John 6:1-21 Commentary

Why are these two stories stuck together by the lectionary? Each on its own is worthy of preaching, but when they are paired together does the sermon change?

Sermons on the feeding miracle rightfully draw us to a posture of awe at the provision of God whereas a sermon about Jesus walking on water might draw us to fear God’s power. Each instance makes Jesus shine in both his “otherness” and in his compassion—albeit on varying scales. Jesus has compassion on an enormous crowd just as he has compassion on the small set of fearful disciples on a stormy sea. In both instances Jesus provides what is so desperately needed: physical, tangible food in one case and psychological security in the other. And it seems as though Jesus performs the feeding miracle in secret even though it is in plain sight: the text simply says he gave thanks and then distributed both the bread and the fish to all who were seated in the crowd. On the stormy sea, however, Jesus is front and center—unmistakably miraculous as he walks calmly and capably on the troubled waters and tells the disciples it is him.

But when these two miracles are read together, another detail emerges. In each story, people try to “take” Jesus but fail. After being satisfied by having their fill of loaves and fishes, the crowd, John says, believes that they have encountered “the prophet who is to come into the world” and want to “take him by force to make him king.” Similarly, when Jesus has assuaged their fear, the disciples “wanted to take him into the boat.”

A natural response, it seems then, to seeing displays of power and provision is to want to keep it close—daresay to harness it for one’s self. Two different Greek words are used. When the crowds want to take Jesus, the word is harpazō and it carries a sense of seizing and carrying away. When the disciples want to take Jesus, the word is lambanō, which doesn’t carry the same sort of forcefulness to it but still intends a sense of taking something into one’s possession.

The crowd wants to make Jesus their king by force, but who were they going force? Knowing the way of God’s Kingdom, they would have had to force Jesus himself to be the kind of king they were looking for, and they definitely would have had to forcefully act against the Roman Empire to put him into power.

Just as Jesus knew how he was going to satiate the dinner pangs of the thousands on the mountainside, Jesus knew what the crowd wanted to do next and “he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” It’s a fitting move for a prophet—the crowd has that part of Jesus’s identity spot on—as it is likely that Jesus withdrew to a quiet place on his own to commune with the Father.

What were the disciples up to as this realization came over Jesus? The other versions of this story tell us that Jesus gave them instructions to go on ahead of him, but John’s lack of such detail emphasises the uncontrollable-ness or ungraspable-ness of Jesus: Jesus does what Jesus will do unbeknownst to us.

“I am,” Jesus declares. Harkening back to that original self-revelation of God, “I am,” Jesus calms the disciples fears by claiming ultimate-ness (and yes, all of these “ness” words are on purpose). Though they want Jesus to stay close to them in the boat, notice how John doesn’t tell us whether Jesus joins them. Instead, just like that, the text has the boat back on shore without any mention of how or why.

In the combination of both stories, the people go from recognizing that Jesus is the prophet who was promised long ago, to trying to take him so that he will become their king, to Jesus proclaiming himself as the “I am” and refusing to be taken in on any front. But remember, just because he will not be taken by us, does not mean he will not give to us. To go from trying to manipulate and take Jesus for ourselves to offering our needs up to him is what links these stories together.

Textual Point

I get a little antsy anytime the English translation talks about someone being “tested.” In verse six, Jesus is said to be testing Philip and the Greek verb used is peirazō. There are four possible definitions: (1) to attempt to do something, (2) to discover the nature of something by testing it, (3) to attempt to entrap via questions, or (4) to tempt someone to do something (BDAG).

Option four doesn’t fit Christ’s character. Option three is the sort of thing that Jesus does in his verbal sparring matches with the Pharisees, but doesn’t seem to fit the context here. Option one doesn’t match the context either, since Jesus is literally asking a question of Philip at this point and not taking any action yet. That leaves option two: Jesus asks the question of Philip to get a sense of the state of Philip’s imagination and faith about Jesus.

Illustration Idea

In the comic book and cinematic world of Marvel, the notoriously evil Purple Man (aka Killgrave) has the ability to control other people who hear him speak because of chemicals his body releases when near other humans. In the first season of the show Jessica Jones, we see him trying to regain control over the supernaturally-physically-powerful woman, Jessica Jones; he literally wants to take control over her, thinking that making her his puppet will make his own power unstoppable. But Killgrave’s powers do not work against people who are strong-willed themselves—which Jessica has become since their last encounter. In other words, he cannot “take” anyone who knows who they are and what they are about (positively or negatively). In Jessica’s case, she has committed to not using her powers to kill or do harm to others and this seems to be part of the reason why she is unhindered by Killgrave’s power. She cannot be “taken” because she is more powerful than he is.