No Carb Diet

Times of the Signs  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Scripture

John 6:1–15 NRSV
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Introduction

Today we are looking at the fourth sign, a natural miracle similar to turning water into wine. Jesus creates a super abundance once again with 12 baskets left over of bread and fish after everyone has had their fill. We see once again, Jesus is the Son of God, he is the life giver. We will see Jesus as the ultimate life giver in a couple of weeks when he raises Lazarus from the dead.
The baskets were common to Jews because of their dietary laws, they always carried food with them. Since this was close to passover and folks were probably headed to Jerusalem this would have increased the size of the crowd, but certainly there would be plenty of baskets.
Now, no carb diet isn’t exactly true. Although the fish would be carb free, they would have been heavily salted to preserve them (in fact Galilee was famous all over the Mediterranean world for their preserved fish) also they most likely would have been sardines the most plentiful fish, those barley loaves would have been loaded with carbs. Barely loaves, by the way, were the bread of the poorest of the poor. They would have been flat bread, like pita, and the 5 loaves and 2 fish would only have been enough for one meal for one person. The fish too, by the way, would have been stripped from the bones and made into a kind of relish for the bread to be dipped in.

Context

Context

Now that you can understand some of the cultural context of this story, let’s place it in the context of John’s Gospel. Last week Jesus healed the lame man at Bethesda on the Sabbath, This drew the ire of “the Jews” the religious authorities who were upset that Jesus had healed this man on the sabbath, then told the man to pick up his mat, also breaking the sabbath, then making himself equal to God. What we did not read last week was Jesus’ discourse to the Jews explaining his authority as the Son and the witness the scriptures and the Holy Spirit gives to him. He sums up his opinion of the lack of understanding of the Jews like this
John 5:45–47 NRSV
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
John 5:45-47
last week Jesus healed the lame man at Bethesda on the Sabbath, This drew the ire of “the Jews” the religious authorities who were upset that Jesus had healed this man on the sabbath, then told the man to pick up his mat, also breaking the sabbath, then making himself equal to God.
It is interesting John ends this unit with Jesus talking about Moses. It is interesting because the miracle that follows and the people declare
John 6
John 6:14 NRSV
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
Here’s why
Deut
Deuteronomy 18:15 NRSV
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.
The prophet who is to come into the world was prophesied by Moses.
These are Moses’ words spoken to the people before they entered the Holy land. We shall see when we examine this text more closely that the symbolism of the passover and mana and Jesus words that come later after the miracle (that we did not read, but will) a greater one than Moses is here!
John is obviously making the point, or one of the points, to his Jewish Jesus believing audience that they have made the right choice of Jesus over Moses. This would be very reassuring to them. But we aren’t Jewish and we are not being persecuted by other people that don’t believe like we do. So what is this sign pointing to for us? Well let’s unpack these 15 verses, add a few more from what follows and see what we can discover.

Exegesis

After healing the lame man Jesus goes to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. There is a lot of conjecture of why John has to refer to it as Tiberias, but the fact is we have no idea why he might have done this. Jesus is attracting large crowds now because of his reputation as a miracle worker. A lot of people are following him because he provides entertainment. You may recall what he said before healing the royal officials son:
John 4:48 NRSV
Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
John 4
Many of these folks were following him for what he is doing, not who he is. The precise warning in . As we shall see it comes to a head after this miracle and many people stop following him.
Now here comes the Moses connection. He goes up on the mountain, probably the Mount of Beatitudes and the passover is near. He saw the crowd and knew they were hungry. So he will provide bread (mana) and fish (quail). Bread from heaven. Philip is challenged about what to do, and of course he looks at the situation through worldly eyes. He has seen the signs too but his perception is skewed. Andrew finds a boy who has 5 loaves and two fish.
So Jesus says to the disciples to have the people sit down, about 5,000 men. That would mean this crowd could have been as large at 15,000 with women and children.
What he does next is very Jewish, what the head of a Jewish household would have done before a meal, but it also has eucharistic imagery as well. He, 1. Took the bread, 2. Gave thanks for the bread (eucharisteo) 3. broke the bread 4. Distributed the bread. In the imagery of the one cup and one loaf all eat to their fill and Jesus says to gather up the fragments so that nothing will be lost. Once again we have Mosiac imagery here. Remember if an Israelite gathers more mana than needed it would be lost, it would rot!
When the folks saw this they thought he was the prophet that was predicted by Moses, the prophet that would be his replacement! So they then conspire to take him by force and make him king.
Now, I need to skip ahead a little to help in our interpretation of this passage. Jesus avoids the crowd that want to make him king by retreating the mountain by himself. When the evening arrived the disciples left without him to go back to Capernaum. Jesus then passes them walking on the water.
What happens after that we need to examine, verses 22-59. It is not too long after he arrives in Capernaum that the crowd catches up and they want breakfast! Jesus tells them that ya’ll are seeking me because I fed you not because who I am. Jesus goes on to tell them not to work for bread that perishes, but for the food that endures for “eternal life” which the Son of man will give you.” They then ask for a sign to prove he is the Son! They then say it was Moses who gave our ancestors bread to eat and Jesus replies:
John 6:32–36 NRSV
Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
Jesus goes on to tell them that his flesh is bread and his blood is true drink. The crowd cannot handle this and they dwindle down to him and just the apostles. From this time forward this deep understanding by the crowds leads to a decrease in their number.

Application

Ok, we can see that John is making the case to his first century readers that Jesus is truly the Son of God and is greater than Moses. Moses bread didn’t last, Jesus bread is eternal. In fact he is the bread of eternal life. Truly comforting words to John’s readers who were being persecuted.
What bread are we eating? Where do we really find our sustenance? Do we really believe God can take the paltry and turn it into abundance, and extravagant abundance. One of the early church father commented on this miracle saying it should be a lesson to all of us to be bold in believing all things are possible with God. As we go through this process of selling, buying, moving and building there will be times when our faith will be tested like Philips. Cyril of Alexandria reminds us that all things are possible. When it looks like we don’t have the resources, that is the time to dine on the bread of eternal life. Another church father said, “Despite the disciples’ skepticism, the one who created the universe is surely able to create abundance from five loaves and two fish.”
It is our human condition that we always go to the negative. My favorite example of this is from Lee Iacocca (Pope story). Jesus is telling us not to dine on the negative bread that give no sustenance, but dine on him the bread that brings eternal life!
God still works miracles. We have just gotten dulled by all we see: space travel, we can land robots on Mars that do research and report back, we will have humans land there in my life time. We can transplant body parts even including faces! We will have self driving cars. We can operate on a beating heart. We can make synthetic diamonds, we can grow skin even organs, we have mapped DNA and defeated polio. Our phones don’t need wires for us to communicate or even charge their batteries.
Jesus is the bread of life, when those counterfeits are trying to deceive you with empty calories that do nothing but make you gain weight, mess up your cholesterol, and health. Go on a Jesus diet. Do not let the nattering nabobs of negativism get to you! You will hear them as we go through this process! You might already be hearing them!
We’ll never be able to afford it! They’re not telling us everything! We’re fine where we are! We’re too old! We have too much of this or too little of that! or in Philip’s words 200 denarii can’t feed these people. Well he was right about that, but Jesus could, and Jesus still can, and what we do is not about us it is about Jesus. Let us not be the crowd that just wanted a free breakfast lets us be like Peter who said:
John 6:67–69 NRSV
So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
John 6:67
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