The Bread of Life

Feeding the Five Thousand

(Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6:30-44; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:1-14)

¹⁰The apostles came back from their mission and reported to Jesus what all they’d done and taught. ¹³Jesus also heard at that time about John’s death. He took his disciples with him; ³¹“Come off by yourselves away from the crowds and rest awhile.” So many people were coming and going that they didn’t even have time to eat.

³²They went away in a boat to the other side of Lake Galilee (Lake Tiberias) to a place off by themselves near a town called Bethsaida. ³³People saw them leaving and figured out where they were going, and followed him because they saw the signs he was doing on the sick. They ran as a crowd from the towns and got there first.

When he got out, ³he went up on a hill and sat down with his disciples. ⁴The Jews’ Passover festival was coming up. ⁵Jesus looked up and saw a huge crowd arriving, ³⁴and felt sorry for them: they were like sheep without a shepherd. ¹¹He welcomed them, talked to them about God’s kingdom, and healed as many as needed it.

Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we going to buy enough bread for these people to eat?” (6He said that to test him because Jesus already knew what he was going to do.)

⁷Philip answered, “Bread worth two hundred denarii won’t be enough for each person to get a little bit.”

¹²As the day drew to a close, the twelve came to him, “Let the crowd go so they can go to villages around the countryside to find lodging and buy something to eat. Nobody lives around here.”

But he answered, ¹⁶“They don’t need to leave. You feed them.”

³⁷“Should we go spend two hundred denarii on bread to feed them?”

38“How many loaves do you have? Go see.”

⁸Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother—said, “There’s a boy here that has five barley loaves and two fish, but what’s that among so many?”

“Bring them here.”

⁹There was lots of grass in the place, so he told them, “Have everybody sit down on the green grass in groups of about fifty and a hundred.” They did so.

⁴¹He took the five loaves and two fish, and looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, ¹⁶and kept giving them to his disciples to distribute to ¹¹the ones that were sitting there—the fish too, as much as people wanted.

¹²When they were full, he told the disciples, “Pick up the leftover pieces so nothing’s wasted.” ¹³So they picked up the leftovers and filled twelve baskets with the scraps from the barley loaves and fish that Jesus multiplied. ²¹About five thousand men had eaten the loaves—besides women and children.

¹⁴People that saw the sign said, “This really is the prophet that’s supposed to come.”

¹⁵aJesus knew they intended to take him by force to make him king.

Jesus Walking on the Water

(Mt 14:22-43; Mk 6:45-52; Jn 6:15b-21)

14:22He urged his disciples to get in the small boat right away, and go on ahead to the other side—to Capernaum, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³When he’d dismissed them, he went up on the hill by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

¹⁷It was dark now, and Jesus hadn’t come. ¹⁸They’d rowed three miles or so, ²⁴and waves were bashing the boat. ¹⁸The lake was getting rough because a strong wind was blowing against them. ⁴⁸Jesus saw them straining at the oars. About four in the morning, he went to them walking on the lake as if he intended to go on by. ¹⁹He was getting close to the boat. ²⁶When they saw him walking on the water, they were terrified, “It’s a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.

At once Jesus spoke to them, “It’s okay; it’s me. ²⁰You don’t need to be afraid.”

Peter responded, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹“Come on.”

Peter got down out of the boat and started walking to Jesus on the water. ³⁰But when he saw the high wind, he got scared and started to sink. He cried out, “Lord, save me!”

³¹At once Jesus reached out and grabbed him, “One with little faith, why did you doubt?”

³²When they climbed up in the boat, the wind died down. ³³The ones in the boat were astounded and bowed down to him, “You really are God’s Son.” ²¹Presently the boat came to the land where they were headed.

⁵²They hadn’t got the point about the loaves. They weren’t catching on.

Miracles at Gennesaret

(Mt 14:34-36; Mk 6:53-56)

⁵³When they’d crossed over to land, they tied up at Gennesaret. ⁵⁴When they got out of the boat, the people recognized him at once. ⁵⁵They hurried around the vicinity, and began bringing the sick on stretchers to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶Whatever villages, towns, or countryside he’d go to, they’d put sick people in the marketplaces and appeal to him just to touch the fringe of his cloak. As many as touched him were cured.

Jesus’ Refusal to Be a Political Messiah

(Jn 6:15a, 22-71)

²²The next day the crowd that was standing on the other side of the lake saw that no other boat was there except one and Jesus had not got in the boat with his disciples; they’d left alone. ²³Other small boats came from Tiberias to where the people ate the bread. ²⁴When the crowd saw that Jesus and his disciples weren’t around, they got in the small boats and went to Capernaum, looking for him.

²⁵When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

²⁶Jesus answered, “You’re looking for me, not so much because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were full. ²⁷Don’t work for bread that perishes; work for bread that lasts forever. That’s the bread the Son of Man will give you, because he’s the One the Father has marked with a seal.”

²⁸They asked him, “What’ll we do to be working the works of God?”

²⁹Jesus answered, “This is the ‘work’ of God: believe on the One he sent.”

³⁰They said, “What sign do you do so we can see it and believe? What ‘work’ do you do? ³¹Our ancestors ate manna in the desert like the scripture says, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD FROM HEAVEN TO EAT’” [Ps 78:24].

³²Jesus said, “Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father is giving you the real ‘bread from heaven.’ ³³God’s ‘bread’ is the One that comes down from heaven to give life to the world.”

³⁴They said, “Sir, give us that bread all the time!”

³⁵Jesus said,

“I’m the life-giving bread. Whoever comes to me will never get hungry, and whoever believes in me will never get thirsty. ³⁶But, you’ve seen me and not believed. ³⁷Everything the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I won’t send away; ³⁸because I’ve come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of the One that sent me. ³⁹This is his will: that I not lose anything he’s given me, ⁴⁰that everybody who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and that I raise him up in the last day.”

⁴¹The Jews started grumbling, because he said, “I’m the bread that’s come down from heaven.” ⁴²They were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus, Joseph’s son? We know his father and mother. How does he say now, ‘I’ve come down from heaven’?”

⁴³Jesus answered,

“Don’t grumble around with one another. ⁴⁴Nobody can come to me unless the Father that sent me is drawing him. ⁴⁵The prophets wrote, ‘GOD WILL TEACH THEM ALL’ [Is 54:13]. Everybody that listens to the Father and learns, comes to me—⁴⁶not that anybody has seen him except the One that’s come from him; he’s seen him. ⁴⁷Whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸I’m the life-giving ‘bread.’ ⁴⁹Your ancestors ate manna in the desert and died. ⁵⁰Nobody that eats this ‘bread from heaven’ will die. ⁵¹I’m the life-giving ‘bread’ that comes from heaven. Everybody that eats this ‘bread’ will live forever. Yes, and the ‘bread’ I’ll give for the life of the world is my own flesh.”

⁵²The Jews started quarreling with one another, “How can he give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³Jesus said,

“Unless you ‘eat’ the flesh of the Son of Man and ‘drink’ his blood, you don’t have any life in you. ⁵⁴People that ‘eat’ my flesh and ‘drink’ my blood have eternal life, and I’ll raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵My flesh is true ‘food,’ and my blood is true ‘drink.’ ⁵⁶People that ‘eat’ my flesh and ‘drink’ my blood remain in me and I in them. ⁵⁷As the living Father has sent me and I live because of him, people that ‘eat’ me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the ‘bread’ from heaven; it’s not like what the ancestors ate and died. Whoever ‘eats’ this bread will experience eternal life.”

⁵⁹He said this as he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. ⁶⁰When they heard it, many disciples said, “That message is hard to understand. Who can make sense of it?”

⁶¹Jesus knew his disciples were grumbling about it.

“Does that shock you? ⁶²What if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³The spirit of what I’ve said is the point. The literal words are not the point. What I’ve spoken has meaning figuratively. ⁶⁴But some of you don’t believe. [Jesus knew from the start who weren’t believers and who’d betray him.] 65That’s why I told you that nobody can come to me unless the Father lets him.”

⁶⁶At this point, many disciples quit traveling with him. ⁶⁷Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go too, do you?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered, “Lord, who would we go to? You have the life-giving message. ⁶⁹We believe and have come to know that you’re God’s Holy One.”

⁷⁰Jesus answered them, “Didn’t I choose you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” (71He was referring to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, the one that would betray him—one of the twelve.)