Today, the Lectionary continues its glance at John chapter 6
which has spanned three weeks. The chapter starts with a feeding story. Actually,
all the Gospels carry feeding stories. The one we are reading today is the Gospel of John’s
account of the tale where 5,000 people are fed from the five loaves and two
fishes offered by a little boy. Not only were they fed, but the left-overs were
enough to fill twelve baskets.
The feeding stories have been mainly interpreted in two
different ways. The first way is that they are miracles where bread and fish is
supernaturally multiplied. The second
way they have been interpreted is as an example of generosity where the little
boy’s gift encourages everyone to share what they brought so there was more
than sufficient for all. The end result is the same, 5,000 hungry people are
fed.
Last time I blogged on this passage I talked about how I
found the feeding stories profoundly disturbing as I tried to imagine reading
them in a country where there is no green grass for people to sit on, no crumbs
to gather and where perhaps, even one of those crumbs would mean life for
another day for a child or an animal. How would I present the gospel with its
many feeding stories and where Jesus claims he is the bread of life to those
literally starving to death?
Today, as I read the chapter the verses that stood out to me
were right at the end of the feeding story.
‘When
the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed
the prophet who is to come into the world.” When Jesus realized that they were
about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the
mountain by himself.’ (John 6:14-15)
They
caused me to ponder Jesus’ reaction to fame and also the fickleness of
humanity.
What
is it that causes such extreme reactions in people? The crowd of 5,000 people ate
and their reaction was to want to “make him king”. Why? Would we be the same
today? If someone supernaturally fed 5,000 people would we be calling for them
to run for the next president?
At
this point in John’s gospel it is stated that people were following Jesus
because of the miracles they saw. Prior to this story, the gospel records no
stories about Jesus teaching, nothing that reveals any character, it is purely
miracle based.
It
seems like the people have short memories. I wonder how many of the 5,000 who were
fed and wanted to make Jesus king were in the crowd who shouted “crucify him” a
few months later!
As
the story continues we see the character of Jesus emerge. It is in his reaction
to the offer of fame. He withdrew to a mountain by himself. Now that is a model
for us to live by. It is a model of ministry to others. It is a model that
shows compassion on hungry people (or sick people, or hurting people, or abused
people, or invisible people) but without any desire for fame or recognition. It
is a model of service that alleviates suffering then slips away out of sight. It
shows the character of the one who has compassion, serves and then withdraws.
Let that be our model and our aim as we minister.
But
the chapter doesn’t end there, in the gospel of John the story continues. The
crowd was persistent they searched for and eventually found Jesus who
challenged them saying that they were looking for him only because they ate their fill
of the loaves.
Jesus
then began to talk about being the bread of life. In the last part of the
chapter the dialogue is clearly Eucharistic. One has to wonder if the dialogue
is included to affirm the Eucharistic practice that had developed in the
Johannine community. Margaret M. Mitchell et al take that view.
“The
sacramental language of chapter 6 certainly alludes to a ritual practice used
by the Johannine community at some point in its development. It might have come
late to the life of the community, or more likely, it describes an accepted
practice the understanding of which the evangelist wanted to deepen.”
(Cambridge History of Christianity 2006, 142)
In
other words, the author of John was giving the first and second century readers
a legitimization of their practices. This was both with the Eucharistic language
celebrating Jesus’ death and resurrection and with the analogy to Moses and the
manna, even to the crowd grumbling as they did in the wilderness.
Yet,
that was the verse that stood out as I read the latter half of the chapter. The
people began to complain about Jesus because they didn’t like what he said
(41). This brought me right back to my first thought about how fickle human
beings can be.
This
crowd had been fed, they had wanted to make Jesus king, they had sought him out
on “the other side of the sea” (25) yet as soon as he started to talk they
started to complain.
Apart
from all the Eucharistic theology in this chapter I think it offers us a real
challenge about our way of living. It speaks a lot about the character of
humanity. Much for us to ponder, I think.
