Food From Heaven
John 6:1-21
July 30, 2006
Betty Berghaus
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle of Jesus that appears in all 4 gospels. In 3 of them, Matthew, Mark, and John, the walking on water story appears just after the feeding story. But just as all of the Gospel of John is so different from the other Synoptic Gospels, so these stories differ in John’s telling of them. And they differ for a definite purpose for the author of John. John is a teaching gospel, and in it Jesus has long conversations or gives long discourses. Everything in this gospel is meant to explain more about Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. The same is true for this story, for the rest of chapter 6 is a discourse by Jesus telling why he is the “Bread from Heaven.” (But that is next week’s sermon!) Today we will look at the differences and similarities in these stories ((Matthew 14:13-33; Mark 6:30-52; Luke 9:10-17).
In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus withdrew to a private place as the story began. And the crowds followed him. In John, Jesus went to the other side of the water, and the crowd followed, “because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.” John calls those things which Jesus did “signs,” not miracles, signs that point to his power as Messiah. Only John mentions that Passover was near to this event. Placing it near Passover elicits comparisons to the feeding of the Israelites in the wilderness, when God gave them manna from heaven. Through this chapter, this gospel makes the point that Jesus’ feeding is so much more powerful than the miracle with Moses in the wilderness.
In the Synoptic gospels, the disciples went to Jesus concerned about food for the people. They proposed sending them away to the villages so that they might eat. Jesus responded, “You give them something to eat.” But in John, Jesus is always in control. He saw the crowd and asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” The text says that Jesus asked this as a test, as he knew what he was going to do. Again, the author wants to show us the power of Jesus. The other gospels do not mention bread at this point, only food, so John already has established bread as important. And indeed, bread was important for life in Bible times. It was a staple of their diet. Like the O.T. story of the manna, enough bread was baked for each day, not any more, as it would not keep. Rich families used wheat for bread. Poorer families used barley meal, which was cheaper than wheat and ripened earlier.
The other gospels involve the disciples in this story but never name them. John names two. Philip had the interchange with Jesus about how to feed the people, and Andrew told Jesus that there was a boy with 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. Again there are differences here than in the Synoptic Gospels. There was no boy in the other versions, just the presence of 5 loaves and 2 fish. No mention was made in the other gospels of the kind of bread, yet it was, in John, barley, the bread of the poor. So in John this sign used the lunch of a poor boy to feed 5,000 people.
All 4 versions say that Jesus told the disciples to sit down on the grass, though in Mark and Luke, he had them sit in groups of 50 or 100. Jesus took the food, both loaves and fishes, in the Synoptic Gospels, looked up to heaven, blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the crowd. In John, Jesus took the loaves, did not look to heaven or bless them, though he “gave thanks,” and then distributed the bread himself. He then did the same with the fish.
There is no story of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John establishing Communion for us as we follow Jesus. Remember, this is the gospel that has the story of the washing of the feet at the Last Supper. But many scholars see this story of the feeding of the 5,000 in John as a sacramental one. The Greek word used here for Jesus giving thanks is eucharistos, the very word from which we get Eucharist, another term for communion. This word eucharistos does not appear in the feeding of the 5,000 in the other gospels, but it does appear in them in their stories of the Last Supper, the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus may have distributed the food himself in John, say the scholars, precisely because he is the bread of life. And the bread is so important that Jesus in John had concern for the leftover pieces. Yes, the leftovers were gathered in the other gospels, 12 baskets full, but only in John did Jesus say, “Gather up the fragments, so that nothing may be lost.” Perhaps this gives the basis for the sacred treatment of sacramental bread and wine in other faiths. (I have heard that priests will gather any bread crumbs that fall on the floor during the serving of communion during the service. And there are many stories about only the priests being able to finish the sacramental wine!)
In the other gospels, this story ends with the gathering of the 12 baskets. But in John, the story continues (vv.14-15): “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’ When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” The people may have recognized Jesus as a Messiah, but they did not realize what kind of Messiah he was. They wanted a political savior, someone to free them from the current regime. But Jesus did not come to lead a rebellion.
In Mark and Matthew, Jesus then “immediately made his disciples get into the boat and go to the other side.” Then he dismissed the crowd and went up a mountain to pray. As evening set, the disciples were on a boat on the water, and Jesus was alone on the land. A storm blew up, and the boat was being battered by the waves. Jesus went to the boat in the early morning, walking on the sea. And this terrified the disciples! In Mark, Jesus spoke to reassure them, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” In Matthew Peter then wanted to walk on the water. When he faltered, Jesus reached out to save him, and questioned his “little faith.” He got into the boat and the winds ceased.
The story is very different in John, though there are enough similarities to know that the author was familiar with the same story. In John, the disciples got into a boat, with no urging from Jesus, and went across the sea. The sea became rough because of a strong wind. The disciples were busy rowing, but they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. They were “terrified,” says the text. They wanted to take Jesus into the boat, but then, miraculously, the boat had reached the land to which they were heading. Jesus did not actually calm the sea in John, but he moved the boat as if transporting it with a “Star Trek” special effect.
These two stories took 21 verses in the Gospel of John. The next 37 verses give Jesus the opportunity to explain what it means for him to be the “Bread from Heaven.” Bread was indeed crucial to life in biblical times. The first mention of bread happens early in the Bible, when God curses the disobedient Adam, saying, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground” (Gen. 3:19). Before then, food had been provided for Adam and Eve with no work. Bread was food that required work, farming and harvesting the grain, preparing dough and letting it rise, kneading the dough, baking the bread. Every household needed bread, though richer folks had servants to do the work. But everyone would understand the use of bread for a sustaining image.
Remember too the preparations for Passover, the meal of lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, meant to remind the people of God’s saving acts for them in Egypt. We have already mentioned the manna, the “bread from heaven” supplied daily for the people as they fled Egypt and headed to the Promised Land. Remember too that Elijah hid during a famine, and ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and each evening.
But do you know this story? We read in II Kings 4:42-44:
“A man came from Baalshalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: 20 loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, ‘Give it to the people and let them eat.’ But the servant said, ‘How can I set this before a hundred people?’ (because he knew it would not be enough). So he repeated, ‘Give it to the people, and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’’ He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the Word of God.”
So this story that we thought was so original to the Gospels has a precedent in the Old Testament! God providing food miraculously for us is not a new thing. God has done this all along!
In the N.T., Jesus taught us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, in Matthew and Luke, saying, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And remember that during the temptation (Jesus’ wilderness experience), Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. Jesus replied with words from Deuteronomy (8:3): “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
So we also see all along that while feeding our physical bodies is important to God, so is the feeding of our spiritual selves. This too needs to be a daily thing.
God will provide us what we need for the day, if we believe the Bible. (“Give us this day our daily bread.”) What a radical concept! When we go to the store, we buy enough food for at least a week. Some of it lasts much longer, especially with freezers and non-perishables. Going back to buying food for each day would cramp our lifestyles. We do not have time for grocery store runs each day, nor do we have the time each day to do things like make and bake bread.
I am not a good cook or a baker at all. But the few times that I have baked bread have been times that slow me down! I have to take time to prepare the dough, and to let it rise and to knead it. Then I have to be at home while it bakes. The physical aspects of the baking keep me at home. They slow me down. The aroma of bread baking in the oven is heavenly! And homebaked bread tastes delicious, especially warm from the oven! Doesn’t it just make your mouth water to think about it?
So, why do we not trust in God anymore to give us our daily bread, or to BE our heavenly bread? Why do we rush around too busy for the things that sustain and nourish us? Perhaps we need to take time to bake bread, and to share it with our families. Maybe we need to give thanks to God for that bread, and to look to God as the bread of heaven by also taking time to nourish our spiritual lives each day. Barbara Brown Taylor preached on the Exodus 16 text about the manna and today’s text in her book, Bread of Angels, and she said this:
“…It is not what it is that counts but who sent it, and the miracle is that God is always sending us something to eat. Day by day, God is made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives – some bread, some love, some breath, some wine – all those absolutely essential things that are here today and gone tomorrow. Everything else is gravy, but it is easy to forget that. Jesus is God’s manna in the wilderness, the one who reminds us day by day that we live because God provides not what we want, necessarily, but what we need: some bread, some love, some breath, some wine, [and] a relationship with this ordinary looking man, who comes from heaven to bring life to the world.” (Brown, pp.10-11)
Jesus is the “bread of heaven.” We have seen by these Bible stories that God provides bread not just for the 5,000, but for us all, each and every day. That must mean there is enough food in the world for everyone. But some have more than their share, and many go hungry. Perhaps we need to learn how to distribute God’s good food to all people, so that no one goes hungry, not for bread or for the Bread of Heaven.
Glory be to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, AMEN.