The Third Passover of Jesus’ Ministry: Jesus, the Bread of Life
6 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Feast was near.
There was a town or small city called Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. When these events took place, the city was only about ten or twelve years old, and nobody was yet calling the big lake the “Sea of Tiberias.” But later it became known by the official Roman name, which John gives so that his readers in Ephesus (western Turkey) will have an idea that this was not one of the little seas like the Aegean and the Ionian that border the big Mediterranean Sea. Jesus never went very far outside Israel during his ministry.
Since John tells us that once again a Passover was coming, this now the third year of Jesus’ ministry. The first of the four Passovers in John (April, 27 AD) was recorded in John 2:13. The second (April, 28 AD) was in John 5:1. This is the third (April, 29 AD). The fourth will be the Passover of Holy Week, April 30 AD (chapters 13-20).
At this point we could mention the things that John passed over which his readers would know from the other Gospels: the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calming the storm, the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead, and the mission trip of the twelve apostles. Now, John relates this famous miracle near the town of Bethsaida. Although each of the other Gospels also present this story, John focuses his attention on some of the difficulties that followed the Feeding of the Five Thousand, when many of his disciples gave up and stopped following him.
Jesus and a large group of disciples sat down on a mountainside overlooking the lake. The modern name for his place is the Golan Heights. The lake lies a mile down below the top of the heights, and clefts in the mountains create fantastic atmospheric violence over the lake. The sudden storms can catch even the most experienced sailors off guard.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. (NIV)
Jesus asked Philip about buying bread because he was from Bethsaida (John 1:44), a nearby town on this northeastern side of the lake. The test for Philip was this: Do you trust Jesus, or do you trust the grocery store? Jesus, John tells us, “already had in mind what he was going to do.”
In the wilderness, Jesus with the Father and the Holy Spirit had provided bread (manna) for two million Israelites every day for forty years. To God, whose very thoughts are the truth and whose very words have the power to accomplish anything at all (Let there be light!), even that miracle of manna was a simple thing. What would one more day of heavenly bread be to God?
Jesus teaches us to trust in him for our earthly needs, and more than that, to trust in him for our eternal needs, too. The one who gives us our daily bread is the same one who gives us the eternal bread of faith.
Give us today our daily bread.
Something Extra:
Psalm 37:16-19
ט (Teth)
16 Better the little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked;
17 for the power of the wicked will be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous. (NIV)
The ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, teth, is the letter that begins tōv, “good, better.” It’s the word God used each day of the creation when he saw his handiwork, seeing that it was tōv, “good” (Genesis 1:9, etc.). Here the thing that is tōv is the “little that the righteous have,” better than anything—wealth, poverty, or other—that the wicked have. Nothing matters at all, nothing is tōv, if we are not on God’s side.
י (Yodh)
18 The days of the blameless are known to the LORD,
and their inheritance will endure forever.
19 In times of disaster they will not wither;
in days of famine they will enjoy plenty. (NIV)
The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is “the smallest letter” that Jesus spoke of (Matthew 5:18), the little letter yodh. It’s the letter that begins yōdeaʻ, “he knows.” There is comfort in the promise that Gods knows. God knows—of course—our sinful thoughts and our rebellious desires. He knows about all of our bitterness and our frustration and our covetous cravings. He knows how far we have collapsed in our sins. But he also knows our faith; he’s the one who gave it to us.
My youngest son Eric has a birthmark on his wrist. It’s very distinctive. It’s not at all disfiguring or unattractive, in fact in an age of tattoos and other marks, it’s pretty cool—but it can’t be removed or washed away. Like the faith he received at his baptism, Eric’s birthmark is a part of him; it will be there his whole life. And just as God knows all about that cool gift on Eric’s arm (God gave him that, too) he also knows all about that wonderful faith he put in Eric’s heart. If Eric went to a party where you had to have a birthmark to get in, he wouldn’t have to go and find one. He wouldn’t have to go and pay for one. He wouldn’t have to beg, borrow or steal one—he’s got one that’s all his, and only his. And the same thing is true of his faith. Eric didn’t have to work for his faith, or beg, borrow or steal it. It’s his, and God knows it.
God knows about yours, too. It’s what makes you righteous. Righteousness isn’t about what you’ve done, it’s about what Jesus has done for you. Trust him. His tōv is your tōv, and he knows it.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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