesus isn’t
saying just that he brings the bread of (spiritual) life; he
is the bread of life.
This is the
explanation of the "sign." Just as Jesus alone could
provide them with physical food to satisfy their physical hunger
yesterday, so Jesus alone can provide the world with spiritual life
to satisfy our spiritual hunger.
What a
breath-taking claim! Notice he does not say: "I am one of many
valid breads of life." He says: "I and I alone am the
bread of life." Jesus claims that he himself is the sole
source of spiritual life, that he alone fully satisfies our
spiritual hunger and thirst. This claim forces us to deal with him
differently than any other religious founder, because none of them
has ever made such a claim as this (e.g., BUDDHA; MUHAMMAD). Why is
Jesus the bread of life?
Because he
alone is God-incarnate (Jn. 5:21). Unlike other religious
founders, who claimed only to have discovered a way to God, Jesus
claimed to be God and therefore able to directly impart spiritual
life to others.
Read 6:51. He
speaks of two breads—or actually, two reasons why he is the
bread of life. Jesus is the life of God made available to us—and
(“also”) he is available to us because he will (future
tense) “give his flesh.” This is the language of
substitutionary sacrifice.
It was the Feast
of Passover (6:4). Review the setting and instructions for the
Passover Feast. This ritual symbolized our dilemma (deserving God’s
judgment because of our sins) and God’s solution—that he
would one day provide a blameless Substitute whose death would pay
for our sins (cf. Isa. 53).
Jesus is declaring
himself to be the true Passover lamb (see also Mk. 10:45;
Lk. 22:19,20). His perfect life qualified him to die in our
place, to pay for our sins against God—so that we can receive
God’s spiritual, eternal life as a free gift. So Jesus is the
sole source of spiritual life because he alone pays for our sins.
Once again, they don't get it. Read 6:52: "Great,
we come out for another fish sandwich and the guy starts talking
cannibalism." "Come on, Gladys. We're gonna find another
church." But Jesus presses his claim—and the condition
for receiving his offer . . .
The Condition:
"You must personally receive me and my death for your sins."
Read 6:53-58.
What does it mean to eat his flesh and drink his blood? Let's be
clear first about what it doesn't mean:
It does not
refer to animistic cannibalism (get victim’s vitality &
valor by eating his heart). This wide-spread religious idea is
foreign to the whole Bible. Furthermore, Jesus has been speaking
figuratively throughout this whole passage.
It does not
refer to communion (receive spiritual life through ongoing observance
of Eucharist). There is no mention of communion in the context. To
import it into the passage is eisogesis, not exegesis. Furthermore,
the aorist tense in 6:53 suggests that this is once-for-all rather
than ongoing.
Rather, Jesus is
explaining what it means to believe in him. He has already made it
crystal clear that the condition for receiving spiritual life is to
believe in him (see 6:29,35,47). Comparing 6:40 to 6:54 makes it
clear that believing in him is equivalent to eating his
flesh/drinking his blood. Jesus uses this graphic image to explain
what kind of belief he is talking about. He's saying it is not
enough to mentally assent that he is the Messiah, or that he alone
contains the life of God, or that he died for our sins. He is saying
that we must personally receive him and his death for our sins.
Just they had
to eat the bread the day before. Would it have been enough for
them to calculate the calories and carbs—and “believe”
that that bread could meet their nutritional needs—but not
actually receive it into their bodies? No! They had to personally
eat the food so that its life could be assimilated into their bodies.
Just as the
Israelites had to eat the Passover lamb. This was the way God
called on them to express their belief that he would deliver them
from his judgment through this sacrifice. They had to personally
appropriate this sacrifice.
In the same way,
it is not enough for you to merely “believe” that Jesus
is God's Son, able to forgive you and give you spiritual life now and
eternal life in the future. If your belief stops here, you will miss
out on the bread of life! You must personally receive Jesus into
your heart and his death for your sins. Only in this way can the
life of God be assimilated into your being.
Have you ever made
this decision? You’ve got everything you need to do so. You
know “perishable bread” doesn’t satisfy, your heart
longs for the “spiritual bread” Jesus offers, you
understand that his death already paid the purchase price. All that
stands between you and experiencing Jesus filling your soul is this
decision. Simply call out to him and ask him for it . . .
For Discussion
Jesus is the
supreme multi-tasker. He could simultaneously teach the multitudes
and train his disciples. Now that you know the meaning of this
“sign” to the multitudes, what do you think it was
supposed to teach his disciples?
Jesus could have
materialized the food directly to the multitudes, but he chose to
feed them through the disciples. This is a picture of God's plan to
give the bread of life to a lost world through
Christians.
In the midst of
their own hunger, Jesus calls on the disciples to feed the multitude.
As they do so, they discover that there is abundant food for them
(12 large baskets - kophinoi). Jesus is teaching us that it
is as serve others (especially share the gospel)—even in the
midst of our own needs—we will find him meeting our needs and
filling us with his life.
Does anyone know
where Jesus taught this explicitly to his disciples (see Jn. 4:34)?
Has anyone
experienced this lately?
Footnotes
Next Week: John 9:1-41 - Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
Copyright 2004 Gary DeLashmutt