Monday, July 26, 2021

John 6:1-15

Sometime later, Jesus crossed Lake Galilee (aka Lake Tiberias). 2-4 After arriving, Jesus went up onto a mountainside and sat down with his apprentices. (It was, BTW, almost time for the Jewish Passover festival -- just making sure that you catch the thematic parallels with the Exodus story.)

A large crowd of people eager to see more of the miracles Jesus had done among the sick followed him across the lake. 5 When he looked up and saw the large crowd coming his way, Jesus turned to Philip and asked, “Where are we going to be able to buy enough food to feed all these people?” 6 (Jesus asked this to teach him, for he already had a plan.)

7 Philip replied, “It would take more than a half year’s salary worth of food just to provide hors d’oeuvres for everyone.”

8 One of Jesus’ other apprentices, Andrew, who was Simon Peter’s brother, chimed in, 9 “There is a kid here with five loaves of cheap barley bread and two sardine-size fish. But with a crowd this big I don’t know what good that would be.”

10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.”

There were about five thousand people who sat down in the grassy area. 11 Jesus then took the bread and after saying the prayer of thanks, distributed it to the seated people. He then served the fish in the same way. Everyone got their fill.

12 After they’d all had plenty to eat, Jesus said to his apprentices, “Go collect the leftovers. We don’t want to waste any of it.”

13 They filled twelve baskets with the leftovers of the five barley loaves from which the people had eaten.14 When the people realized that Jesus had performed a miraculous sign, they said, “Truly this is the prophet for whom the world has been waiting.”

15 Jesus read the crowd and realized that they were planning to try and force him to become their king; so he slipped away to a place where he could be alone on the mountain.