Lent
4
Jn
6:1-15
3/10/24
The
Gospels can be described as theological biographies. They are biographies, in that they provide
accurate information about the life of Jesus. However, they are not providing
this information for its own sake.
Instead, they were written to make a theological point. They are teaching about the meaning and
significance of Jesus Christ.
The
four Gospels tell the same basic account about Jesus. However, they each have their own emphasis.
After all, the significance of Jesus can’t be exhausted in one telling. In
doing so, they include different material and arrange it in different
ways. These are biographies and they
tell us what happened. But their purpose
is not to start in the beginning and provide everything in a chronological
order. Instead, they are arranged to
make a theological point – to teach us about what Jesus means.
The
Gospels tell us about the miracles that Jesus performed. However, there is only one miracle
that all four Gospels include. That is the feeding of the five thousand which
we hear about in our text today.
Obviously, this miracle made a great impression on the disciples. This morning, John uses it to teach us about
Jesus.
We
learn in our text that Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. John tells us that a large crowd was following him, because they saw the
signs that he was doing on the sick.
Jesus was healing people and naturally this attracted a crowd.
Our Lord went up on a mountain and sat
down with his disciples. John is the
only Gospel writer to tell us about the timing of this event, for he says, “Now the
Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.” Jesus saw the large crowd and asked Philip, “Where
are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” We learn that Jesus said this to test Philip,
for he already knew what he would do.
Philip saw no way that this could be
accomplished. He said, “Two hundred
denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” A denarius was a day’s wage, and even this
huge sum would not be sufficient. Andrew reported that there was a meager
amount of food present. He said, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves
and two fish, but what are they for so many?”
Jesus told them to have the people sit down. We learn that the crowed
numbered around five thousand men. He
took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed it to those who were seated. Then
he did the same with the fish. The bread
and fish were never exhausted. Jesus
provided the people with as much as they wanted. In fact, he had them gather up the leftover
fragments and it filled twelves baskets.
John tells us, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they
said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” The miracle was a dramatic manifestation of
Jesus’ power. When the people saw it,
they concluded that Jesus was the end times prophet sent by God. There were various expectations about this
figure. He was certainly expected to be part
of God’s reign and the rescue for Israel.
John is the only Gospel writer who
tells us that the miracle occurred at the time of the Passover. This background helps us to understand the
response by the crowd. The Passover was
the remembrance of how God had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. God had acted in a mighty way to free his
people, and this prompted the hope that he would act again to free Israel from
the Romans.
Spurred on by this kind of
expectation, the people were ready to act.
John tells us, “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take
him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain
by himself.” The people had seen the
sign of the miracle, and they were ready to make Jesus their king in this
world.
In our text, John twice uses the word
“sign” to describe what Jesus does. This
is a significant word in the Gospel. After Jesus has turned water into wine,
John tells us, “This,
the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his
glory. And his disciples believed in him.”
Jesus’ miracles
are signs that reveal his glory and call people to faith. Yet the signs all point to the ultimate way
that Jesus will reveal his saving glory – they point to the cross. John tells us that the miracle took place as
the Passover was near. Holy Week would occur during that Passover. At that time Jesus will say, “Now is the judgment of this world; now
will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am
lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Then John
adds, “He said this to show – literally, to sign - by what kind of death
he was going to die.”
The people follow Jesus because they are seeing the
signs. Yet it becomes clear that the
signs are not leading them to faith in Jesus.
They see the sign of Jesus’ feeding them and they conclude that Jesus is
merely a prophet. The sign makes them
want Jesus as their worldly king – a king who will do the things they want and
expect.
Yet Jesus was not here to be the kind of king they wanted.
He was not here to provide the rescue they had in mind. Instead, he had come provide rescue from a
force far more powerful than any empire of the world. He had come to deliver us from sin.
Jesus described sin as slavery. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is
a slave to sin.” This fallen world
is a place ruled by sin. It seeks to
draws us in and trap us in sin’s clutches.
John said in his first epistle, “For all that is in the world--the
desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in
possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world.”
We see the presence of sin in our
lives. Like the crowd, we have our own
ideas about how God should be doing things.
We know what we think our life should be like. And when God doesn’t
provide that we get frustrated and angry with God. We allow lust to control our thoughts and
actions. We make the wealth of this
world our true god as it provides us with our sense of security and wellbeing.
This sin brings death. It brings
physical death to every one of us. It
brings the eternal death of God’s judgment and damnation. Yet in God’s love he did not leave us in
sin’s power. In the incarnation, he sent
his Son into the world as he became flesh.
The Son of God became man, without ceasing to be God.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus he
said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus was the Lamb sent by God. John tells us in our text that “the Passover,
the feast of the Jews, was at hand.”
Jesus’ miracle is a sign – a sign that points to Jesus’ death. With this
reference John alerts us that we are to understand this sign in relation to the
Passover. Indeed, as he narrates Holy
Week he says, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew
that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the
Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to
the end.”
The Israelites were slaves in
Egypt. At the Passover, God had the
Israelites sacrifice the lamb. The
lamb’s blood was shed and it was placed on the doorposts and lintel of the
Israelite homes. The blood marked the Israelites residences, and when God
killed the firstborn in Egypt it caused him to pass over the Israelites. They were spared as this tenth plague
prompted Pharoah finally to allow the Israelites to leave. God used the death of the Passover lamb to
free them from slavery.
Jesus was the Passover lamb who was
sacrificed on the cross to free us from slavery to sin. Because of the shedding of Jesus’ blood,
God’s wrath has passed over us. Now
through faith in Christ we have forgiveness.
We have
forgiveness and we have life, because Jesus did not remain dead. Jesus said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I
lay down my life that I may take it up again.
No one takes it from me,
but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down,
and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received
from my Father.” On Easter Christ rose
from dead.
Through faith
in Jesus our life with God has been restored.
This life with God will have no end.
Because of Jesus’ resurrection we know that physical death cannot hold
onto our bodies. Jesus said, “For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should
have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
In our
text Jesus uses bread to perform a sign that calls forth faith – a sign that
points to his death and resurrection.
This morning the crucified and risen Lord performs another sign that
calls forth faith as he uses bread and wine.
In the Sacrament of the Altar Jesus takes bread and says, “This is my
body which is given for you.” He takes
wine and says, “Drink of it all of you, this cup is the new testament in my
blood.” These words call forth faith to receive what our Lord promises – his
true body and blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins.
By this
gift Jesus gives us life. We participate
already now in the eternal life that Jesus has won for us because we are
forgiven. And we receive the promise
that our bodies will know life after death because Jesus will raise them up on
the Last Day. Our Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I
will raise him up on the last day.”
This morning we
see Jesus feed the great crowd using five loaves of bread and two fish. It is a sign that reveals his glory and
points to his death and resurrection. It
is a sign takes place as the Passover is near.
We rejoice that Jesus is the Passover Lamb who was sacrificed to free us
from slavery to sin. And we give thanks
that the risen Lord will raise up our bodies on the Last Day.
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