Christ feeds the five thousand
6
📚After these things Jesus went over the lake of Galilee (which is the lake of Tiberias), 2 📚And a great crowd followed him, because they saw the miraculous signs which he performed on the sick. 3 📚And Jesus went up to a mountain, and sat there with his disciples. 4 📚And the Passover 📖, a Jewish feast, was near.
5 📚When Jesus raised his eyes and saw a great crowd coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where will we buy bread for them to eat?” 6 📚And this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
6:6 For us also the Lord always has in mind what to do, but He will test our faith, love, and obedience. Compare Gen 22:1; Ps 66:10-12; 1 Pet 1:6-7.⚜
7 📚Philip answered him, “Two hundred silver coins’ worth 📖 of bread would not be sufficient for each of them to have a little”.
6:7 Mark 6:37. If Philip had an answer to the problem he didn’t state it. Apparently he did not yet grasp the fact that nothing was impossible to the Lord Jesus.⚜
8 📚One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 📚“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fishes. But what are they among so many?”
10 📚And Jesus said, “Have the men sit down”. Now there was plenty of grass in the place, so the men, about five thousand in number, sat down.
11 📚And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks 📖, he distributed them along with the fish to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were sitting down, as much as they wanted.
12 📚When they were full, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the pieces that are left, so that nothing is wasted”.
13 📚Therefore they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.
14 📚Then the people, seeing the miraculous sign 📖 Jesus did, said, “Truly this is the prophet who should come into the world”.
15 📚So Jesus, knowing that they would come and take him by force to make him king, again went into a mountain by himself.
6:1-15 This is the only miracle the Lord Jesus did which is recorded in all four of the Gospels (not counting His resurrection from the dead). This indicates its great significance and importance. See notes at Matt 14:13-21. But John alone speaks of the nearness of the Passover (v 4), and calls this miracle a “sign” (v 14). Christ’s words later in the chapter show us the reason for this.⚜
6:15 They had no understanding of His purpose and mission, no faith in Him as the Son of God. They were thinking only of a worldly kingdom which would replace Roman rule in their land and bring peace and prosperity. Jesus would have none of that. He was not interested in establishing a political system, a worldly kingdom. His aim was far higher than that. He had come to die for the sins of the world, to bring forgiveness and spiritual life to fallen men.⚜
Christ walks on the water
16 And when evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 📚and entered a boat and were crossing the lake toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them. 18 📚And the lake was stirred up because of a great wind that blew. 19 📚So when they had rowed about five or six kilometers, they saw Jesus walking on the lake, and drawing near the boat, and they were afraid.
20 📚But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid”.
21 📚Then they willingly received him into the boat. And immediately the ship was at the land where they were going.
6:16-21 This miracle is found also in Matthew and Mark. Notes at Matt 14:22-33.⚜
6:21 This sign pointed to one who is not bound by the forces of nature but has absolute control over them. Compare Ps 107:23-30; Matt 8:23-27.⚜
22 📚The day following, when the people who stood on the other side of the lake saw that there had been no other boat there, except the one his disciples had entered, and that Jesus did not go with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples had gone away alone
6:22 The crowd did not understand how Jesus had been able to cross the lake (v 25).⚜
23 📚(however other boats now came from Tiberias near to the place where they ate, after the Lord had given thanks), 24 📚so when the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they also got into the boats and came to Capernaum, looking for Jesus.
6:24 They did not search for Jesus because they knew Who He was, or for spiritual reasons of any kind. See v 26.⚜
Christ is the Bread of life
25 📚And when they had found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, “Rabbi 📖, when did you come here?”
26 📚Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves, and were filled.
6:26 The Lord Jesus knew their hearts (see John 2:24-25) and was not happy about their motives for seeking Him. They had no spiritual understanding or concern, but were only anxious to get something for their physical needs. They are examples of so many today who try to be Christians for the wrong reasons.⚜
27 📚Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for that food which lasts to everlasting life, 📖 which the Son of man will give to you, for on him God the Father has set his seal”.
6:27 The Lord tells them what should be their most vital concern. It is not for the things of this brief life, but for eternity, not for the body but for the soul. See also Matt 6:31-33; 16:26; Isa 55:1-2.⚜
28 📚Then they said to him, “What shall we do, that we might perform the works of God?”
29 📚Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent”.
6:29 The Lord corrects their false view. God requires that men trust in Christ for salvation (John 1:12; 3:15-16, 36; 5:24). And trusting in Christ is very reasonable and right, for God sent Him into the world. Forty times in John’s Gospel alone the Lord Jesus said God sent Him. How many times does He have to say something before men will believe Him?⚜
30 📚Therefore they said to him, “Then what miraculous sign will you show that we can see, and believe you? What deed will you perform? 31 📚Our fathers ate manna in the desert. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat”.
6:30-31 Matt 16:1-4; 1 Cor 1:22. Jesus had already given signs which pointed to the truth about Himself, but these people had not believed Him. In v 31 they refer to the manna in the desert (Ex 16:11-18, 35). It seems they were comparing what Jesus did with that. Jesus had fed the five thousand one meal. In Moses’ time God fed a whole nation for 40 years. Jesus used ordinary bread. God in Moses’ time sent manna from the sky. The Jews believed that when Messiah came He would again supply manna from heaven, but Jesus had not done that.⚜
32 📚Then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, Moses did not give you that bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
6:32 It was God who caused the manna to fall. And Moses could not give them a bread from heaven that would produce eternal life. Only God could do that, and He has done so by sending His own Son. The manna was only a picture of the spiritual bread God gives, which is the true bread for spiritual life.⚜
33 📚For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world”.
6:33 Observe that the bread of God is a person, a person who came from heaven and gives spiritual life to mankind (v 35).⚜
34 📚Then they said to him, “Lord, always give us this bread”.
6:34 Compare John 4:15. They had no spiritual understanding of what He was saying and did not believe Him (v 36).⚜
35 📚And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.
6:35 Jesus makes it clear that He has not been speaking of some substance like manna which they can gather and eat. He has been speaking of Himself (vs 48,51). In this Gospel on a number of occasions Jesus used the words “I am” in connection with some truth or other about Himself or His ministry (John 6:35; 8:12; 10:7, 9, 11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5). Also He used the words by themselves (John 8:24, 58. See notes there). Here when He compares Himself to bread He signifies that He is to men’s minds, hearts, and spirits what literal food is to the body.⚜
36 📚But I told you that you have seen me and do not believe.
37 📚“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will not at all send away. 📖
6:37 Another very great promise. It shows that we partake of the bread of life by coming to the Lord Jesus. This is the one and only way to obtain spiritual life (John 3:36; 5:40; 14:6; Rev 22:17). Coming to Him does not mean traveling anywhere physically but means trusting in Him, coming in faith, and not coming in unbelief with wrong motives as they had done (vs 24,26). It means a movement of our hearts toward Him, a turning to Him in spirit.
Those who come He will never send away. The words are very emphatic. No matter who or what or where a person is, if he or she comes to Christ, Christ will receive Him. No one should worry about the first part of this verse and think Christ may not receive him if God has not chosen him. His very coming to Christ is proof that God has chosen him. It is true that God has given some individuals to Christ out of the masses of mankind (John 10:29; 17:6).
Before a person comes to Christ no one can know whether he or she is one of these. But all God’s chosen will come in faith to Christ, and by coming will prove that God the Father has given them to Christ. See notes at Rom 1:6; 8:29-30. The sinner wanting salvation should not be concerned with God’s secret purposes, but simply come to Christ (Matt 11:28). Whoever wants to come to Him may do so, the way is open to all (Rev 22:17).⚜
38 📚“For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
6:38 Note at 4:34. Five times in this chapter the Lord Jesus says He came down from heaven (vs 33,38,50,51,58). Let us believe Him. If we truly believe Him we will not stumble at anything He ever said. For other reasons why Jesus came to earth see note at Matt 5:17.⚜
39 📚And this is the will of the Father who has sent me, that of all whom he has given me I should lose none, but should raise them up again at the last day. 📖 40 📚And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son 📖 and believes in him, will have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day”. 41 📚Then the Jews grumbled about him because he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven”.
6:41 Jesus gave them marvelous teaching, wonderful promises, such as had never been heard on earth before. And all they could do was grumble and object. Such is the sinful, unbelieving heart of man.⚜
42 📚And they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? Then how is it that he says, ‘I came down from heaven?’”
6:42 See also Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3. They were ignorant of the nature of Christ’s birth (Matt 1:18-23; Luke 1:26-35). And they did not know, and did not want to know, how Jesus came from heaven.⚜
43 📚So Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.
6:43 Grumbling is not the way to arrive at the truth. It only adds to men’s sins.⚜
44 📚No man can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day.
6:44 See v 37. Sinful man without God’s help is not able to understand Christ’s words or believe in Christ or come to Christ. But unbelievers are still responsible, guilty, and condemned (John 3:18-20). He says four times that He will raise all believers on the last day (vs 39,40,54). He speaks emphatically to indicate the certainty of this fact.⚜
45 📚It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to me.
46 📚Not that any man has seen the Father, except he who is from God, he has seen the Father.
6:46 See John 1:18. Observe again the distinction between these two persons in the Godhead – one has seen, the other has been seen.⚜
47 📚“Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life.
48 📚I am the bread of life.
6:48 Verse 35.⚜
49 📚Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 📚This is the bread which comes down from heaven which a man may eat and not die. 51 📚I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world”.
6:49-51 The unbelieving Jews thought Moses was superior to Jesus (vs 30-32). Here Christ shows the opposite is true. The manna Israel ate did not give them spiritual life, or even keep them living physically very long (v 49). But Christ as the “bread” from heaven gives spiritual life which goes on forever. And the manna was only for one people, but what Christ gives is for the whole world (v 51).
In v 50 He says that if a person eats this bread from heaven he will not die. See also John 11:26. But do not believers in Christ die physically? Yes, but they will never die spiritually. They have already passed from death to life (John 5:24). Even their physical death is usually not called death in the New Testament, but a “sleep”. See Acts 7:60; 1 Cor 15:6; 1 Thess 4:13. See note on death at Gen 2:17.⚜
52 📚Therefore the Jews argued among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
6:52 As usual these unbelievers did not grasp what He was saying. They had no spiritual understanding and took His words literally. Compare John 3:4; 4:15. Jesus often used figures of speech which must not be taken in a literal manner (v 35; John 4:10; 8:12; 10:7; 15:1). This is true in the verses which follow.⚜
53 📚Then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to 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 him up at the last day. 55 📚For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 📚He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, lives in me, and I in him.
6:56 The believer is in Christ (Rom 6:11; 8:1; 1 Cor 1:2; Eph 1:1-4); and Christ is in the believer (2 Cor 13:5; Col 1:27; 3:11; Rev 3:20). Each lives in the other – John 17:20-23. Their lives are forever bound up together.⚜
57 📚Just as the living Father has sent me, and I live because of the Father, even so he who eats me will live because of me.
6:57 It is just as certain that believers are spiritually alive through Christ as it is that He is alive because of God the Father. The living Father, the living Son, and living believers are all linked together.⚜
58 📚This is the bread that came down from heaven; not as your fathers ate manna, and are dead. He who eats of this bread will live forever”.
6:53-58 In this section Jesus speaks of His flesh and blood four times and says that men must eat His flesh and drink His blood; that they are “real” food; that He is “bread” and that people must “eat” Him. Obviously He did not mean for people to take His words literally. See verse 63. He was standing before them and it was not possible for them to eat Him without being guilty of murder and cannibalism – neither of which Jesus ever dreamed of teaching. We are not to think we should literally eat His flesh or drink His blood, just as we are not to think He was literal bread. He was using figures of speech to teach spiritual truth. He did not mean He must be literally eaten any more than He meant He was a literal door (John 10:7), or a literal vine (John 15:1). The Old Testament absolutely forbids literally partaking of blood (Gen 9:4; Lev 17:10-14; 19:26).
What spiritual truth was Jesus teaching? The same as in v 51 with an additional reference to His blood. By “blood” He meant His blood which was to be shed on the cross, His life given as a sacrifice for men’s sins (see Matt 26:27-28; Rom 3:25). What does it mean to eat His flesh and drink His blood? It means to believe that His sacrifice really was for us and takes away our sins (Rom 3:25; Eph 1:7; Heb 9:12-14; 1 John 1:7); it means to receive His Spirit into our hearts by faith. It is a spiritual eating and drinking, and it brings us spiritual life.
Some people have taught that this whole passage refers to the Lord’s Supper or Communion (Matt 26:26-29; 1 Cor 11:23-32). There are serious objections to this. These verses may give the spiritual meaning of Communion, but the New Testament nowhere teaches that men must take part in that ordinance in order to obtain spiritual life. If it did, what would be the fate of the thief who believed on the cross (Luke 20:40-43), or of other believers throughout history who may not have partaken of the Lord’s Supper, or children who have not? And Jesus states very definitely in v 53 that those who do not “eat” His flesh and “drink” His blood have “no life in them”. And how can we even dream that spiritual life comes by taking something into the mouth?
Very obviously Jesus is referring to spiritual realities. And we should understand that it is very possible to partake of the Lord’s Supper and yet not spiritually by faith “eat” His flesh or “drink” His blood. And it is possible by faith to “eat” His flesh and “drink” His blood without partaking of the Lord’s Supper. By using the word “unless” Jesus shows He is speaking of something absolutely essential for salvation. See also John 3:3; Matt 18:3; Luke 13:3. These are all things without which no person will have spiritual life, be saved, enter God’s Kingdom, or go to heaven. Concerning this we have the most solemn words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.⚜
59 📚He said these things in the synagogue, while he was teaching in Capernaum.
Christ is deserted by many disciples
60 📚Then many of his disciples, hearing this, said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can understand it?”
6:60 This was said by some of Christ’s own disciples, not by His Jewish enemies. This does not refer to His twelve closest disciples, but to those who sometimes followed Him to hear His teaching. Some of those who said this did not really believe in Him (v 64), and by leaving Him showed they did not believe (v 66. Compare 1 John 2:19).
What Jesus taught in vs 53-58 is wonderful to those who have spiritual understanding and believe Him. But it is indeed a “hard teaching” to unbelievers. They certainly do not like to be told that the only way of salvation is Christ’s sacrifice for them and that they must “eat” Him or be lost forever. When they said it was a “hard teaching” they meant hard for them to accept. For the true believer nothing Jesus ever said is hard to accept, though some of it may be hard to understand. Christ’s teaching here separated His true disciples from the false (except for Judas Iscariot who was not separated until later).⚜
61 📚When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, he said to them, “Does this offend you?
6:61 Compare v 41.⚜
62 📚What, then, if you see the Son of man ascend where he was before?
6:62 Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9. The question seems to mean, if they were to see Christ’s ascension into heaven would they then be more offended or would they believe Him? “Where he was before” means with God the Father in heaven (v 38; John 1:1; 3:13).⚜
63 📚It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is of no use. The words that I speak to you are spirit 📖 and they are life. 64 📚But some of you do not believe”. For Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe, and who would betray him.
6:64 See John 2:24-25. Before Jesus chose Judas Iscariot as one of His disciples He knew that Judas would betray Him (vs 70,71). Then why choose him? To fulfill the Scriptures and the plan of God. See Matt 26:24.⚜
65 📚And he said, “Therefore I told you that no one can come to me unless it is given to him by my Father”.
6:65 The Lord Jesus had performed a great miracle and spoken marvelous words, but many continued in their unbelief. Now the Lord repeats the reason for this (v 44). Here is the reverse side of v 37. All that the Father has not given Him will not come to Him.⚜
66 📚From that time many of his disciples went away and did not walk any more with him.
6:66 How quickly some men can move from the attitude of v 15 to this! They wanted a Jesus whom they could control, who would do what they planned, and give them what they thought best. They could not accept His “hard teaching” (v 60), and Jesus had exposed their unbelief. So off they went to their own ways. We must follow Jesus for the right reason, or sooner or later we too will leave Him.⚜
67 📚Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Will you also go away?”
6:67 Jesus knew the twelve disciples would not leave. He wanted them to say what was in their minds. Doubtless this was a time of testing for them.⚜
68 📚Then Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
6:68 Peter was the spokesman for the group (Matt 16:15-16; 17:4). Here he expressed what was in the minds of them all (except Judas). He gives the right reason for following Christ. They had believed Christ’s words; they were convinced He was what He said He was; they could not leave Him. For the true believer there is never any place to go, anyone to whom to go, away from Christ.⚜
69 📚And we believe and are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God 📖”.
70 📚Jesus answered them, “Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a demon?”
71 📚He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. For it was he, who was one of the twelve, who would betray him.
6:70-71 Judas was not a literal demon, but he allowed Satan to influence his life so much that he behaved like one. See also John 12:4-6; 13:2, 26, 27. The nature of Judas is described in Ps 109:2-19 (in Acts 1:20 Peter applies v 8 of this Psalm to Judas).⚜