Tag Archives: John 6

Bread in the Bible – The Meal He Wanted to Share

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The trail of “breadcrumbs” in the Book of Matthew starts with the devil tempting Jesus, goes to the Sermon on the Mount, nourishes thousands (including Gentiles), rises to challenge Pharisees and Sadducees, and comes to Matthew 26:26 and His last meal before the crucifixion. Those loaves of bread, leavened and unleavened, were physical and metaphorical. That bread feeds the body and soul of the Kingdom Jesus brought to His people and the world.

A true smorgasbord of facts, opinions, beliefs, and doctrines have fed the Christian world for hundreds of years. I have read recipes, mixed ingredients, risen and kneaded this study for a while. When heat is applied, a crust will still form with a soft inside and supply energy to the eater, but I am sure not everyone will want to finish their piece.   

Food, Eating, and a Meal

As this post I pondered, my mind wandered through the Bible from beginning to end. Our story (people) began in a garden eating and goes to a garden city where we will have a banquet. Many of our Bible stories and favorite characters have food or eating as part of their story. Jesus’ parables frequently featured food, fishing, farmers, or feasting. This last koinonia or fellowship Jesus wanted to share with His disciples was an evening meal. He sent John and Peter to prepare/arrange for the meal (Luke 22), they “sat” at a table, Jesus even washed the disciples’ feet (part of the “greeting” going into a Hebrew home). This party even had singing.

The Sacrament of Christian Communion started as two parts of a Jewish dinner. “Breaking bread” (G2800) and “broke bread” (G2806) both have references to eating a regular meal and communion (See Luke 24:30). Jesus’ last meal had unleavened bread (no yeast, it was Passover), it may have been a “matzah”. Not all “flat breads” are dry, hard crackers or convenient, tasteless wafers. I will stop and leave our denominational traditions alone.

This is a list of communion references, this is not a list of “body and blood” references Paul uses in his Letters – Matthew 26, Luke 22, Mark 14, John 6, and c. John’s reference about Jesus’ Body and Blood is in Chapter 6 after the Feeding of the 5,000 when Jesus is addressing people on the other side of Lake Galilee. John’s account of the last meal is in Chapter 13. Okay, I am going back to bread and SOME of the symbolism of His Body.

Bread

As I thought about bread in the Bible, the Holy Spirit reminded to include the seeds or grain, in this Kingdom teaching, that the finished loaf is made from. Oil, water, salt, yeast, and flavorings may be added as another study, but not today. Jesus used a sower, farmers, gardeners, and a bread maker when He taught about His Kingdom. Joseph saving grain in Egypt, Gideon preparing and protecting his grain, and Ruth in the fields of Bethlehem are important introductions of God’s thoughts on His Kingdom.

Passover is at the beginning of barley harvest; the wheat harvest is around Pentecost (See Ruth). Both of these grains were important to Israel. Sometimes it clearly says barley or wheat, but not always. Flour is ground up seeds of grain and does not always mean wheat. Unless it was a new crop, the bread that Jesus’ broke was stored away from the previous harvesting season and could have been either barley or wheat.

Unleavened bread (no yeast) is quick to make and bake, think about leaving Egypt. Yeast bread takes longer to make and bake and is really just a different loaf of bread. Yeast is not always bad. The grain offering at Pentecost was two loaves of yeast bread, that symbolizes Jews and Gentiles (Leviticus 23). The woman mixed yeast into a large amount of flour to represent how the kingdom should grow (Matthew 13:33).

For Jesus to have that loaf of bread to break the ground had to be prepared, seeds had to be sown, the grain was harvested and the poisonous tare seeds removed. Threshing to remove the husk was the last step before storing it until needed. Then many individual grains had to be ground together to make flour, so the final loaf of bread could be baked in a fire or hot oven. All of that sounds like Kingdom work to me.

Take and Eat

Matthew 26:26 – Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it out, and said, “Take and eat; this is my body”.

1 Corinthians 10:16 – Is the cup of blessing which we bless not a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is the bread which we break not a sharing in the body of Christ? (NASB)

The Body of Christ is an important topic in Paul’s writings. 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 highlight his vision of the Body. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul makes a point that he got the communion service “from the Lord”. You can get the feeling that Paul had some powerful times in the Lord’s presence. As a part of that revelation Paul and Luke add that communion should be a time of remembrance of the Lord and His Body -Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24 and 25. That word is used only one other time, Hebrews 10:3 and it is in connection with the sin sacrifice.

κοινωνία | Free Online Greek Dictionary | billmounce.com  koinonia or fellowship

ἀνάμνησις | Free Online Greek Dictionary | billmounce.com remembrance

Final Thought

Jesus’ last meal, before He said, “Tetelestai”, had wine and bread in it. In Matthew 26:28 He said His blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins. In 1 Peter 2:24 it says that He took our sins in His body and put them on the cross and that His wounds were for our healing. His wounds bled and covered His body with His blood so that we could be saved and healed.

Bread in the Bible – Feeding Many

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Jesus feeding many people at one time in the Bible is found in all of the Gospels. The stories are important because it was one of the signs that the Jews had decided their coming Messiah would do. There are many lessons that you can find in the story of the mass feedings. Here are the references for each Gospel.

  • Matthew 14 – 16
  • Mark 6 – 8
  • John 6
  • Luke 9:10 -17

The timing of these events is important. John the Baptist has been beheaded and Jesus is headed to Jerusalem. This puts these feedings near the end of His forty months of ministry. Matthew and Mark have a feeding of 5,000 in Israel and then a separate feeding of 4,000 people near the Decapolis on the east side of the Sea of Galilee (See Mark 7:31 and 8:1). The miracles and conversations in and around these miracles are important in the big story. The leftovers were epiousios provision.

Luke – This is the basic story; it is before the Transfiguration which agrees with Matthew and Mark. Like them, it has an interesting thought in it. Jesus broke the bread, and the disciples gave it to the people. I see the Great Commission in that simple statement. John has Jesus disturbing the food; that is not a big deal but it is in line with him proving Jesus is the Son of God.

John – The French printer did a great job with Chapter 6 when he selected where to start and end the content of the chapter. Most of the chapter is about bread and Jesus as the Bread of Life. Remember, John is proving Jesus is the Son of God by highlighting miracles. John has more than seven great miracles in his book, but people tend to focus on the major seven.

Starting in verse 25, Jesus covers a lot of theology. His introduction of communion and comparing Himself to manna and the Bread of Heaven upset many Jews. This section does mesh well with the section in Matthew.

Mark and Matthew – The Chosen had good drama in Season 3 that ended with Jesus feeding the masses and Peter’s walk on the water. Our Gospel writers and the Holy Spirit did a better job (lol). The in-between and after is what has gotten my attention. So, please do not separate the two feedings, but view those chapters as one big section with a lot of traveling between the two main courses. My points will not be in order. John’s beheading, for me, is the start of the third block of teaching on the Kingdom of God.

  • Matthew 15:2, the Pharisees, and Clean/Unclean – Both times after Jesus fed the masses the Pharisees swooped in and challenged Him. After the 5,000 they complained all those people in the wilderness did not wash their hands before eating. Jesus took charge and changed the subject to put the focus on them and they did not like it. After the 4,000 they wanted another sign; think of the miracles in John. They had a list of things the Messiah would do and again Jesus did not play along. At this point, they had several years’ worth of miracles to choose from, but religious paradigms are very hard soil for things to sprout and grow in.
  • Yeast/Leaven – In the natural yeast changes the wheat and water and, in the process, makes a gas that causes the bread to rise or grow. (Take several Muse Moments in this section.) To say that yeast is always compared to sin and is bad is not completely correct. The grain offering at Pentecost was two loaves baked with yeast (Leviticus 23:17). Jesus also compared the kingdom of God to yeast that was put into a large amount of dough (Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:21). Yeast bread was part of the daily diet and possibly it was used to make beer; another common food.  The hypocrisy of the leaders is what Jesus did not want His disciples to consume. He had been giving them pure leaven and wanted that to fill them, not the teachings and mindsets of the Pharisees.
  • Travels – Jesus knew His time was about over. He was teaching His followers and wanted to be left alone. After the 4,000 He took His followers and went north to Caesarea Philippi, where Peter finally declared Jesus as the Son of the Living God. He also left the Galilee area after the 5,000 and went to the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. (Elijah met a widow there and helped her.) The distances were not great but the separation was what He wanted. This separation provided quiet but also protection for His followers. The destinations were a shadow of going to the nations.  
  • Matthew 15: 26 – This interaction with a Canaanite woman is a foundation stone for Peter and Paul to preach the Gospel to Gentiles. This woman just needed crumbs, leftovers from the full loaf of bread for her miracle. Because of her faith, she got exactly what she needed from Jesus. Matthew has this trip in between the feeding of the two great masses. Mark places the second feeding in the Greek-influenced east bank. Did the disciples pick up on the connection? First to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. 5,000 were fed with twelve baskets of leftovers, then 4,000 and seven baskets were filled. Jesus gave “crumbs” to a Canaanite mother and then fed many in the Decapolis.
  • Reteach – I am pulling this morsel from a completely different basket. Our Master and Teacher gave His disciples a test and a lesson with the feeding of the 5,000. As a teacher, I see the feeding of the 4,000 as a retest, Jesus wanted them to do the miracles. I do not believe they got an A in that particular lesson.

I see the test of feeding the 5,000 as the end of the lesson from them going out 2×2 in Matthew 10. It has a connection to when the Children of Israel did not ask and seek God for provision AFTER He delivered them out of Egypt.

Bible Map: Genneseret (bibleatlas.org)

It is time to put a wrap on this study of Feeding the Masses. Yes, there are more lessons and things to look at; I did not touch on the symbolic meaning of the numbers involved. The most important reference to bread is left, communion.  

A few musings I picked up along the way.

  1. It takes many individual kernels of grain to make a loaf. They have to be picked, cleaned, ground up, mixed together, and baked.
  2. Were there people who ate twice of the miraculously multiplied bread? Besides His immediate followers.
  3. With Jesus a little can become a lot.

What is your favorite thought of bread?

Jesus Walks on the Water

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While reading the Gospel of Mark I got to the phrase in 6:48  where Jesus was walking on water it says, “He was about to pass them by.”  That phrase bothered me as it does not “fit” the mental image of Jesus and what I thought He would/should do.  More on that phrase later because I am starting with Mark and his version of the Gospel and the Sea of Galilee.

In the Holman Study Bible the introduction to Mark makes the point that most all of the Gospel of Mark happens around the Sea of Galilee.  It seems that Jesus would go to the “other side” to get away from a crowd or to get rest and usually the “other side” Galilee - Sunrise - Sept. 09, 2012offered its own version of busy.  If you read much about the New Testament Mark’s Gospel was the first gospel to be written.  Mark and Matthew are structured and worded the same and some scholars think both writers used another source that has been labeled Q for their inspiration.  Peter is frequently mentioned as helping Mark with the details and some even say that Mark just wrote Peter’s gospel and it was mentioned in some literature that Matthew just copied Mark’s writing while adding his own details.

The Sea of Galilee is a harp-shaped lake that is 13 miles by 7miles and is roughly 150 to 200 feet deep.  The mountains that surround the lake run east-west an can create extreme winds and waves (bibleplaces.com).  Waves in the middle of a lake are not usually breakers like you see along the shore but given the size of the boats that they had a strong wind and 3 or 4 foot waves would have been a serious problem.  It is feasible that on a clear night from up on a mountain that Jesus could have seen the boat since they were only three to four miles out from the shore.

Joyce Meyer made an observation about the two seas in Israel that are connected to the same river.  The Sea of Galilee has water that comes in and goes out while the Dead Sea only has in coming water and no channel for any to leave.  The point was to check your life and see how you are using the talents and gifts you have.

Story Comparison

Mark, Matthew, and John are the three gospels that have the story of Jesus’ walk on the water.  The basic story is the same but there are variations in the accounts.  I think each writer recorded what affected him the most.  To say that for Matthew and John is no big deal because they should have been on the boat but I would like to make the case that Mark may also have been on the boat that night.  In fact I would like to think that Mark was an eye witness to every thing in his gospel and that is why it is centered around Galilee and the Sea, he was allowed to go with Peter, Andrew, James, and John when they were in the “neighborhood.”  I say that because he was probably their nephew – see Acts 12:12.  So the phrase “He was about to pass them by” would be something a young teenager might think instead of a man who was about to try water walking (Peter).

This story really starts with Jesus sending out the Twelve to do ministry.  When they came back Jesus knew they would need time to reflect and rest so He got them into the boat and set off for some quite time.  But since the Sea of Galilee is only seven miles wide the crowd that followed them would have been able to see the sail on the boat from shore (Mark 6:32).  The feeding of the 5000 men, which means it was probably a larger crowd than that, is recorded in three Gospels.  Jesus felt they needed to feed them and wanted the “successful” ministers to continue using the anointing they had just been walking in.  (I will add to the story again and say that the five loaves and two fish were Mark’s lunch that had been packed by a doting mother or aunt; what an impact on the second generation of leadership.  No, that cannot be proved but it makes a nice twist to the story.)

In John the feeding of the 5000 is considered one of the Seven Miracles that confirmed Jesus as Messiah and it was probably the most public one as far as people who saw it firsthand.  After this miracle Jesus had concerns that the crowd may try forcing Him to be king (John 6: 14,15).  Jesus walking on the water is also considered one of the Seven Miracles and it would have been the most private of those miracles and was only intended for the disciples in the boat to witness.  This story does not end once Jesus is in the boat; each of the three Gospels has a slightly different version to finish the story.  They all end up on the other side but it seems they are different places.  Mark and Matthew put them at Gennesaret while John ends the story in a synagogue at Capernaum (Jn. 6:59).  The people at Gennesaret wanted healing, the crowd that was fed wanted more bread and a better sign (miracle) than feeding them.  I think the crowd is why Jesus got the Disciples in the boat he did not want them caught up in the hysteria about a physical kingdom. (see the Problem with the Miraculous)

The word “immediately” jumped out of the stories while I was studying this out (in the NIV).  There really are four uses of the word as Mark and Matthew duplicate two – Jesus getting them in the boat and Him speaking to them while He was on the water.  The other two are in Matthew and John – Matthew, Jesus immediately grabs Peter and in John the boat was immediately at the shore.  The reference in John is the only mention of this and in it self would be a great miracle.  For some reason I really had to separate “immediately” from the thought of “suddenly” in this story.  “Suddenly” would be a surprise while “immediately” shows thought with a quick action.

A Sinking Peter

Peter was possibly older than most of the other disciples and certainly could run a business so him being a “leader” within the group may have come naturally.  So if he had continued to walk on the water, instead of sinking, my guess is that everyone on the boat that night would have been out walking on the water.  Faith is contagious and if Peter could do it all of them would have braved it up and asked but since fear is also contagious when he sunk no one else dared to ask!

Why a Ghost

Mark and Matthew both use the term for ghost when describing how the disciples saw Jesus as He was walking. That word phantasma (Strong’s 5326) is only used twice in the New Testament, here in this story.  You have to wonder why a ghost and not an angel?  They had just been living in the miraculous on their mission trip and had just seen a great miracle with the loaves and fish.  Did they slip back to superstitions because of the storm and being tired?  Why not an angel coming to help them?  Maybe this was a problem that Jesus had to work out of them and get them to start thinking Heavenly minded. Pastor Joel Osteen noted in a sermon how they were used to seeing Jesus in the day walking on dry land but could not recognize Him in a storm at night walking on water.  I just wonder if Jesus was in a “transformed” state allowing Him to walk on the water so He may have actually been shining while He came to them.

Walk on By

Back to the phrase that started this study, “He was about to pass them by.”  Even if this was a boy’s impression it was recorded but with no explanation as to why.  We know Jesus saw them having trouble and purposely walked to them.  He did not have to go that close if He really just intended to meet them on the other side.  So why would He get close but not that close to His men as they were having troubles?  I have no clue!  Maybe He wanted them to call out or it could have been a lesson in believing for the miraculous.  How about He wanted them all to get out and follow Him on the water.  Since it was just for the disciples it may have just been a display of power so they would shift their thinking back to “God matters” instead of physical kingdoms.

http://www.bibleplaces.com/seagalilee.htm

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/Galilee.html

The picture is courtesy of  http://ferrelljenkins.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/galilee_sunrise_fjenkins090712_301t.jpg  If you like photos of the Holy Land and other places that connect with the Christian/Bible story you need to see his blog.

The Problem with the Miraculous

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The problem with the miraculous is people will only accept/believe for what their minds can grasp.  R. W. Schambach told a story of a man who gave the money he was saving for a new truck in a meeting one night.  Later that week he came back with a testimony of how he was working on his old truck when he noticed something he had missed for years.  It was a can that was stuck to the side of the engine and when he opened it there was a wad of 100 dollars bills in the can, more than enough to buy the truck he had been saving for.  On hearing this several people got up an ran out to check their cars.  They were sure that God would bless them in the exact same way.  They could only conceive a miracle for them because it had already happened to someone else that way.  Now testimonies are to build up your faith and your belief that God can and will do miraculous things but we get stuck on how God will do these things.  How many people are always willing to give God instructions on how their miracle is supposed to look and happen?  You wonder how many miracles have been missed because the person could not perceive that it could possibly happen that way.

While studying Jesus walking on the water the side story of Peter getting out of the boat is added in Matthew’s telling of the story.  I have heard many sermons on this over the years and most of the teachers have no problem with the fact that Jesus was actually walking on water.  But when it comes to Peter “seeing the wind” they will dismiss this as a natural occurrence of water blowing off the waves, etc. (NOTE to READER: This is a strange idea and I would not make it a doctrine but I will present this in the context of how far are you willing to believe God can do anything!)storm on Galilee

The reason this idea hit me was a preacher did just that the last time I heard a message on this topic.  He was building the faith of the people to be willing to see Jesus differently in our times of need.  But when it came to the wind that was impossible for Peter to have actually seen.  Duh! It is impossible to walk on liquid water but Jesus was doing that.  (People walk on water all the time and even drive trucks on it, it just happens to be frozen.)  Ok, since I am being weird let me throw out some other strange ideas: 1. Was Jesus wet from walking on the water?  2.  Did He walk up and down the waves or did they divide in front of Him?  Please do add these to “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin.”

To say that something different was happening is an understatement.  The disciples saw Jesus as a “ghost”, Peter actually walked on water, Peter saw wind, and the boat was transported to shore “immediately” (John 6:21).  If you were looking for a physical reason for Jesus to walk on water the only logical one would be He changed how the molecules were acting toward each other.  So why could that have not extended to what was making the waves.  Maybe Peter had a good reason for sinking, he truly saw something he never expected, air molecules whirling around him.  I will still agree he should have kept his eyes on Jesus but was he distracted by the miraculous.  To add to this strange possibility, why did they use the term “ghost?”  That word phantasma (Strong’s 5326) is only used twice in the Bible and that is in connection with this story.  Jesus may have actually looked different because once again had He done something beyond what our minds can grasp!

Taking this back to Jesus and the whole story of feeding 5000 men and walking on the water.  The people in Gennesaret (where they landed) knew if they just touched His garment they could be healed (it had been done before) and the crowd from the miraculous feeding that finally found Him teaching in Capernaum just wanted a free meal ticket.  The crowd even though they had seen 5000 people fed needed more proof that He was the Messiah because in their mind Moses had done the same miracle before (Jesus tried to correct their thinking in John).  Many people will not believe in Christianity because of the miraculous things that are done by God in the Bible.  Painfully some Christians can only believe that God did those things in the Bible and not in modern times and so they must condemn the “crazies” that hold to the fact that God does not change.  “After all science knows more now than they did back then.”  As Christians I believe we need to understand that our faith demands a belief in miracles – past, present, and future.

How about you, how far will you let God be God.  Who knows maybe you will see wind and still keep walking on water?

Both “Feeding the 5000” and “Walking on Water” are part of the Seven Miracles of Jesus in the Book of John.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Christ_in_the_Storm_on_the_Lake_of_Galilee.jpg