​Seeing a Miracle (John 6:1-15)

There are different ways of viewing this story. At the moment we view it as readers who have read it before and we all may see different things in the account as it speaks to us individually. A literal participant would have his view of what happened as well. According to John’s account, there are four different kinds of participants who viewed what had taken place. There is Jesus, there is the crowd, there are the disciples including Philip and Andrew, and there is the unnamed boy. We can make some comments about each of them.

Jesus

Jesus is travelling round Galilee teaching the people about the kingdom of God. He has not yet began teaching them on this occasion. Rather, he is with his disciples initially up on the mountainside. We are not told what he and they were speaking about apart from some remarks he made concerning the gathering crowd who were ascending the hillside.

The first thing we are told about Jesus as he was with his disciples is that he saw those who were not his disciples coming up the mountain. We may not imagine this was an important detail, but it was because John has recorded it for his readers. There is always a danger of followers of Jesus becoming inward looking, of enjoying fellowship with him, and of forgetting about others. But Jesus, by his example, showed otherwise.

A second detail to note about Jesus is that he can ask surprising questions. On this occasion, he asked Philip where they could buy bread to feed the people. Maybe Philip imagined he was asked this because he was from the area. Yet we should note that Jesus had included himself in his question. Whatever the answer, Jesus had asked Philip to include him in the answer to his question.

Moreover, Jesus in this question is asking the disciples to think big, probably much bigger than they had ever thought before. The remedy for the situation had to take in everybody there, and there were thousands of people present. He did not ask the disciples to focus on a section of the crowd gathered there. Rather the answer he wanted from Philip was a big answer, one that would take everyone into account.

Further, when Jesus asks a question in his providence, it is not because he does not know the answer. He already knows what is going to happen regarding the provision of food for the multitude. But it is important to realise that Jesus was not revealing inadequacy when he asked the question. Rather it was a means of testing the faith of the disciples. Had they yet reached the stage where they could say that he had the answer?

The fact that Jesus knew what he would do is a reminder that he was fully aware of what was about to happen. It was not merely that he knew he would perform a miracle, but he also knew each step that would bring about the miracle, and how each person would benefit from the miracle. His miracle was not a last resort after trying everything else. This means that there is a bigger miracle here than the fact that he fed the multitude from a small amount. The bigger miracle is that he was in control of all that happened in connection to this event.

The crowd

The crowd were following Jesus for a particular reason, which is mentioned in verse 2 – they had seen him healing numerous sick people and they reasoned correctly that he could heal many more. And they wanted to see that happen. In fact, some of them were wondering if he was the promised Messiah, and if he was, they would elect him as their king, with the expectancy that he would deliver them from the Roman empire that governed them.

So they were following Jesus for wrong reasons. How? We can say that their focus was on the physical side of things and not on their spiritual needs. Their interest in Jesus was not connected to spiritual needs such as forgiveness of their sins or taking them to heaven at the end of their lives. Instead, they only wanted Jesus to help them with their current difficulties. They may even have assumed that he could feed them all, but as we can see from the rest of the chapter, participating in a miracle did not make them true followers of Jesus.

On this occasion they did not conclude that he was who he was. Instead they assumed that he was only a predicted prophet, perhaps a reference to the prophecy in Malachi that said Elijah would reappear before the Messiah came. Whatever they meant by this reference, we can see that they fell short of a correct understanding of who Jesus is.

The disciples

It was right that the disciples should be with Jesus because during those sessions he would be speaking to them about the kingdom of God. Of course, they were only beginning to discover who Jesus was, and we should not be surprised that they did not see everything clearly about Jesus and his kingdom. Yet this was going to be a day when they would learn a great deal about Jesus.

Two of the disciples are mentioned by name, Philip and Andrew. Let us think about them briefly. They came from the same place, Bethsaida, which was nearby. Before becoming disciples, they each had a unique initiatory experience of Jesus that changed their lives forever.

Andrew was probably the first disciple that Jesus called to follow him; if not the first, he was the second, since another unnamed person accompanied him. We can find his story in John 1 when he and another of John’s disciples spent an evening with Jesus. The effect on Andrew was incredible because the first thing he did was find his brother Peter and tell him that he and the unnamed disciple had found the Messiah.

Philip too had a personal encounter with Jesus, and it is also recorded in John 1. Jesus went and found Philip and called him into his service. As with Andrew, the first thing that Philip did was speak to another person about Jesus. Philip spoke to Nathaniel (or Bartholemew) and was the means of that individual becoming a disciple of Jesus.

On this occasion on the mountainside, Jesus spoke to Philip about the situation. We don’t know how much money the disciples would have had with them, but it is clear from Philip’s response that they did not have very much, certainly not enough to buy sufficient food for the crowd. As we look at Philip’s reply, we can see two wrong details in his answer. First, he did not answer the question. He could have said, ‘We will need to find out. Shall I go and do so?’ Instead, he dismissed the possibility from the start. Second, he took no account of the fact that Jesus said he would be involved in the solution. The question had not asked what the disciples could do about the situation but had asked what Jesus and the disciples could do about it. There is a world of difference between those options.

Andrew’s answer was not as blunt as Philip’s, yet he was very tentative in his reply. Somehow he had discovered that a little boy had a packed lunch with him. His common sense told him that the boy’s lunch was hardly enough for one adult, never mind the large crowd. Andrew’s response was similar to that of Philip’s in that he also left Jesus out of the answer to the question.

Yet Jesus did not decide to ignore the two disciples despite their rather negative responses. Instead, he asked them and the other disciples to divide the crowd into groups. Their obedience in this matter is instructive because from one perspective they could have imagined that they would look like fools if nothing happened after arranging the groups. Yet their example is a good one to follow – even if we have failed to answer previous instructions of Jesus, we should do whatever he tells us next.

Because they obeyed Jesus regarding arranging the crowd in groups, they received a great blessing from Jesus. We can see two details in the blessing that was given. First, Jesus used them although he did not need to have done so. He could have asked for volunteers from the crowd to help distribute the food, but he chose to use his disciples. Second, although they were unworthy instruments, they discovered that Jesus could give them an endless supply to meet all the needs at that time.

At the end of the day, the disciples discovered that they had twelve baskets gathered from the crumbs, a basket each to take away with them. While we are not told what they did with the baskets, we can see that they had a sufficient amount of food to do them for a few days. The striking feature could be that they would share with Jesus what he had given to them. As they partook of the contents of the baskets, they would appreciate what it was like to be called by Jesus to serve him.

The young boy

We are not told very much about him, yet we can identify important things about him from the brief references in the account. First, he wanted to be where Jesus was speaking. We are not told if he had heard Jesus personally before, although I assume that he had. But his desire was a very good one to have.

Second, the young lad wanted to be close to where Jesus was. I think we can deduce that from the text because we can see that he was near enough to have heard what Jesus had said to the disciples about them feeding the crowd. It would be hard to hear what Jesus had said if he was not near to Jesus. Obviously, there is a spiritual lesson here.

Third, the young lad wanted to give what he had to Jesus to use. Maybe all he had in mind was that if he started by giving what he had, then others would be willing to give what they had. In any case he was ready to give what he had, all of it, to Jesus. Imagine him telling his mother what he had to eat at the event.

Fourth, the young lad discovered that he did not lose out by giving what he had to Jesus. He would have sat in one of the groups and received what a disciple passed on from Jesus to that group. And as he watched everyone eating, he could say to himself, ‘I have become a blessing to others because I gave my meal to Jesus.’ Giving to Jesus can be a means of bringing blessings to others.

Fifth, providentially the young lad was God’s answer to the problem. The lad did not know that he would be so when he left home that morning, nor would he have thought so as he made his way to the mountainside as part of the crowd. Yet God had selected him for that role. And the young lad was willing to be used when the unforeseen predicament showed itself. He was ready to serve as he could.

Whatever else, we can say about this boy, we can say that he was given great insight into the capability of Jesus. He also challenges us to give what we have to Jesus. We might think that we do not have much, but we do. Each of us a mind that can be given to Jesus, each of us has a heart which can be given to him, each of us has hands and feet that can be dedicated to him, each of us has things that can be used for him.