John 6:1-21
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread that these people may eat?” 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is truly the prophet, the one coming into the world.” 15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and to seize him that they might make him a king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
16And as evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17and having gotten into a boat, they were crossing the sea to Capernaum, and darkness already had come, and Jesus had not yet come. 18The sea, because a great wind blew, was becoming rough. 19 Having rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were afraid. 20But he said to them, “I am; do not be afraid.” 21They wanted to takehim into the boat, and immediately the boat came to the land toward which they were going.
Chapter 6 in the gospel of John recycles the themes and pattern of Jesus’ first trip through Galilee in chapter 2. At the wedding feast in Cana he provided an outstanding abundance of fine wine from a simple starter of water. This time it’s bread – bread for 5000 from five small barley loaves. In both miracles, he turns ordinary into extraordinary, in the process revealing to his disciples that God’s grace and glory are intimately involved in the person of Jesus.
The feeding of 5000 is the only miracle story told in all four gospels – Matthew and Mark even tell it twice, indicating how prominent a place it had in the early oral stories circulating after Jesus’ death. John’s version also clearly has the Exodus story in mind – Moses calling down bread from heaven – fragments of manna that must be gathered up for the twelve tribes of Israelites, here into 12 baskets of leftovers. We’ll hear more about the Exodus allusions later in the chapter. In this telling, it is nearly Passover, and Jesus takes five loaves and two fish, gives thanks and gives them for the people to eat – we almost expect the words from communion, “take and eat, this is my body.” He distributes the food himself in John, unlike in the other gospels: the gift of finest bread comes from Jesus himself, not through the agency of others.
“14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is truly the prophet, the one coming into the world.” 15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and to seize him that they might make him a king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”
We hear over and over again that the crowd’s perceptions can’t be trusted. Jesus will be a king, but not the kind they have eyes for. They see the signs and wonders and they want more bread. The crowds understand the connection to a prophet like Moses or Elisha, but Jesus is an entirely new category of encounter.
When the scene shifts from bread to the sea, the echoes of Passover continue and it becomes even clearer that we are dealing not simply with miracles, but with a theophany, a showing of God.
It begins with the disciples going out ahead of Jesus by boat. Apparently, he was going to walk the six miles from Tiberias to Capernaum. Their trip was about five and a half miles of rowing. But a wind came up and it’s taken longer than it should have, and now it’s dark. They are tired, stressed, only half-way to their destination, and they see Jesus walking on the water. And they are scared!
The words he says in Greek are “egō eimi”, or I Am, which is the name of God given to Moses. (Or the Greek translation of the Aramaic name that God spoke to Moses). Jesus uses this a lot in the gospel of John. I am the bread of life, I am the true vine, I am the light of the world, I am, when the solders come to arrest him and they fall over backwards at the name. But, it also simply means, “It’s me!” And I think we’re supposed to hear both. Jesus was comforting their fear in a human to human encounter, but it was also an encounter with the divine. The next thing they know, they’re on the beach in Capernaum.
The miracle stories, or signs, as they’re called in John, aren’t told to dazzle, but to reveal. Jesus meets people in their need with God’s compassion, and glory spills over. People were hungry. They were out in the middle of no where, miles from towns and Jesus fed them. The disciples were in over their heads and Jesus brought them to shore. These were amazing, unexplained activities, but the miracle isn’t the point John is trying to make. It isn’t God showing off to make Jesus popular. The miracles rather show God’s presence in all of life. The crowd was fed, but just one meal. They were hungry again by the time they got home. The people Jesus healed got sick another time, they still eventually died. The disciples will continue to flounder over their heads in the mystery of Jesus’ presence and purpose. God’s glory is momentary. That’s the lesson, perhaps. Miracles are a moment. But they are glimpses of eternity. They reveal the nature of permanence with God.
Bewildered, awed, the disciples wanted to receive Jesus into the boat. It’s a bit awkward both in language and in imagining how and why Jesus would get in. To make it better English, the translation is often ‘take’ (they wanted to take him into the boat), rather than ‘receive’, but there is an important difference. Jesus identifies himself with God’s name and tells them what all emissaries from God seem to say, “Do not be afraid.” The miracle’s function is to rescue them, but the result is to reveal who Jesus is. At the end of the previous chapter, Jesus told his opponents, “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me.” In fact, those opponents are intent on ‘taking’ him, controlling the activity of God to match their parameters. After seeing the miracle of bread and fish, the crowd wanted to seize Jesus and make him king. The disciples hear Jesus identify with the Father’s name, and want to ‘receive’ him into their boat. They at least have passed that test.
The gospels, of course, are told about the disciples, but they are for us. We are to put ourselves in the story, trying on various characters, and comparing our reactions.
Like the crowds we often fail to see what God is doing among us. We look for the “wrong” kind of Jesus, one who will serve our desires, answer to our agenda, agree with our belief rather than challenge it. We want bread. We come because of the signs. We want something big. Healing from disease. Help when the house is in foreclosure. A miracle for the child who cannot overcome addictions. Some extraordinary intervention. And sometimes this is the sign we get. Thanks be to God.
More often, though, what we get is a kind of reassurance that, indeed, Jesus is present, as one who reveals God’s will and way and wonder and draws us into the Father’s love without show or fireworks. Jesus comes into the fearful, lonely, empty, threatening times and places, and says “Egō eimi.” “It is I, do not be afraid. “I am” is with you.”
The key to these miracle stories might be in considering these two words, ‘take’ and ‘receive’, in terms of your relationship to faith, friendship, family – life. We are conditioned – by this culture at least – to take, to get all you can, to manage the agenda, to take Jesus into your boat… rather than receiving the grace offered. Vulnerability, graciousness, humility are the words of receiving, of relinquishing rather than striving, of ratcheting down our ego, to fully receive the “Egō eimi”. It’s a counter cultural mindset – receiving and serving, instead of taking and giving. Turning the tables on our own ego will always be a challenge, but it is the way in which we receive the living God. Hard-packed soil, stiff-necked people, those who need no physician, these are not the ones who receive Jesus with an open heart and run to tell their neighbors, “I have found the Lord! Come and see.”