NOTES for Joh 6:5-14
5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? |
6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. |
7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. |
8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, |
9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? |
10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. |
11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. |
12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. |
13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. |
14 Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. |
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Jesus clearly uses every opportunity to show the people listening to Him what the Kingdom is. And often these opportunities are connected with a meal, with food, with being fed. To some of us today, such manifestations of the Kingdom may appear "low" and "unspiritual." But it is important to remember that in those days a meal was never simply the consumption of food. It always began with the blessing of bread, and if there was wine on the table, of the wine as well. No one sat down at the table without such a blessing. And with this approach every meal became sacred, because God Himself was always invited to take part in it. And the breaking of bread, if there was bread on the table, was also an essential part of it, since bread, like wine, was in any case blessed separately. With this attitude toward the meal, it became a form of communion with God in which all who had gathered at the table took part.
And Jesus, as we see, uses this in order to bring His listeners into communion with the Kingdom, to show them what new life in the renewed world can be. Of course, the people sitting on the ground in expectation of the meal knew perfectly well how bread and wine were blessed. But they hardly expected the blessing to have such an effect. And the effect was plain: the food, which had seemed to be very little, was enough for everyone.
Such is the nature of the Kingdom, where matter is completely subject to spirit. Jesus' listeners began their meal in our world, not yet transformed, according to its laws, and finished it in the Kingdom, according to the laws of the Kingdom. There could have been no better testimony: after all, it is always better to see once than to hear a hundred times, and this applies to the Kingdom more than to anything else. Of course, the people listening to Jesus did not fully understand what had happened. But they received the experience of being in the Kingdom, and such an experience is not forgotten.
Readings for 17 April 2026
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