Bread from Heaven.

The love of God so rich, so pure, like the endless waves of the ocean, like the sand on the shore. Thank you Lord for the attitude of love towards your creation which has motivated all your actions.

” I conceived and created the whole concept of love. Behind every action I take and behind every relationship I have is a banner – the banner of love. It is easy to speak of love and the word is so widely used it has lost much of its original significance and meaning, but in its purist form it is inseparable from the idea of mercy and grace. The greatest gift anyone can receive is the knowledge and understanding of my love – which I demonstrated practically in the sacrifice of my Son. Starting by knowing that intellectually opens the door for you to experience it throughout your whole being. It is a lifelong growing experience and that is why Paul in his prayer in Ephesians prayed that you should know the height breadth, depth and length of my love which is inseparable from my almighty power.”

We move on to John 6:1-15, which describes what has been suggested is His most important miracle. Up till now His miracles have all had to do with healing and exorcism. This one is totally different.

The scene is set in the first paragraph. The place and the large crowd, who by now were following Jesus, are described . Then there is a small note which is quite important. v 4 Tells us the Passover feast was near. Now we must remember that the Passover was big for the Jews. It embodied the most important event in the Israeli history. The rescue of God’s people from slavery in Egypt was the great backdrop to the Israeli culture and faith. God had made it clear that the people should continue to remember this event annually with a feast. We’ll come back to that, but first let us note a few things.

In v 5 we see that the events described here were clearly initiated by Jesus, as He set the scene to do what He was going to do. The next vv highlight the impossibility of the situation. 5 small bread rolls and two fish was all that was apparently available.

Unfazed by the apparent impossibility of the situation Jesus instructs the people to sit down. Once again the number of people is mentioned to show the hopelessness of the situation.

Nevertheless Jesus starts distributing the food. In the other accounts in the other gospels we are told that the disciples actually handed out the food, but clearly it was Jesus who was multiplying it. The amount that was left over is staggering and just acts to reinforce the magnitude of what Jesus had done.

Up to now in this gospel we have been following John’s description of how Jesus was gradually revealing who He really was/is. The context and the magnitude of what Jesus did serves to connect the reader and presumably those who were there and able to understand to the great Exodus from Egypt. We are reminded here of how God took the people into a desert and in the light of the complete lack of food and water provided for them, bringing water from a rock and then providing daily the manna that they needed to live on. This manna was provided for them the entire time they were in the desert.

Who could do this? Only God Himself. Hence – who is this man Jesus? The people make some sort of connection. They speak of the “prophet who was prophesied to come” in Deuteronomy. One of the early prophecies of a Messiah who would eventually come. However they are looking for the wrong sort of King. They are looking for a king who would, 1. save them from the Roman yoke and 2. be someone who would provide for their needs (6:26). Hence Jesus slips away. He is not ready to reveal the true nature of His mission yet.

What did this mean to me? Well obviously the growing picture of who this man is has continued to reinforce my faith. On a micro level there is also a reminder that, while this was not His prime goal, there are many references to the fact elsewhere in the scriptures that, if we are part of the New Kingdom, God will never let us want. He is always there and always able and willing to make sure we are cared for.

As we move further on into the gospel we will see that John/Jesus uses this story as a prologue to His later discussion on being the “Bread of Life”. See you next week, God bless.