The Passover, the feast recalling deliverance from Egypt, was near when Jesus fed the multitude. Because travelers from many regions were on their way to Jerusalem, great bands pressed to see Him, bringing the sick for healing until there were five thousand men besides women and children. He taught them through the day and healed them, then with a lad's five barley loaves and two small fishes had them sit in orderly companies, gave thanks, and distributed through His disciples until all were satisfied and twelve baskets of fragments were gathered. Eating that food convinced the people He was the Messiah and they sought to take Him by force to make Him king, but He refused a temporal throne and sent His disciples away. He made the miracle the occasion for His teaching that He is the Bread of life, that eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving His word, life, sacrifice and saving power by faith for spiritual strength and everlasting life.
Passover Time and Crowd
The verse dates the feeding of the five thousand as near the Passover, the feast of the Jews. That feast recalled deliverance from Egypt and provided the setting for the events that follow, when Jesus fed the assembled multitude with a small supply of loaves and fish. The supply was five barley loaves and a few small fishes, with which He provided food for five thousand men besides women and children, above ten thousand persons in all. The miracle later recalled by the disciples was this feeding of the multitude on the mountainside.
Because pilgrims from many regions were traveling to Jerusalem for the feast, bands gathered to see Jesus after hearing of His miracles. Many people from the area around Jerusalem and from across the land came seeking Him, bringing the sick and afflicted for healing, and He healed the sick, comforted the sorrowing, taught the ignorant, and awakened hope among the despairing. The crowd grew to five thousand men besides women and children, eager to see Jesus as a new prophet. This Passover gathering helps explain why the crowd was eager and why His followers thought it an opportunity to make Him king of Israel.
The feeding belonged to the preceding day on the barren shore, after which the multitude left Jesus there knowing no boat was left by which He could depart. On the following morning they returned to the spot where they had last seen Him, seeking Jesus and returning to find Him. News of the miracle spread far and near, so that at an early hour large numbers arrived by land and water.
Feeding of the Multitude
Jesus had gone with His disciples beyond the sea from Capernaum to a desert place for rest, but the pursuing multitude pressed Him so closely that rest was set aside. From a grassy eminence He taught them through the entire day, healed all the sick and afflicted who had been brought, and comforted sorrow. He would not send them away hungry or let them return faint and unrefreshed for lack of food.
He tested Philip by asking about buying bread, though He already knew how He would provide. The only food found among them was a lad's five barley loaves and two small fishes, which Andrew discovered and which Jesus commanded to be brought to Him. About five thousand men besides women and children, above ten thousand persons in all, were made to sit on the much grass in companies of fifty and one hundred to preserve order and let all witness what was done. He gave thanks and distributed through the disciples bread and fish, as much as they would, in quantities sufficient to satisfy appetite, the store not diminishing as often as they returned for fresh supply. After all were satisfied He directed that the fragments be gathered so nothing would be lost, and twelve baskets were filled.
The feeding was a mighty miracle on the beach within sight near Capernaum, in a moment creating enough food from a few small loaves and fishes to feed more than five thousand. It was part of Christ's mission and expressed His love for men in providing bread for five thousand besides women and children. That same work also included freeing those possessed and tormented by demon powers.
Attempt to Make Him King
While they ate the food He had provided, the people reflected earnestly and concluded He was indeed the Messiah, for no other one and no human power could create from so slender a store food sufficient to feed thousands. Their hearts had already been laid hold of by pure and simple doctrine such as had never fallen on their ears, and through the day they had been taught, had their sick healed and their sorrow comforted, until His tender benevolence won them. This mighty miracle crowned with entire belief the growing conviction of His divinity already nearly produced by His teachings and works of healing.
Amid the Passover gathering, when people from many regions and from across the land were assembling to go to Jerusalem to keep the feast, the crowd's expectation that Jesus would be their king grew. The disciples saw the presence of the multitude and His growing fame as an opportunity to proclaim Him king of Israel and to establish Him as king. But Jesus refused a temporal throne, stopped their attempt to take Him by force and make Him king, and sent the disciples away from the shore.
Judas held to the idea that Christ would reign as king in Jerusalem and tried to bring it about. At the feeding he helped distribute the food to the hungry multitude and helped bring the sick and suffering to Christ, seeing the benefit he could impart to others and feeling the satisfaction that comes in service to God as he saw relief and joy and gladness come to human hearts through healing power. Yet blinded by selfish desires, he was first to use the enthusiasm excited by the miracle of the loaves to start the plan to take Christ by force and make Him king. He himself had set the project on foot hoping the grateful people would rally to deliver Him if He were arrested, that Jesus would then be crowned king on David's throne, and that Judas would gain the credit and secure first place next to Christ in the new kingdom. When Jesus rebuked the move with greater and more unusual authority than He usually exercised, Judas was dissatisfied, provoked, and bitterly disappointed in his high hopes, and became more and more separated in feeling and love from Jesus.
Bread of Life Teaching
John 6 plainly expresses God's will in regard to His people and contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. The Passover setting belongs to one connected account that includes Jesus' instructions, the feeding with loaves and fishes, His walking on the water, and His statement to His hearers that He was the Bread of life, after which some disciples turned from Him.
The words about eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood refer especially to receiving the Word spiritually as the bread of life, for the living oracles are the life-giving words of the Son of God. As bread sustains the body, faith in Christ and obedience to His teaching give the soul spiritual strength and everlasting life. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood does not mean literally eating His human body, but receiving His words and trusting in the saving power of His sacrifice, receiving His life, teaching, example, death and sacrifice. Those who so receive Him by faith and depend on His life-giving sacrifice have eternal life and will be raised at the last day, in contrast to the manna the Israelites ate in remembrance of deliverance from Egypt, who nevertheless died. Children and youth and men and women need education in this importance of feeding upon Christ's words as His very flesh and blood in order to become workers together with God.
This spiritual nourishment is directed to the heart and moral nature, takes possession of the will, and calls for thoughts to be brought into obedience to Christ. Cherished in the heart, the truth of gaining eternal life by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God works by love and purifies the soul. It is needed for thorough conversion, new life, and the fruit of a humble Christian.
Christ's work as humanity's substitute was the hope of ancient Israel even before His crucifixion. The New Testament later illuminated the Old Testament and gave fuller significance to the Jewish religious system.
Christ made the miracle of the loaves the occasion for His sermon on the bread of life setting forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God. Many sought Him not because they saw the miracles but because they ate of the loaves and were filled, coming only for the temporal advantages they could obtain rather than because they recognized Him as God's sent Saviour, and they were called to believe in Him and seek the bread that gives eternal life. Though the feeding with five loaves and two fishes was sufficient evidence of Christ's power, the Jewish leaders with closed eyes to the light still demanded a sign. Those who had been fed wanted another miracle and hoped to learn how the food was increased, but rejected the lesson that He was the Son of God and the Bread of life. Many when they heard the sermon went back and walked no more with Him almost immediately after the miracle, so that the truths taught brought hearers to decide for or against Him and revealed that those not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial.
Divine Power in Nature
The feeding near Passover lifts the veil from the world of nature and reveals the power constantly exercised for human good. The same work wrought in feeding the multitude is accomplished every day through natural agencies in producing earth's harvests, where God works a daily miracle and feeds millions from the harvest fields. Men prepare the soil and sow the seed and help prepare the loaf, but it is life from God that causes the seed to germinate, and it is God's rain and air and sunshine that bring forth blade and ear and full corn. Ordinary human work in growing grain and making bread does not erase God's part in providing food, for even food supplied through ordinary nature depends on His power and care for physical needs.
Men called to cooperate with God lose sight of the divine agency, fail to give God glory, ascribe the working of His power to natural causes or human instrumentality, and glorify man in place of God. They pervert His gracious gifts to selfish uses as a curse instead of a blessing. God seeks to change this by quickening dull senses to discern His merciful kindness, to recognize Him in His gifts, and to glorify Him for the working of His power, so that His gifts may be a blessing as intended, and to accomplish this purpose the miracles of Christ were performed.
The miracle showed His divinity and revealed the Father and the source of His power. It teaches dependence on God when food and money and provision appear scarce, for Jesus provided for the hungry multitude by relying on His Father's care. Those who serve God are to use wisdom and the means He provides and follow His directions, and when faithful work done with the best knowledge brings difficulty they are to seek His help and wisdom without giving up. He is the Father and Keeper to be trusted for provision, and His way of meeting need is the example to follow rather than placing human restrictions on the work of others.
The feeding shows the grace of God on a small portion making it all-sufficient, multiplying a very small supply by the touch of His hand a hundredfold until all ate with abundance remaining. It was wrought by the same divine power that fed one hundred men in Old Testament times and spread a table in the wilderness for more than a million. Jesus in lowliness and poverty is the Coming One who supplied His people in the wilderness with bread and water and clear flowing streams, who declared Before Abraham was, I AM, and who is greater than Moses. Christ can bless and multiply scanty provision so what appears insufficient becomes more than enough in His hands, working with those who give and serve on unselfish principles and teaching trust that a meager supply can meet great need.
Ministry Through Disciples
Near the Passover He turned circumstances to account by becoming a field preacher to the multitude that followed Him. At times standing upon a hill, He sat as in a chair of state, not at ease but as One having authority, to give the people the Word which is the bread of life, feeding them not from the Scriptures but by the miracle of enlarging a small substance of temporal food. Supplying temporal food to the hungry opened the way to place Him in the chair of instruction on an occasion long to be remembered, and He brought His disciples before the large numbers to give them reputation so that many would recognize in their workings that they worked as He worked, showing that deeds of mercy open a door for His disciples.
The feeding opened to the disciples their work as His representatives to give the bread of life to the people. Christ receives from the Father and provides for the people through His disciples. Those united with Him receive temporal and spiritual blessings from Him so they can give to others, not hoard for themselves or claim credit, for they are instruments and all glory belongs to God.
Because they would often feel helpless before the people's needs, they must first seek and receive spiritual food from God or they will have nothing to impart to hungry souls. Apart from Him they can do nothing.
As they impart what they receive they continue to receive, the gift increasing in distribution until the supply is sufficient for all. The small store increased as the disciples distributed it, and the disciples also shared in the food. Christ supplied what His disciples needed and enabled them to pass it on to others, and His followers are thereby taught to share what they have with those in need and to help bring truth to those who do not have it.
Practical Lessons for Life
The feeding belongs to the account of Jesus caring for the physical needs of the hungry crowd that followed Him to hear words of life, and He fed them rather than leaving them unfed. He traveled among the people to reach them and provide for them, taking pity on the weary, hungry and fainting multitude while the disciples passed the food around. Tired, hungry people could not receive spiritual benefit as well, so He considered their bodily needs and met them, and His way of meeting need remains the example to follow. That same provision proves He will supply the needs of His children today.
Abundant provision did not excuse waste, for after the people had eaten He directed the disciples to gather what remained so that nothing would be lost. The remaining food was gathered as a lesson in economy, teaching care against improvidence and waste of good, necessary food provided by God's power working through the earth for human sustenance. The few loaves and fishes multiplied as they were shared, and the gathering of the fragments illustrates how truth multiplies as it is distributed and why every piece of literature carrying it should be treasured. What is saved in this way can feed those in need.
The multiplication shows that God can make limited resources sufficient to meet great need. Gifts offered with trust and prayer can be blessed and multiplied so that multitudes receive the bread of life. Small offerings given to help His work can thus be enlarged to meet great needs.
The same God who fed the crowd with five loaves and two fishes supplies food through knowledge given to His people and in answer to earnest prayer gives wisdom, skill, talent and ingenuity to experiment upon the wholesome productions of the earth. By that gift necessary, wholesome, inexpensive foods are to be manufactured and sold to the poor as cheaply as possible, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and teach the ignorant, a work more needed in the Southern states than elsewhere. He who does this is the God who feeds ravens and cares for wild beasts. All that the rich have is lent in trust by God to test and prove them, not to be spent in riotous living on tobacco, tea and coffee or intoxicating liquor that destroy moral sensibilities.
The mountainside miracle was brought back to mind when the risen Jesus, within sight near Capernaum, broke food and divided it among the seven disciples for a meal on the shore. He was known and acknowledged by all seven, while mysterious awe held them silent as they gazed upon Him.
The Passover, the feast recalling deliverance from Egypt, was near when Jesus fed the multitude. Because travelers from many regions were on their way to Jerusalem, great bands pressed to see Him, bringing the sick for healing until there were five thousand men besides women and children. He taught them through the day and healed them, then with a lad's five barley loaves and two small fishes had them sit in orderly companies, gave thanks, and distributed through His disciples until all were satisfied and twelve baskets of fragments were gathered. Eating that food convinced the people He was the Messiah and they sought to take Him by force to make Him king, but He refused a temporal throne and sent His disciples away. He made the miracle the occasion for His teaching that He is the Bread of life, that eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving His word, life, sacrifice and saving power by faith for spiritual strength and everlasting life.
Passover Time and Crowd
The verse dates the feeding of the five thousand as near the Passover, the feast of the Jews. That feast recalled deliverance from Egypt and provided the setting for the events that follow, when Jesus fed the assembled multitude with a small supply of loaves and fish. The supply was five barley loaves and a few small fishes, with which He provided food for five thousand men besides women and children, above ten thousand persons in all. The miracle later recalled by the disciples was this feeding of the multitude on the mountainside.
Because pilgrims from many regions were traveling to Jerusalem for the feast, bands gathered to see Jesus after hearing of His miracles. Many people from the area around Jerusalem and from across the land came seeking Him, bringing the sick and afflicted for healing, and He healed the sick, comforted the sorrowing, taught the ignorant, and awakened hope among the despairing. The crowd grew to five thousand men besides women and children, eager to see Jesus as a new prophet. This Passover gathering helps explain why the crowd was eager and why His followers thought it an opportunity to make Him king of Israel.
The feeding belonged to the preceding day on the barren shore, after which the multitude left Jesus there knowing no boat was left by which He could depart. On the following morning they returned to the spot where they had last seen Him, seeking Jesus and returning to find Him. News of the miracle spread far and near, so that at an early hour large numbers arrived by land and water.
Feeding of the Multitude
Jesus had gone with His disciples beyond the sea from Capernaum to a desert place for rest, but the pursuing multitude pressed Him so closely that rest was set aside. From a grassy eminence He taught them through the entire day, healed all the sick and afflicted who had been brought, and comforted sorrow. He would not send them away hungry or let them return faint and unrefreshed for lack of food.
He tested Philip by asking about buying bread, though He already knew how He would provide. The only food found among them was a lad's five barley loaves and two small fishes, which Andrew discovered and which Jesus commanded to be brought to Him. About five thousand men besides women and children, above ten thousand persons in all, were made to sit on the much grass in companies of fifty and one hundred to preserve order and let all witness what was done. He gave thanks and distributed through the disciples bread and fish, as much as they would, in quantities sufficient to satisfy appetite, the store not diminishing as often as they returned for fresh supply. After all were satisfied He directed that the fragments be gathered so nothing would be lost, and twelve baskets were filled.
The feeding was a mighty miracle on the beach within sight near Capernaum, in a moment creating enough food from a few small loaves and fishes to feed more than five thousand. It was part of Christ's mission and expressed His love for men in providing bread for five thousand besides women and children. That same work also included freeing those possessed and tormented by demon powers.
Attempt to Make Him King
While they ate the food He had provided, the people reflected earnestly and concluded He was indeed the Messiah, for no other one and no human power could create from so slender a store food sufficient to feed thousands. Their hearts had already been laid hold of by pure and simple doctrine such as had never fallen on their ears, and through the day they had been taught, had their sick healed and their sorrow comforted, until His tender benevolence won them. This mighty miracle crowned with entire belief the growing conviction of His divinity already nearly produced by His teachings and works of healing.
Amid the Passover gathering, when people from many regions and from across the land were assembling to go to Jerusalem to keep the feast, the crowd's expectation that Jesus would be their king grew. The disciples saw the presence of the multitude and His growing fame as an opportunity to proclaim Him king of Israel and to establish Him as king. But Jesus refused a temporal throne, stopped their attempt to take Him by force and make Him king, and sent the disciples away from the shore.
Judas held to the idea that Christ would reign as king in Jerusalem and tried to bring it about. At the feeding he helped distribute the food to the hungry multitude and helped bring the sick and suffering to Christ, seeing the benefit he could impart to others and feeling the satisfaction that comes in service to God as he saw relief and joy and gladness come to human hearts through healing power. Yet blinded by selfish desires, he was first to use the enthusiasm excited by the miracle of the loaves to start the plan to take Christ by force and make Him king. He himself had set the project on foot hoping the grateful people would rally to deliver Him if He were arrested, that Jesus would then be crowned king on David's throne, and that Judas would gain the credit and secure first place next to Christ in the new kingdom. When Jesus rebuked the move with greater and more unusual authority than He usually exercised, Judas was dissatisfied, provoked, and bitterly disappointed in his high hopes, and became more and more separated in feeling and love from Jesus.
Bread of Life Teaching
John 6 plainly expresses God's will in regard to His people and contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. The Passover setting belongs to one connected account that includes Jesus' instructions, the feeding with loaves and fishes, His walking on the water, and His statement to His hearers that He was the Bread of life, after which some disciples turned from Him.
The words about eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood refer especially to receiving the Word spiritually as the bread of life, for the living oracles are the life-giving words of the Son of God. As bread sustains the body, faith in Christ and obedience to His teaching give the soul spiritual strength and everlasting life. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood does not mean literally eating His human body, but receiving His words and trusting in the saving power of His sacrifice, receiving His life, teaching, example, death and sacrifice. Those who so receive Him by faith and depend on His life-giving sacrifice have eternal life and will be raised at the last day, in contrast to the manna the Israelites ate in remembrance of deliverance from Egypt, who nevertheless died. Children and youth and men and women need education in this importance of feeding upon Christ's words as His very flesh and blood in order to become workers together with God.
This spiritual nourishment is directed to the heart and moral nature, takes possession of the will, and calls for thoughts to be brought into obedience to Christ. Cherished in the heart, the truth of gaining eternal life by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God works by love and purifies the soul. It is needed for thorough conversion, new life, and the fruit of a humble Christian.
Christ's work as humanity's substitute was the hope of ancient Israel even before His crucifixion. The New Testament later illuminated the Old Testament and gave fuller significance to the Jewish religious system.
Christ made the miracle of the loaves the occasion for His sermon on the bread of life setting forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God. Many sought Him not because they saw the miracles but because they ate of the loaves and were filled, coming only for the temporal advantages they could obtain rather than because they recognized Him as God's sent Saviour, and they were called to believe in Him and seek the bread that gives eternal life. Though the feeding with five loaves and two fishes was sufficient evidence of Christ's power, the Jewish leaders with closed eyes to the light still demanded a sign. Those who had been fed wanted another miracle and hoped to learn how the food was increased, but rejected the lesson that He was the Son of God and the Bread of life. Many when they heard the sermon went back and walked no more with Him almost immediately after the miracle, so that the truths taught brought hearers to decide for or against Him and revealed that those not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial.
Divine Power in Nature
The feeding near Passover lifts the veil from the world of nature and reveals the power constantly exercised for human good. The same work wrought in feeding the multitude is accomplished every day through natural agencies in producing earth's harvests, where God works a daily miracle and feeds millions from the harvest fields. Men prepare the soil and sow the seed and help prepare the loaf, but it is life from God that causes the seed to germinate, and it is God's rain and air and sunshine that bring forth blade and ear and full corn. Ordinary human work in growing grain and making bread does not erase God's part in providing food, for even food supplied through ordinary nature depends on His power and care for physical needs.
Men called to cooperate with God lose sight of the divine agency, fail to give God glory, ascribe the working of His power to natural causes or human instrumentality, and glorify man in place of God. They pervert His gracious gifts to selfish uses as a curse instead of a blessing. God seeks to change this by quickening dull senses to discern His merciful kindness, to recognize Him in His gifts, and to glorify Him for the working of His power, so that His gifts may be a blessing as intended, and to accomplish this purpose the miracles of Christ were performed.
The miracle showed His divinity and revealed the Father and the source of His power. It teaches dependence on God when food and money and provision appear scarce, for Jesus provided for the hungry multitude by relying on His Father's care. Those who serve God are to use wisdom and the means He provides and follow His directions, and when faithful work done with the best knowledge brings difficulty they are to seek His help and wisdom without giving up. He is the Father and Keeper to be trusted for provision, and His way of meeting need is the example to follow rather than placing human restrictions on the work of others.
The feeding shows the grace of God on a small portion making it all-sufficient, multiplying a very small supply by the touch of His hand a hundredfold until all ate with abundance remaining. It was wrought by the same divine power that fed one hundred men in Old Testament times and spread a table in the wilderness for more than a million. Jesus in lowliness and poverty is the Coming One who supplied His people in the wilderness with bread and water and clear flowing streams, who declared Before Abraham was, I AM, and who is greater than Moses. Christ can bless and multiply scanty provision so what appears insufficient becomes more than enough in His hands, working with those who give and serve on unselfish principles and teaching trust that a meager supply can meet great need.
Ministry Through Disciples
Near the Passover He turned circumstances to account by becoming a field preacher to the multitude that followed Him. At times standing upon a hill, He sat as in a chair of state, not at ease but as One having authority, to give the people the Word which is the bread of life, feeding them not from the Scriptures but by the miracle of enlarging a small substance of temporal food. Supplying temporal food to the hungry opened the way to place Him in the chair of instruction on an occasion long to be remembered, and He brought His disciples before the large numbers to give them reputation so that many would recognize in their workings that they worked as He worked, showing that deeds of mercy open a door for His disciples.
The feeding opened to the disciples their work as His representatives to give the bread of life to the people. Christ receives from the Father and provides for the people through His disciples. Those united with Him receive temporal and spiritual blessings from Him so they can give to others, not hoard for themselves or claim credit, for they are instruments and all glory belongs to God.
Because they would often feel helpless before the people's needs, they must first seek and receive spiritual food from God or they will have nothing to impart to hungry souls. Apart from Him they can do nothing.
As they impart what they receive they continue to receive, the gift increasing in distribution until the supply is sufficient for all. The small store increased as the disciples distributed it, and the disciples also shared in the food. Christ supplied what His disciples needed and enabled them to pass it on to others, and His followers are thereby taught to share what they have with those in need and to help bring truth to those who do not have it.
Practical Lessons for Life
The feeding belongs to the account of Jesus caring for the physical needs of the hungry crowd that followed Him to hear words of life, and He fed them rather than leaving them unfed. He traveled among the people to reach them and provide for them, taking pity on the weary, hungry and fainting multitude while the disciples passed the food around. Tired, hungry people could not receive spiritual benefit as well, so He considered their bodily needs and met them, and His way of meeting need remains the example to follow. That same provision proves He will supply the needs of His children today.
Abundant provision did not excuse waste, for after the people had eaten He directed the disciples to gather what remained so that nothing would be lost. The remaining food was gathered as a lesson in economy, teaching care against improvidence and waste of good, necessary food provided by God's power working through the earth for human sustenance. The few loaves and fishes multiplied as they were shared, and the gathering of the fragments illustrates how truth multiplies as it is distributed and why every piece of literature carrying it should be treasured. What is saved in this way can feed those in need.
The multiplication shows that God can make limited resources sufficient to meet great need. Gifts offered with trust and prayer can be blessed and multiplied so that multitudes receive the bread of life. Small offerings given to help His work can thus be enlarged to meet great needs.
The same God who fed the crowd with five loaves and two fishes supplies food through knowledge given to His people and in answer to earnest prayer gives wisdom, skill, talent and ingenuity to experiment upon the wholesome productions of the earth. By that gift necessary, wholesome, inexpensive foods are to be manufactured and sold to the poor as cheaply as possible, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and teach the ignorant, a work more needed in the Southern states than elsewhere. He who does this is the God who feeds ravens and cares for wild beasts. All that the rich have is lent in trust by God to test and prove them, not to be spent in riotous living on tobacco, tea and coffee or intoxicating liquor that destroy moral sensibilities.
The mountainside miracle was brought back to mind when the risen Jesus, within sight near Capernaum, broke food and divided it among the seven disciples for a meal on the shore. He was known and acknowledged by all seven, while mysterious awe held them silent as they gazed upon Him.