And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.
A great multitude followed Jesus because they had seen the miracles he performed in healing those who were diseased. He had crossed the Sea of Galilee with his disciples to a secluded mountain place for rest, yet news spread from city to city and many flocked on foot and by boat so a pressing multitude awaited him before he reached shore. Though robbed of rest he was moved with compassion toward them as sheep without a shepherd, and through the whole day he taught them salvation and healed the sick until they lingered hungry and faint. With five loaves and two small fishes he fed five thousand men besides women and children until all were satisfied, multiplying the small supply as it was distributed through his disciples. The chapter centers its lesson on Christ as the bread of life who gives spiritual life to all who come and believe, yet many sought him only for temporal filling and, when tested by his plain testimony, went back and walked no more with him.
Setting and Circumstances
A great multitude followed Jesus because they had seen the miracles He performed in healing those who were diseased, His healing work drawing people to Him and creating opportunity to minister to them and present truth. They were drawn by His miracles and by eagerness to hear His words, and the chapter is to be studied for its teaching about receiving Christ and His words as the way to eternal life. Many followed because they had seen Him heal the sick, and as He watched them gather He felt compassion for them as sheep without a shepherd, teaching them the way of salvation, healing the sick, and comforting the sorrowful.
Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, from near Capernaum with His disciples to a secluded mountain place and desert place beyond the sea for peaceful rest, and some noticed the direction He went and watched the receding boat. News spread from city to city that He was crossing the sea, and many flocked on foot to the expected landing place while others followed over the water in boats. People learned where He was going and gathered from nearby places at the place where they expected the boat to land, so a pressing multitude was waiting before He reached shore and He landed in the midst of them when He came ashore with His disciples.
He led them away from the cities to quiet places in the wilderness, finding a convenient place and grassy eminence where all could see and hear Him. The crowd that gathered had come without invitation or command and numbered five thousand men besides women and children, above ten thousand persons in all. They had listened to His instruction long enough to become hungry and faint, and Christ recognized their need as one who shared their human nature and noticed when they were weary and hungry.
Through the entire day He taught them the way of salvation in simple, plain words of mercy, as balm of Gilead from the Son of God, and healed all the sick and afflicted brought to Him. His divine hand brought gladness and life to the dying and ease, health, relief to sufferers with disease, so the day seemed like heaven on earth. They lingered long, unconscious of hunger until the day was far spent, and by evening they were hungry and faint from being all day without food.
The setting belongs to Christ's ministry near the Sea of Galilee on a mountain-side within sight of the beach where the disciples later gathered by the sea and not far from Capernaum, the scene of many miracles. There above ten thousand persons were fed from a few small loaves and fishes as one of His mighty works, and the memory of that feeding with His other words and deeds by the sea filled the disciples' minds.
After the feeding, news of the miracle spread widely and drew people from near and far. People returned in large numbers the next morning to the shore where they had last seen Him, arriving by land and water seeking Him. They brought the sick to Him wherever they heard He was.
Crowd Motives and Response
The great multitude followed eagerly to see and hear, coming without being invited or commanded to listen to teaching such as had never fallen on their ears. That teaching sank into their hearts and laid hold of their minds, and he comforted their sorrow with tender benevolence that won their hearts. They were drawn by his miracles in healing the sick and by eagerness to hear his words of life.
Seeing his teachings and healing work had nearly convinced them of his divinity. When rather than send them away hungering he fed them bounteously from five barley loaves and two small fishes, that mighty miracle crowned their growing conviction with entire belief that he was indeed the Messiah. No human power could create from so small a supply food sufficient to feed thousands of hungry people.
Evidence was heaped upon evidence sufficient to convince any mind open to evidence. The thoughtful and candid who witnessed the feeding of the five thousand took exalted views of his character and office. The unbelieving and criticizing heard only with their ears with understanding closed against him and had no genuine faith.
Many followed and sought him not because they truly saw the miracles but because they ate of the loaves and were filled. They came only for the temporal advantages they could obtain and the satisfaction of temporal needs. Seeing those works among the sick did not mean they recognized his divinity or sought him to settle their faith.
The people who later asked him for a sign had been among those miraculously fed, yet their witness of his works did not lead them to accept him as the Son of God. They sought another display of power and failed to accept the miracle already given as sufficient evidence. They missed its lesson that he is the Bread of life, though the signs were meant to awaken faith and lead to accepting him as the Son of God and the Bread of life. Those who had witnessed the feeding came hoping he would perform another similar miracle, treating it as something like a science they could learn, but witnessing many miracles did not make them willing to receive him.
In this same chapter he later gave his disciples plain testimony that offended many and tested whether they would accept truth and reproof or turn away from him. The account of the loaves and fishes belongs together with his walking on the water and his declaration to his hearers that he is the Bread of life, a declaration that caused some of his disciples to turn from him. When he made the miracle the occasion for his sermon on the bread of life and they heard the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God, many went back and walked no more with him, apostatizing almost immediately after the miracle of the loaves.
He spoke these truths to lead the people to decide for or against him. It was better that those not of the faith should show themselves in a decided manner before his crucifixion. He knew that all who were not wholly with him then would at his trial take a position against him, and otherwise they would tempt the disciples in their great trial to dishonor their Master.
The enthusiasm of the multitude gave opportunity to promote the plan to take him by force and make him king. Judas promoted that plan and was dissatisfied when Jesus stopped it with rebuke.
Christ's Compassionate Care
Though He had withdrawn with His disciples to a secluded mountain place for peaceful rest, a multitude was waiting before He reached shore, having noticed the direction He went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, with many going by land while others followed by boat to meet Him. Though thus interrupted and robbed of rest, He was not impatient but looked from the hillside on the people still coming and was stirred with sympathy and moved with compassion toward them as sheep not having a shepherd. He saw a greater necessity demanding His attention, for they received no help from priests and rulers, and leaving His retreat He found a convenient place to minister to them, with the healing waters of life flowing from Him as He taught the multitude the way of salvation. They listened to words of mercy from the Son of God, simple and plain as the balm of Gilead, while His divine hand brought gladness and life to the dying and ease and health to sufferers with disease, so that the day seemed like heaven on earth and they lingered long unconscious of hunger until the day was far spent.
Their physical needs mattered to Him, for He did not overlook their hunger but cared for their temporal needs as well as their spiritual instruction and provided food for them after they had followed Him eagerly to hear His words of life. He knew they would become hungry and faint after listening to His teaching for a long time without being invited or commanded, and He noticed when they were weary and hungry. He recognized their need as one who shared their human nature, going from place to place giving attention to those in need and serving as their helper and physician. At the feeding of the five thousand He had them sit on the grass and provided enough food for all through the loaves and fish distributed by His disciples, and sick and suffering people among them received relief and joy through His healing power.
Those miracles were part of His mission by which He expressed His love for the children of men, including healing all the suffering multitudes brought to Him, providing bread by miracle for five thousand besides women and children, and freeing those possessed and tormented by demon powers. He taught in the open air, using the surrounding landscape and works of nature to make divine truths clear and memorable, while caring for bodily needs as well as spiritual instruction.
Bread of Life Teaching
John 6 stands as the great chapter of Christ as the Bread of Life, for He gives life and all who come to Him and believe in Him find spiritual satisfaction. His words are spirit and life, and taken into practical life they give lasting benefit as the way to eternal life through receiving Christ and His words. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to receive truth as it is in Jesus, and that truth must become part of daily experience. Those who so receive are to keep growing in grace through continual dependence on God.
The chapter has special reference to the spiritual meaning of God's Word, for Christ is the living Bread, the source of strength who gave His life for the world. To take the Word into one's life is like eating that bread, and it satisfies the soul's hunger for God. His living words are the flesh and blood of the Son of God. As temporal bread imparts health and strength to the body, so faith in Christ and obedience to His teachings give spiritual vigor to the soul and life everlasting.
It gives the rich manna of heaven to feed upon, bringing rays of light from the throne of God. To those with soul hunger for God it gives spiritual strength and comfort, peace, joy, hope, assurance, and love for Bible religion. It sets the choice of whom to serve, a question of life or death requiring an undivided heart. Keeping the transactions of the theater before the eyes and ears and giving the mind to performances of the stage closes the door of the heart to that light and leaves no soul hunger for God and no peace, joy, or hope.
The chapter holds most precious and important lessons for all being educated in schools, and bringing its wonderful truths into practical life gives the education that endures through time and through eternity. The whole chapter is very instructive yet only faintly understood. Students are to take in Christ's words to understand their privileges, for Jesus teaches what He is to each person and the individual advantage of eating His words, with Himself as the great center of life. Its statements are urged as truths to study for understanding dependence on God rather than on human beings for wisdom and strength.
Christ Himself as the great Teacher gives in this chapter the decided word that the words contained in the Old Testament Scriptures are all-sufficient, and if all in this age believed the Old Testament Scriptures they would believe the New. His work as the substitute for sin was Israel's hope even before His death, and the New Testament was given to shed light on the Old Testament, not to replace or set it aside. The Scriptures' directions for practical holiness and obedience are to shape the lives of Christians. Yet the crowd heard these teachings but did not recognize Christ as the Bread of Life, and even the priests and rulers and many of the disciples did not understand the truths He unfolded.
Miracle's Divine Power
John 6:2 introduces the feeding of the five thousand, when the tired and hungry multitude that had followed Jesus because they had seen Him heal the sick was seated on the grass, and He gave thanks over five loaves and two small fish and had the disciples distribute the food until all were satisfied, with twelve baskets of fragments remaining. The five thousand were counted besides women and children, and the food continued to be shared until all were satisfied as more people gathered after He blessed it. His healing works had drawn needy people to Him as He went from place to place giving attention to those in need as their helper and physician, and His care included noticing when they were weary, hungry, and fainting.
He relied on God and multiplied the small supply as it was distributed, receiving from the Father and providing through His disciples as channels, showing that He could in a moment create a supply sufficient to feed them all. The supply multiplied as it was distributed, with those united to Him receiving the bread of life from Him and passing it on as the means of communication between Him and the people. The miracle illustrates God's creative power at work continually in providing food, for the multiplication of the loaves is like the multiplication of seed into harvest in the growth of crops. People help care for grain and prepare bread, but this human work can obscure God's agency, and the miracles were meant to help people recognize God's power in His gifts and give Him glory rather than crediting only natural processes or human effort. That setting therefore points to God's merciful provision, which people should recognize and use as a blessing rather than for selfish ends, as He continually works in nature to sustain life and provide food.
Every miracle directed people toward the tree of life and its healing, and the feeding miracle that followed the crowd who had seen His miracles of healing met a genuine need. The feeding demonstrated the source of His power and His ability to provide for the people who came to Him, showing that Jesus is the world's Redeemer and has omnipotent power. All are dependent on God for life, for food, for health, and even for the very air breathed. The feeding was one of the works that should have convinced people of His divinity and revealed the Father through Him.
Jesus as a man preaching the gospel fed five thousand in the wilderness by the same divine power by which He fed one hundred men in Old Testament times, revealing Him as the Coming One, the I AM who was before Abraham, who in lowliness and poverty walked the earth yet is greater than Moses, who guided His people in the wilderness supplying them with bread and clear flowing streams and casting His glory upon them. The miracle proves that the grace of God on a small portion makes it all-sufficient, that His hand can multiply scanty provision a hundredfold and spread a table in the wilderness for more than a million. The feeding miracle beside the sea showed Jesus had power to provide for the people, and the disciples later remembered it when Jesus fed them by the sea after His resurrection and shared bread and fish with them.
The risen Saviour repeated that same act on the shore, breaking the food and dividing it among the seven disciples, and the likeness brought the earlier miracle on the mountain-side to their minds, so that all seven knew and acknowledged Him, yet a mysterious awe was upon them and in silence they gazed upon the risen Saviour. The memory of that feeding with His other words and deeds by the sea filled the disciples' minds, for above ten thousand persons had been fed from a few small loaves and fishes on a mountain-side within sight of the beach where the disciples later gathered and not far from Capernaum, the scene of many miracles.
Receiving to Impart
The feeding that follows this following shows Christ meeting the needs of the tired and hungry multitude, and the disciples receiving from Him in order to pass what they receive on to others. He had the people sit down, gave thanks over five loaves and two small fish, and had the disciples distribute the food, and the food increased as it was shared, with the disciples themselves eating from the remaining heaven-imparted provision. Blessings both temporal and spiritual accompany that giving to the needy of what is received from Him.
Christ fed the multitude through the disciples, who served as channels receiving from Christ and passing the food to the people, multiplying the small supply as it was distributed in reliance on God. He received from the Father, gave to the disciples, and they served the people, with those united to Christ receiving the bread of life from Him and passing it on as the means of communication between Christ and the people. The disciples were instruments, not the source of the provision, and were not entitled to the glory for the miracle, for Christ is the Bread of Life and the source of strength and of power and blessing who gave His life for the world. His followers are to receive truth from Him and share it rather than keep it for themselves, and as they impart what they receive they are given more to share.
His followers receive divine grace to give to those in need, and the gift increases as it is shared, so that continued giving brings continued supply. Through the miracle Christ showed the disciples their work as His representatives, to give the bread of life to people who were spiritually hungry, so they had to receive spiritual food from Christ, the source of supply, in order to have something to give others. They would meet people hungry for spiritual food and feel helpless and unable to provide it, but they must seek their supply from God, who sends them to feed others and will provide what His work requires.
The small supply of loaves and fishes increased as Christ passed the food to those who received it, illustrating how truth multiplies when it is shared. The remaining fragments were gathered at His direction so that nothing was lost, illustrating why every fragment containing truth is worth preserving and the value of preserving every piece of literature that carries truth. The miracle teaches His disciples to rely on Him for what they need and to share what they receive, trusting Him with seemingly inadequate resources so that others may be satisfied. Five loaves and two fish fed five thousand men besides women and children with twelve baskets of fragments remaining, as a sign of His power to provide, showing that what appears meager can become more than enough, satisfying those who receive it and leaving them able to give to others.
The feeding teaches that people should share what they have with those who lack the truth and help carry it to others, for crowds followed after seeing healing miracles and He took pity on them and fed them. It also teaches His disciples to show compassion and practical care for people seeking salvation, including those who are weary and hungry, and to remove obstacles that make coming to Christ difficult, revealing Him as the world's Redeemer with omnipotent power. Beyond its connection with the loaves and fishes, Christ walking on the water, and His teaching that He is the Bread of life, there is no further explanation of the following or the miracles seen.
Stewardship and Mission Application
Even after a miracle that fed the crowd, the leftovers were gathered at His direction so that nothing was lost, and divine power did not make careful use of what remained unimportant. The food had increased as it passed from Christ to those who received it, and it continued to be shared until all were satisfied, five thousand men counted besides women and children. He who miraculously satisfied the multitude's hunger then took care that what remained was not wasted, multiplying a small amount of food as more people gathered after He blessed it.
His command to gather the fragments teaches care and economy, careful stewardship and thrift, especially when resources are limited, so that available resources can feed those in need. It teaches guarding against waste and shows that God's power provides food for people's sustenance. The gathered fragments also illustrate why every piece of literature that carries truth is worth preserving, for every fragment containing truth is to be kept and shared, and truth multiplies as it is imparted.
God can multiply limited resources when they are put to good use and entrusted to Him, and this applies to offerings and facilities used to reach multitudes in need of the bread of life. The food given to the disciples to give to the five thousand was multiplied and blessed by the Lord, and gifts sent in with thanksgiving and prayer for medical missionary work will be multiplied and blessed in the same way. If the best use is made of the means at hand, God will enable His people to feed the multitudes who are starving for the bread of life. Offerings made with faith and unselfishness can be enlarged by God to support His work and institutions.
God works with unselfish people and can increase what they offer for His work, blessing and multiplying what is given to meet a need and making small gifts sufficient for a great work. Faith must lay hold upon God and expect success, placing a small scattered supply in missionary work, and God will multiply it as it is imparted to others so that all eat and are filled. The advance of the work is not to be measured by the means at hand, for stopping work for lack of means shows very limited faith. The call is to go forward, to plan and work in faith and diffuse the gospel over the whole earth as responsible human agents given this great work, for the miracle is an object lesson that He can do great things for His people today even when resources appear insufficient.
This feeding is soul-saving work under the gospel commission, and it calls for intelligent, self-denying, self-sacrificing effort, including financial gifts to provide the necessary facilities for sanitarium work. The feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two small fishes is the pattern and pledge for feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and teaching the ignorant, for devising means to maintain that work, for earnest prayer for wisdom to prepare wholesome inexpensive foods by experimenting upon the productions of the earth, and for God giving wisdom and skill and talent and ingenuity to manufacture those foods to be sold to the poor at as low a rate as possible, with special need in the Southern states, as surely as He feeds the ravens and cares for the wild beasts. His example teaches that food can be provided through simple, practical means and that His methods should guide food work, for the event shows that Jesus cares for physical needs and can provide for them, including through knowledge given to people in different places so they can provide food.
The same God who provided food then gives tact, skill, and understanding to those who work with Him. The feeding with five loaves and two fishes teaches that God is the people's Father and Keeper, and the food God provides is not to be controlled through human restrictions that place people in the position belonging to God. His work among the people in gathering them and feeding the five thousand is an example of going out to reach and help others. The food distributed among the multitude was created by God and given out as goods lent in trust, and just as that food was entrusted, all that the rich have is lent them in trust by God by which they are tested and proved and must not be wasted in riotous living.
A great multitude followed Jesus because they had seen the miracles he performed in healing those who were diseased. He had crossed the Sea of Galilee with his disciples to a secluded mountain place for rest, yet news spread from city to city and many flocked on foot and by boat so a pressing multitude awaited him before he reached shore. Though robbed of rest he was moved with compassion toward them as sheep without a shepherd, and through the whole day he taught them salvation and healed the sick until they lingered hungry and faint. With five loaves and two small fishes he fed five thousand men besides women and children until all were satisfied, multiplying the small supply as it was distributed through his disciples. The chapter centers its lesson on Christ as the bread of life who gives spiritual life to all who come and believe, yet many sought him only for temporal filling and, when tested by his plain testimony, went back and walked no more with him.
Setting and Circumstances
A great multitude followed Jesus because they had seen the miracles He performed in healing those who were diseased, His healing work drawing people to Him and creating opportunity to minister to them and present truth. They were drawn by His miracles and by eagerness to hear His words, and the chapter is to be studied for its teaching about receiving Christ and His words as the way to eternal life. Many followed because they had seen Him heal the sick, and as He watched them gather He felt compassion for them as sheep without a shepherd, teaching them the way of salvation, healing the sick, and comforting the sorrowful.
Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, from near Capernaum with His disciples to a secluded mountain place and desert place beyond the sea for peaceful rest, and some noticed the direction He went and watched the receding boat. News spread from city to city that He was crossing the sea, and many flocked on foot to the expected landing place while others followed over the water in boats. People learned where He was going and gathered from nearby places at the place where they expected the boat to land, so a pressing multitude was waiting before He reached shore and He landed in the midst of them when He came ashore with His disciples.
He led them away from the cities to quiet places in the wilderness, finding a convenient place and grassy eminence where all could see and hear Him. The crowd that gathered had come without invitation or command and numbered five thousand men besides women and children, above ten thousand persons in all. They had listened to His instruction long enough to become hungry and faint, and Christ recognized their need as one who shared their human nature and noticed when they were weary and hungry.
Through the entire day He taught them the way of salvation in simple, plain words of mercy, as balm of Gilead from the Son of God, and healed all the sick and afflicted brought to Him. His divine hand brought gladness and life to the dying and ease, health, relief to sufferers with disease, so the day seemed like heaven on earth. They lingered long, unconscious of hunger until the day was far spent, and by evening they were hungry and faint from being all day without food.
The setting belongs to Christ's ministry near the Sea of Galilee on a mountain-side within sight of the beach where the disciples later gathered by the sea and not far from Capernaum, the scene of many miracles. There above ten thousand persons were fed from a few small loaves and fishes as one of His mighty works, and the memory of that feeding with His other words and deeds by the sea filled the disciples' minds.
After the feeding, news of the miracle spread widely and drew people from near and far. People returned in large numbers the next morning to the shore where they had last seen Him, arriving by land and water seeking Him. They brought the sick to Him wherever they heard He was.
Crowd Motives and Response
The great multitude followed eagerly to see and hear, coming without being invited or commanded to listen to teaching such as had never fallen on their ears. That teaching sank into their hearts and laid hold of their minds, and he comforted their sorrow with tender benevolence that won their hearts. They were drawn by his miracles in healing the sick and by eagerness to hear his words of life.
Seeing his teachings and healing work had nearly convinced them of his divinity. When rather than send them away hungering he fed them bounteously from five barley loaves and two small fishes, that mighty miracle crowned their growing conviction with entire belief that he was indeed the Messiah. No human power could create from so small a supply food sufficient to feed thousands of hungry people.
Evidence was heaped upon evidence sufficient to convince any mind open to evidence. The thoughtful and candid who witnessed the feeding of the five thousand took exalted views of his character and office. The unbelieving and criticizing heard only with their ears with understanding closed against him and had no genuine faith.
Many followed and sought him not because they truly saw the miracles but because they ate of the loaves and were filled. They came only for the temporal advantages they could obtain and the satisfaction of temporal needs. Seeing those works among the sick did not mean they recognized his divinity or sought him to settle their faith.
The people who later asked him for a sign had been among those miraculously fed, yet their witness of his works did not lead them to accept him as the Son of God. They sought another display of power and failed to accept the miracle already given as sufficient evidence. They missed its lesson that he is the Bread of life, though the signs were meant to awaken faith and lead to accepting him as the Son of God and the Bread of life. Those who had witnessed the feeding came hoping he would perform another similar miracle, treating it as something like a science they could learn, but witnessing many miracles did not make them willing to receive him.
In this same chapter he later gave his disciples plain testimony that offended many and tested whether they would accept truth and reproof or turn away from him. The account of the loaves and fishes belongs together with his walking on the water and his declaration to his hearers that he is the Bread of life, a declaration that caused some of his disciples to turn from him. When he made the miracle the occasion for his sermon on the bread of life and they heard the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God, many went back and walked no more with him, apostatizing almost immediately after the miracle of the loaves.
He spoke these truths to lead the people to decide for or against him. It was better that those not of the faith should show themselves in a decided manner before his crucifixion. He knew that all who were not wholly with him then would at his trial take a position against him, and otherwise they would tempt the disciples in their great trial to dishonor their Master.
The enthusiasm of the multitude gave opportunity to promote the plan to take him by force and make him king. Judas promoted that plan and was dissatisfied when Jesus stopped it with rebuke.
Christ's Compassionate Care
Though He had withdrawn with His disciples to a secluded mountain place for peaceful rest, a multitude was waiting before He reached shore, having noticed the direction He went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, with many going by land while others followed by boat to meet Him. Though thus interrupted and robbed of rest, He was not impatient but looked from the hillside on the people still coming and was stirred with sympathy and moved with compassion toward them as sheep not having a shepherd. He saw a greater necessity demanding His attention, for they received no help from priests and rulers, and leaving His retreat He found a convenient place to minister to them, with the healing waters of life flowing from Him as He taught the multitude the way of salvation. They listened to words of mercy from the Son of God, simple and plain as the balm of Gilead, while His divine hand brought gladness and life to the dying and ease and health to sufferers with disease, so that the day seemed like heaven on earth and they lingered long unconscious of hunger until the day was far spent.
Their physical needs mattered to Him, for He did not overlook their hunger but cared for their temporal needs as well as their spiritual instruction and provided food for them after they had followed Him eagerly to hear His words of life. He knew they would become hungry and faint after listening to His teaching for a long time without being invited or commanded, and He noticed when they were weary and hungry. He recognized their need as one who shared their human nature, going from place to place giving attention to those in need and serving as their helper and physician. At the feeding of the five thousand He had them sit on the grass and provided enough food for all through the loaves and fish distributed by His disciples, and sick and suffering people among them received relief and joy through His healing power.
Those miracles were part of His mission by which He expressed His love for the children of men, including healing all the suffering multitudes brought to Him, providing bread by miracle for five thousand besides women and children, and freeing those possessed and tormented by demon powers. He taught in the open air, using the surrounding landscape and works of nature to make divine truths clear and memorable, while caring for bodily needs as well as spiritual instruction.
Bread of Life Teaching
John 6 stands as the great chapter of Christ as the Bread of Life, for He gives life and all who come to Him and believe in Him find spiritual satisfaction. His words are spirit and life, and taken into practical life they give lasting benefit as the way to eternal life through receiving Christ and His words. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to receive truth as it is in Jesus, and that truth must become part of daily experience. Those who so receive are to keep growing in grace through continual dependence on God.
The chapter has special reference to the spiritual meaning of God's Word, for Christ is the living Bread, the source of strength who gave His life for the world. To take the Word into one's life is like eating that bread, and it satisfies the soul's hunger for God. His living words are the flesh and blood of the Son of God. As temporal bread imparts health and strength to the body, so faith in Christ and obedience to His teachings give spiritual vigor to the soul and life everlasting.
It gives the rich manna of heaven to feed upon, bringing rays of light from the throne of God. To those with soul hunger for God it gives spiritual strength and comfort, peace, joy, hope, assurance, and love for Bible religion. It sets the choice of whom to serve, a question of life or death requiring an undivided heart. Keeping the transactions of the theater before the eyes and ears and giving the mind to performances of the stage closes the door of the heart to that light and leaves no soul hunger for God and no peace, joy, or hope.
The chapter holds most precious and important lessons for all being educated in schools, and bringing its wonderful truths into practical life gives the education that endures through time and through eternity. The whole chapter is very instructive yet only faintly understood. Students are to take in Christ's words to understand their privileges, for Jesus teaches what He is to each person and the individual advantage of eating His words, with Himself as the great center of life. Its statements are urged as truths to study for understanding dependence on God rather than on human beings for wisdom and strength.
Christ Himself as the great Teacher gives in this chapter the decided word that the words contained in the Old Testament Scriptures are all-sufficient, and if all in this age believed the Old Testament Scriptures they would believe the New. His work as the substitute for sin was Israel's hope even before His death, and the New Testament was given to shed light on the Old Testament, not to replace or set it aside. The Scriptures' directions for practical holiness and obedience are to shape the lives of Christians. Yet the crowd heard these teachings but did not recognize Christ as the Bread of Life, and even the priests and rulers and many of the disciples did not understand the truths He unfolded.
Miracle's Divine Power
John 6:2 introduces the feeding of the five thousand, when the tired and hungry multitude that had followed Jesus because they had seen Him heal the sick was seated on the grass, and He gave thanks over five loaves and two small fish and had the disciples distribute the food until all were satisfied, with twelve baskets of fragments remaining. The five thousand were counted besides women and children, and the food continued to be shared until all were satisfied as more people gathered after He blessed it. His healing works had drawn needy people to Him as He went from place to place giving attention to those in need as their helper and physician, and His care included noticing when they were weary, hungry, and fainting.
He relied on God and multiplied the small supply as it was distributed, receiving from the Father and providing through His disciples as channels, showing that He could in a moment create a supply sufficient to feed them all. The supply multiplied as it was distributed, with those united to Him receiving the bread of life from Him and passing it on as the means of communication between Him and the people. The miracle illustrates God's creative power at work continually in providing food, for the multiplication of the loaves is like the multiplication of seed into harvest in the growth of crops. People help care for grain and prepare bread, but this human work can obscure God's agency, and the miracles were meant to help people recognize God's power in His gifts and give Him glory rather than crediting only natural processes or human effort. That setting therefore points to God's merciful provision, which people should recognize and use as a blessing rather than for selfish ends, as He continually works in nature to sustain life and provide food.
Every miracle directed people toward the tree of life and its healing, and the feeding miracle that followed the crowd who had seen His miracles of healing met a genuine need. The feeding demonstrated the source of His power and His ability to provide for the people who came to Him, showing that Jesus is the world's Redeemer and has omnipotent power. All are dependent on God for life, for food, for health, and even for the very air breathed. The feeding was one of the works that should have convinced people of His divinity and revealed the Father through Him.
Jesus as a man preaching the gospel fed five thousand in the wilderness by the same divine power by which He fed one hundred men in Old Testament times, revealing Him as the Coming One, the I AM who was before Abraham, who in lowliness and poverty walked the earth yet is greater than Moses, who guided His people in the wilderness supplying them with bread and clear flowing streams and casting His glory upon them. The miracle proves that the grace of God on a small portion makes it all-sufficient, that His hand can multiply scanty provision a hundredfold and spread a table in the wilderness for more than a million. The feeding miracle beside the sea showed Jesus had power to provide for the people, and the disciples later remembered it when Jesus fed them by the sea after His resurrection and shared bread and fish with them.
The risen Saviour repeated that same act on the shore, breaking the food and dividing it among the seven disciples, and the likeness brought the earlier miracle on the mountain-side to their minds, so that all seven knew and acknowledged Him, yet a mysterious awe was upon them and in silence they gazed upon the risen Saviour. The memory of that feeding with His other words and deeds by the sea filled the disciples' minds, for above ten thousand persons had been fed from a few small loaves and fishes on a mountain-side within sight of the beach where the disciples later gathered and not far from Capernaum, the scene of many miracles.
Receiving to Impart
The feeding that follows this following shows Christ meeting the needs of the tired and hungry multitude, and the disciples receiving from Him in order to pass what they receive on to others. He had the people sit down, gave thanks over five loaves and two small fish, and had the disciples distribute the food, and the food increased as it was shared, with the disciples themselves eating from the remaining heaven-imparted provision. Blessings both temporal and spiritual accompany that giving to the needy of what is received from Him.
Christ fed the multitude through the disciples, who served as channels receiving from Christ and passing the food to the people, multiplying the small supply as it was distributed in reliance on God. He received from the Father, gave to the disciples, and they served the people, with those united to Christ receiving the bread of life from Him and passing it on as the means of communication between Christ and the people. The disciples were instruments, not the source of the provision, and were not entitled to the glory for the miracle, for Christ is the Bread of Life and the source of strength and of power and blessing who gave His life for the world. His followers are to receive truth from Him and share it rather than keep it for themselves, and as they impart what they receive they are given more to share.
His followers receive divine grace to give to those in need, and the gift increases as it is shared, so that continued giving brings continued supply. Through the miracle Christ showed the disciples their work as His representatives, to give the bread of life to people who were spiritually hungry, so they had to receive spiritual food from Christ, the source of supply, in order to have something to give others. They would meet people hungry for spiritual food and feel helpless and unable to provide it, but they must seek their supply from God, who sends them to feed others and will provide what His work requires.
The small supply of loaves and fishes increased as Christ passed the food to those who received it, illustrating how truth multiplies when it is shared. The remaining fragments were gathered at His direction so that nothing was lost, illustrating why every fragment containing truth is worth preserving and the value of preserving every piece of literature that carries truth. The miracle teaches His disciples to rely on Him for what they need and to share what they receive, trusting Him with seemingly inadequate resources so that others may be satisfied. Five loaves and two fish fed five thousand men besides women and children with twelve baskets of fragments remaining, as a sign of His power to provide, showing that what appears meager can become more than enough, satisfying those who receive it and leaving them able to give to others.
The feeding teaches that people should share what they have with those who lack the truth and help carry it to others, for crowds followed after seeing healing miracles and He took pity on them and fed them. It also teaches His disciples to show compassion and practical care for people seeking salvation, including those who are weary and hungry, and to remove obstacles that make coming to Christ difficult, revealing Him as the world's Redeemer with omnipotent power. Beyond its connection with the loaves and fishes, Christ walking on the water, and His teaching that He is the Bread of life, there is no further explanation of the following or the miracles seen.
Stewardship and Mission Application
Even after a miracle that fed the crowd, the leftovers were gathered at His direction so that nothing was lost, and divine power did not make careful use of what remained unimportant. The food had increased as it passed from Christ to those who received it, and it continued to be shared until all were satisfied, five thousand men counted besides women and children. He who miraculously satisfied the multitude's hunger then took care that what remained was not wasted, multiplying a small amount of food as more people gathered after He blessed it.
His command to gather the fragments teaches care and economy, careful stewardship and thrift, especially when resources are limited, so that available resources can feed those in need. It teaches guarding against waste and shows that God's power provides food for people's sustenance. The gathered fragments also illustrate why every piece of literature that carries truth is worth preserving, for every fragment containing truth is to be kept and shared, and truth multiplies as it is imparted.
God can multiply limited resources when they are put to good use and entrusted to Him, and this applies to offerings and facilities used to reach multitudes in need of the bread of life. The food given to the disciples to give to the five thousand was multiplied and blessed by the Lord, and gifts sent in with thanksgiving and prayer for medical missionary work will be multiplied and blessed in the same way. If the best use is made of the means at hand, God will enable His people to feed the multitudes who are starving for the bread of life. Offerings made with faith and unselfishness can be enlarged by God to support His work and institutions.
God works with unselfish people and can increase what they offer for His work, blessing and multiplying what is given to meet a need and making small gifts sufficient for a great work. Faith must lay hold upon God and expect success, placing a small scattered supply in missionary work, and God will multiply it as it is imparted to others so that all eat and are filled. The advance of the work is not to be measured by the means at hand, for stopping work for lack of means shows very limited faith. The call is to go forward, to plan and work in faith and diffuse the gospel over the whole earth as responsible human agents given this great work, for the miracle is an object lesson that He can do great things for His people today even when resources appear insufficient.
This feeding is soul-saving work under the gospel commission, and it calls for intelligent, self-denying, self-sacrificing effort, including financial gifts to provide the necessary facilities for sanitarium work. The feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two small fishes is the pattern and pledge for feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and teaching the ignorant, for devising means to maintain that work, for earnest prayer for wisdom to prepare wholesome inexpensive foods by experimenting upon the productions of the earth, and for God giving wisdom and skill and talent and ingenuity to manufacture those foods to be sold to the poor at as low a rate as possible, with special need in the Southern states, as surely as He feeds the ravens and cares for the wild beasts. His example teaches that food can be provided through simple, practical means and that His methods should guide food work, for the event shows that Jesus cares for physical needs and can provide for them, including through knowledge given to people in different places so they can provide food.
The same God who provided food then gives tact, skill, and understanding to those who work with Him. The feeding with five loaves and two fishes teaches that God is the people's Father and Keeper, and the food God provides is not to be controlled through human restrictions that place people in the position belonging to God. His work among the people in gathering them and feeding the five thousand is an example of going out to reach and help others. The food distributed among the multitude was created by God and given out as goods lent in trust, and just as that food was entrusted, all that the rich have is lent them in trust by God by which they are tested and proved and must not be wasted in riotous living.