Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand (J22)

Trying to find a quiet place in which to pray.
Jesus went across the lake to the east;
Five thousand followed Him late in the day;
There was no food on which the crowd could feast!
Andrew said, “Here’s a boy with a small lunch—
Five biscuit rolls and two small sardine fish.”
Jesus said, “Sit them twenty to a bunch;
Bring me the lunch; use each robe for a dish!”
He broke loaves till three hundred robes were full;
The same with the fish; two robes to each bunch;
All of them ate till their hunger was dull,
Thanks to Jesus and the boy with the lunch!
Jesus said, “Gather the food that remained,”
And twelve baskets for the poor were retained!

“After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, 'Surely, this is the Prophet that is to come into all the world.' Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” (John 6:14-15) (The “Prophet” cited here is found in a prophecy by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:18-19. Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecy.)

We have come to the fourth “miraculous sign” performed by Jesus that John included in his gospel out of a total of seven. This miracle is reminiscent of the loving care shown by God to the Israelite people during forty years they wandered in the desert. Manna from heaven helped to feed them; when Jesus fed the five thousand, the parallel must have been apparent to them, which is probably John’s reason for selecting it. Jesus often slipped away from His disciples and the crowds to pray to His Father alone. His fame was spreading so that it was becoming more difficult to become isolated. Some of those who gathered around Him did not believe, but were curious about His miracles.

You may be wondering why Jesus did not let them make Him king of Israel. The Jews misunderstood much of what God told them by the prophets. Furthermore, they were prophesying two comings of God to earth—the first was as Messiah, during which He would establish the Kingdom of God, using love and gentleness. The second coming of God is one of power, conquest, and retribution, as at the Battle of Armageddon. The Jews confused the first coming with the second. In fact, they don’t even look for a second coming today; they are still waiting for the first. They thought the Messiah would be a military conqueror like Alexander the Great, only better. They couldn’t imagine a Messiah that talked about obeying your masters, turning the other cheek, and loving others, even enemies; much less one that ended up letting Himself be crucified. Their prophets had told them what to expect, especially Isaiah and Zechariah. In Zechariah 4:6, God tells the people of Judea, “not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit”, meaning the Holy Spirit, who produces in a man Love, Kindness, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, and Self-control (See Galations 5). The kind of things Jesus said were opposite to what they expected. If Jesus was as they expected, He would let the five thousand make Him King; they would become His soldiers, along with thousands of other Jews, and they would defeat the Roman armies in Israel. Jesus was not anything like that.

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)