Day 6 – Katie

Summary of Chapter 6

Verses 1-15: Jesus’ ministry continues and word begins to spread around the people that the man they thought was Joseph’s son was doing wonderful things. People become fixated with Jesus for His miracles and signs and trek miles to see more. Visited day after day by crowds, Jesus continues to show love and patience, even after retreating to a hillside and being followed yet again. Jesus instantly thinks of the crowd’s needs when he sees them approaching and asks the disciples to feed the hungry bunch. A panic-stricken group of disciples explain to Jesus that it would take eight month’s wages to feed them all. But Jesus has a plan, doing what we deem the impossible. He takes a young boy’s five small barley loaves and two small fish, PRAYS and the distribution begins! When all have eaten Jesus asks for all the left overs to be gathered and the disciples fill 12 baskets. People marvelled at Jesus with the wrong attitude in their hearts of making Him stay and become King but He knows there’s many more to tell of repentance and He moves on.

Verses 16-24: Here we have the privileged insight into that which was shown to the disciples alone. The disciples board a boat and head for Capernaum without Jesus, but with the assurance he won’t be far behind. When they had rowed three and a half miles they saw Jesus walking towards them on the water and they were scared. He calmed them, climbed aboard and immediately the boat reached the shore.

Verses 25-59: A teaching many seem to find hard to follow. Stuck with the perception of the people that He is nothing more than a man, the son of Mary and Joseph, Jesus seeks to explain otherwise to the crowds who have followed Him to Capernaum.

“You are a nation fixated with miracles and signs, desiring more because you ate the fill of the loaves I gave you yesterday. But you miss the point I bring bread that will last forever, you’ll never hunger if you only believe.”

The crowds persist as this is something they want. Jesus explains further and foretells His death, how He is the Bread of life who will give up his body so that the hungry may be satisfied, that the lost may be saved from their sin and saved for eternity. The people grumble that Jesus would have the audacity to claim that He is the Saviour and find the concept to hard to accept. But Jesus continues

“he who feeds on the bread I offer will live forever.”

Verses 60-71: At this teaching many people turn away able to see the signs and miracles, but unable to see the son of God, unable to accept a teaching they believe offends. They return to their old lives unchanged in many ways but with a harder heart. Jesus turns to the disciples and says “will you leave now too?” “How could we” Simon Peter replies “you have the words of eternal life, you are the Holy one of God.” Jesus explains that while he picked the twelve one would turn away unchanged by witnessing all that Jesus is.

Key Thoughts from Chapter 6

• Jesus is a wonderful Saviour who meets both the spiritual needs and the physical. He saw the crowds, knew their hunger and filled their bellies before He proclaimed the biggest, best message they would ever hear! If we know Jesus Christ as our own personal Saviour we can rejoice that He sees our physical need too and meets it.

• While Jesus performs the miraculous, while he astounds the crowds and surprises the disciples, He is not just about those things – He is much, much more. His miracles and signs support who He says He is, but are not the only reason to believe, or the only contact we desire from Him. He is the Son of God, the one sacrifice sent for us all, that is what we should see first and foremost. He clearly points this out in this passage when the crowd asks for another sign to believe, He says ‘I am the sign, believe’. Are we a people fixated with miracles and signs to the point we miss the simple fact of belief in the one who came, lived a perfect life and then died for each of us on the cross? Jesus is worthy to believe in without all of the others things even though he knows humanity and sometimes works in those ways. What is our faith fixed upon?

• Will we be like the many people in the crowds who declare the message is too much, too confusing, too different to believe; or will we be like eleven of the disciples who say, ‘we see you Jesus, you are the Son of God, there to save us and we will follow you until the end, even if others say it’s too hard to believe’

Prayers from Chapter 6

God we praise and thank you that you, the Author of creation, the One who flung the stars into space and moulded and shaped this world, would even be interested in us. Not to a small degree but to the point that you knitted us together in our mother’s womb, you thought of us before we were born and you created a rescue plan for our lost hearts. And so we thank you that you would loved us first and send your Son to die for us. And we pray that we would not be a people fixated on miracles and signs but a people that praise you for them, and see you, the Son above all as the one who died for us.

Amen