Fourth Sunday in Lent (2025)
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John 6:1-15
John 6:1-15
My Brothers and Sisters in CHrist, we have in our Gospel Lesson this morning Jesus feeding the 5000. In our Gospel Lesson today, Jesus shows great compassion and love for a crowd that has followed him into the wilderness after witnessing the miracles that he performed. He had withdrawn here to instruct His disciples but the crowds followed and who amongst can blame them for there is the messiah, performing miracles and healing the sick who wouldn’t want to be there? There is much that Christ teaches His disciples in this feeding and is revealed to us about Christ’s Kingdom and the plan that He has to save the world.
God’s Providence
The Crowds saw the miracles.
They knew that Jesus had the ability to heal the sick and the word of Jesus was spreading throughout the region and people were flocking to see him and receive these wonderful blessings that were coming from the Lord. Who can blame them?
How important is healing?
Even today how far will we travel and what lengths are we willing to endure to be healed of an affliction or to save someone we love from illness and disease? If Jesus was in your region would you set aside everything you were doing for the day. The Bible tells us something important, when this is going on.
This happens at Passover.
Now Passover is an important day for the Jewish people when God set them free from the land of Egypt and they were to observe that dya throughout their history and remember what God had done for them in their rescue. Instead of going to Jerusalem they were here with Jesus.
The Word Made Flesh
Jesus chastised the Pharisees.
He did this quite frequently, but he had just done it in the previous chapter, and told them that they didn’t understand what the Scriptures were about. The prophets hadn’t been point out how to gain eternal life, they were pointing to the coming messiah. They had focused so much as the gift that they wanted, eternal life, and neglected the Messiah entirely and reshaped Him into something else.
The Father sent Jesus to save us.
Not to save the Jews from Rome, or any earthly nation, nor to establish an earthly nation, but to establish a kingdom that would never end, and that He would rule for all eternity and in order to accomplish that, He wouldn’t be a king like they were used too, but one who would redeem us.
The people didn’t understand.
This is a recurring theme not just with the Israelites, but with the disciples as well as they had in mind a particular Messiah, that the Christ should conform to worldly expectations and not to the Word that God spoken through the prophets.
Bread for the Body
They wanted to satisfy their bellies.
This is found out the next day, for after feeding the 5000 Jesus goes up to pray by himself and escapes their desires to make him king. For just as things are today, things were back then, people want to make sure they have enough, clothes on their backs, food in their belly, and relief from health and sickness. In the Lord’s prayer, we sum all of these things up as our daily bread in the 4th petition. The problem is
The bread of this world perishes.
We fill our stomachs, but they are empty again, the clothes we have wear out, and health may get better for a time, but it inevitably gets worse again and flus and colds plague us in this broken world. So
The next day they sought him.
When they heard he was on the other side of the sea, they traveled around it to go and find him. Jesus points out that they are seeking him not because they saw the signs that He is the messiah, but because they are looking for more food. Because the bread of this world perishes, but there is other food that Jesus has to offer, that is the
The Bread of Life
This bread endures forever.
Of course they want this bread, for who wouldn’t want an endless supply of bread or food, how much of our money is spent on things that perish, but if you could secure something that lasts forever. Well that’s pretty sweet. But then Jesus tells them something that doesn’t fit,
The bread is His body.
For Jesus says, I am the Bread of Life, and he reiterates it, I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. They argue amongst themselves about this, because this sounds insane, and He says again, Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.
Now this is a hard saying for the Jews who had restrictions from the Old Testament, and human flesh is not considered good food, and the consumption of blood is straight out. So
Many that day left him.
They liked the bread of this world that htey could eat without fear, but the living bread, the true bread that Christ had come to give, was too much and so they departed from him, even though they had watched him the day before feed 5000 people because they couldn’t handle His teaching.
What does this mean?
Christ came to give us spiritual blessings.
The miracles that Jesus performed, the walking on water, the feeding of the 5000, the healing of the sick, and the raising of the dead who then died again were to show us who the Messiah is. for Miracle accompanied the men of God in the Old Testament that the people might know who brought God’s Word. Even though Jesus was an endless font of miracles, it wasn’t enough. Because
Hearts seeking only earthly treasures don’t seek Jesus.
You cannot serve both God and Mammon, if your heart is set on the things of this world, then you will be not satisfied with the spiritual blessing Christ gives of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. We do not wish to make the same mistake that these people did in seeking an earthly king. Remember,
Jesus has been crowned for you.
His Kingdom is not of this world, it is not one that is just about the temporal affairs that wear out, but is about the treasures of heaven being given to you that you might dwell in God’s presence for all eternity. If Jesus came to establish only an earthly kingdom, then He would not have freed us from the true affliction that weighs upon all of mankind. Jesus came to free you from sin. Let us rather rejoice in this gift that Christ has given us in His body and blood in the Sacrament.
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, The feeding of the 5000 is a wonderful miracle and the gathering of the 12 baskets shows that Christ has come to gather in all the remnants of Israel and bring them to himself, but let us remember that His Kingdom is not just about filling our stomachs with bread, and giving us good health in this life. By these signs we know that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God, but let us always seek the true gifts that Christ came to give, His Body and His Blood which are found in, with, and under the bread and the wine in the Lord’s Supper that we might receive the fruits of His Cross. In Jesus name. Amen.
