John 6:1-4 1After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, that is, Tiberias. 2And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3And Jesus went up on the mountain, and he sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover was near, the feast of the Jews.
The next story is one of the best known of Jesus’ miracles and is found in all four Gospels. John focuses mostly on Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem and Judea. This is one of the few accounts of his ministry in Galilee. These verses give the setting of the story that John recounts. His version is similar to the Synoptic accounts but has some additional details not found there. If the Apostle John was indeed the author of this book, then he was an eyewitness to this miracle and many others recorded in the book. He watched as Philip brought forth the boy with the lunch and participated firsthand in collecting the leftovers. Since John puts this significant miracle into his account of Jesus, we can wonder what his purpose was. His account has several unique emphases that appear along the way and in the overall context of this chapter.
The chapter begins with Jesus leaving Jerusalem and returning to Galilee. After this is a rather generic transition that does not indicate any specific time or how long it took to get back to the Sea of Galilee. John leaves out the teaching and miracles Jesus did along the way. His purpose was not to give every detail of Jesus’ ministry, which would fill up the world’s biggest library (see 21:25). John gives the Roman name for the lake as the Sea of Tiberias. Around the year AD 20, Herod Antipas built a city along the west shore in honor of Caesar Tiberius. The lake then gook on that name as well. By the time John wrote his account, the name had stuck enough that his readers might need the reference to know what body of water it was.
Verse 2 introduces one of the “characters” of the story with the large crowd. The reason so many people followed Jesus was become of the miracles he did. He was the latest attraction. No one had ever seen anything like what he could do. The unstated question that is more apparent in the Synoptic accounts is their lack of full understanding and commitment to be Jesus’ disciples. Mark 6:33-34 states that they were like sheep without a shepherd, lacking clear purpose and direction. Jesus did two primary ministries: healing and teaching. John records both in his Gospel.
The lens of the camera focuses in next on Jesus and his disciples. With so many people following him, it was a great opportunity to teach his disciples an important lesson about believing in him. The specific hill or mountain along the lake is not given. Everything Jesus did was on purpose and in accordance with the will of the Father. Sitting down would be a good posture for a conversation and teaching time. John was not interested in the details of the conversation but in what took place next.
Verse 4 gives an important time indicator that this was near the time for the annual Passover feast. John mentions the Passover three times in his Gospel (2:13, 23; 11:55), and each one is important to the narrative context. The Passover was a significant time to remember how God saved the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and the last plague of death recorded in Exodus 12. One of the key elements of this feast was the eating of unleavened bread. Bread becomes symbolic in the rest of this chapter. Jesus uses the form of interpretation called typology where the Old Testament event becomes a type or example of his own ministry. Passover was one of the most significant holy days for Jews.
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