“LOAVES AND FISHES” JOHN 6:1-14
A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 14, 2010, by David J. Miller, vicar
John 6:5-6 5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.
INTRODUCTION
This miracle is the only one of our Lord’s miracles that is recorded in all four Gospels (Matt. 14:15; Mark 6:35; Luke 9:12). That fact alone must mean it holds extraordinary significance!
John 6:3-4 3 And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. 4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.
Verse 4 places this miracle in the context of the Passover feast – the celebration of Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt.
John’s mention of the Passover is significant. Almost every detail of the feeding of the five thousand recalls the Exodus, the great miraculous deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt. John’s Gospel is the only one that mentions this background. There are three associations worth noting:
On the night of the Passover meal, the blood of the lamb that the Israelite families feasted upon, had to be smeared on the door posts and lintels of their homes. This was the requirement so the Angel of Death would pass over those homes, for they were symbolically covered with the blood of the Lord’s covenantal promise. The lamb died as a substitute for the first born. Also, they ate “the bread of haste,” that is, unleavened bread, for there would be no time for the bread to rise with yeast in it. A third association is in the manna, the “bread from heaven” that God caused to appear on the ground each day of the Israelites’ forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
The presence of a large multitude and the fact that Jesus went up into a mountain, as Moses had ascended Sinai, also are reminiscent of the Exodus.
You see, Jesus was going to fulfill ALL these associations with the Exodus story, because He came to bring about the TRUE Exodus, the deliverance of His people, not from mere human bondage in Egypt, but from death itself, and from sin, which brought death into the world.
Here is the DOCTRINE we need to expound from this passage: This miraculous sign, with its background in Israel’s Exodus, reveals Jesus to us in a powerful way. We see Him revealed in the implication implicit in this miracle, in the very character of it, and finally, in its function.
FIRST, THE IMPLICATION OF THE MIRACLE: THE IDENTITY OF JESUS
John 6:14 14 Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.
These are men who realized that they had witnessed the fulfillment of biblical prophecy! Jesus was the second Moses foretold in Deuteronomy, where the LORD speaks to Moses: Deuteronomy 18:18-19 18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
Moses had been unique. Deuteronomy 34:10-12 10 And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, 12 And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.
But now the second Moses had come! He is like the first, but far greater, for He is God in the flesh. Just as Moses had served when God gave the multitudes of Israel’s twelve tribes the manna in the wilderness, so now Jesus has replicated that great life-sustaining miracle: Psalm 78:24-25 24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. 25 Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.
Notice that Jesus had gone up into a mountain (verse 3), where He sat with His disciples. These apparently insignificant details even recall an extraordinary event (that didn’t make it into Cecil B. De Mill’s The Ten Commandments):
Exodus 24:9-11 9 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: 10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. 11 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.
But Jesus is not only like Moses in that event; He is the God of Israel, the Only Begotten of the Father, sitting as the Host of a covenantal meal with the representatives of the new Israel. The glory isn’t visible in the Gospel story, as it was in the Exodus, but we must never forget that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.
Notice that when Jesus lifts up His eyes and sees the multitude coming, His first words are “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” It is interesting that Jesus speaks of buying bread. Why does He speak in those terms? I suspect it was because Jesus knew the true bread, with which He would nourish His people unto eternal life, would indeed have to be bought: it would cost Him His very life, for it was His Body, which He would give for the life of the world!
All these elements take us back to the Exodus, reminding us of what happened then, making connections with what happened with Israel’s wilderness wanderings and God’s miraculous provision in that barren land, feeding them with bread “from heaven:” all these things help us understand what a glorious Savior is Jesus, our Lord! He is indeed, “a far greater Savior than you could ever dare imagine!”
SECOND, THE CHARACTER OF THE MIRACLE REVEALS JESUS AS LORD OF THE BREAD.
John 6:5-9 5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, 9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? 11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
If we compare this miracle with the first one the Apostle John describes in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11), we see both similarities and differences. Changing the water into wine was a miracle of transformation; feeding the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fishes is a miracle of multiplication. Both illustrate important aspects of our Lord’s work. The first manifested the quality that spoke of joyful celebration. The second speaks of abundance, abundant life! Both are signs pointing to the salvation won for us by Jesus on the Cross!
At the wedding in Cana, Jesus manifested His glory in that He was shown to be the Lord of the Wine, transforming human hearts and lives, bringing true joy and celebration with the coming of His kingdom. He came to bring forgiveness of sins, to grant us a new birth, hearts that desire to respond to God’s incredible love, hearts that well up with gratitude and transformed desires, rejoicing in holiness, finding unspeakable pleasure in pleasing God and obeying His laws.
Here, Jesus reveals Himself as Lord of the Bread; His heart aches to feed and nourish these people who find themselves in a wilderness, with nothing to sustain them. In that barren country, they cannot find themselves anything to eat. They are very much like Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. They have come because Jesus is there, and He is moved to feed them, just as He had fed Israel 1400 years earlier.
We can see Jesus’ incredible love in both miracles: at Cana, our Lord’s thoughts no doubt ran ahead in time to His own approaching wedding day, the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when he would once again, join His disciples in a glass of wine. But in order to share that festive wine, He had to shed His own blood on the cross!
In sharing the loaves and the fishes, no doubt Jesus thought ahead to the night when He would share one last Passover meal with His disciples, passing out the bread He would identify sacramentally as His own Body! He was the Host of the banquet in the wilderness, the Lord of the Feast, because He was headed for the Cross!
This miracle was a token of His sustaining grace. In the wilderness of our lives, in the barrenness of our experience, He is the Bread of Life! He supplies us right now, today, just as surely as He did that spring day two thousand years ago. And His provision is abundant!
THIRD, THE FUNCTION OF THE MIRACLE IS TO PREPARE US FOR FURTHER EXPLANATION: WE ARE CALLED TO REFLECT.
John 6:12-14 12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. 14 Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.
This spectacular re-enactment of the feeding of Israel with the manna in the wilderness during the Exodus serves as an acted parable, providing the vivid context, the historic connections, and the necessary background for our Lord’s teaching to follow in John 6:26-71.
The twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained are testimony, once again, to the abundance of our Lord’s provision. They testify also as a remembrance of the twelve tribes, and help to point to the inescapable conclusion that Jesus is “that Prophet.”
In the Passover Seder, the liturgy of the Passover celebration, the signal for the father to re-tell the story of the Exodus is a question asked by one of the children: “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
Exodus 12:25-27 25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. 26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? 27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD’S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
Notice how important it was to reflect on the meaning of the Passover. The Lord charged the people to understand the significance of their Exodus deliverance. In the same way, we need to reflect on the meaning of this miraculous sign. It was not just an economic salvation; it was not just free food, or an invitation to participate in a “prosperity gospel,” as many of those who came to Jesus later seemed to think. It was a token, a type of a much deeper deliverance, a salvation of cosmic proportions.
In the broader context of John’s Gospel, the entire rest of the chapter relates how Jesus explains the meaning of this miracle:
John 6:32-33 32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
John 6:47-50 47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. 48 I am that bread of life. 49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
APPLICATION
By way of application, let me challenge you to reflect on the significance of this miracle in the light of the Cross. Perhaps some practical “hooks” might help:
1. Look to Jesus for ALL your needs. Nothing is too small or too large for Him to be concerned about. He who looked out in compassion over the hungry multitude on that long ago day in Galilee, is looking into your situation today. John 14:13 13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 15:7 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
2. Be open to surprising answers. I think it’s safe to say that nobody expected Jesus to do what He did in the feeding of the five thousand!
3. Reflect on the depth of His compassion: it cost Him everything. Romans 8:32 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? It was because He tasted the curse of God’s wrath, that you might taste the Bread of Life. He isn’t only the Divine Server; He’s the Bread that’s served!
4. Are you hungry? This is all-important! It’s when you’re hungry for Christ, then He’ll begin to delight you and finally, to satisfy your deepest longings. Know that this is the desire of Jesus’ own heart! John 14:23 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
5. Submit to His timing. It must have taken time to organize the five thousand men (“besides women and children,” as Matthew added), but the time spent made the distribution possible. Remember “waiting on the Lord” is not, “doing nothing;” it is active trust! Psalm 27:14 14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
Let this connection to the Cross capture your heart! Let this reflection draw you closer in love to your Lord. Let it draw you away from sinful patterns of thought, words or deeds. Let it so lift up our Lord Christ before your eyes, that you may know, beyond any shadow of doubt, that, as you draw near to Him, Jesus loves you and draws near to you.
James 4:8 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
The great Scottish preacher, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, compared the receiving of the bread and wine of Holy Communion to the exchange of rings in a wedding ceremony.
Christ has “pledged His troth” to you. And when you receive the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, you pledge yourself to Him, body and soul, heart and mind, “for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer.” Only death will NOT cause you to part! And the, “or for worse” part, and the “for poorer” part, only lasts for this life, for in His presence, all eternity will be “pleasures forevermore.”
Psalm 16:11 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
We are not simply invited to sign on to a series of beliefs; we are invited to experience them! Jonathan Edwards was fond of saying that it’s not enough merely to know; you
must taste!
Psalm 34:8 8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
AMEN.
David J. Miller, vicar, Redeemer AOC. 03/14/2010