Sabbath evening’s sermon saw us continuing to look at the miracles worked by Christ recorded in the Gospel according to John. The fouth sign of the divinity of Christ was the feeding of the five thousand, this miracle is recorded in chapter 6.
We noted that everything leads us to focus attention on Christ. The vast multitude in their hunger, the fact they are in a wilderness place, the inability of the disciples to feed them, the wonderful multiplication of the small provision brought to Christ. The subsequent lengthy discourse by the Saviour showed what he desired men would recognise, namely, that He was the ‘Bread of life’.
Sad to say those men that found Christ on the other side of the lake failed to make a right use of the sign (John 6:25). They just treated it as a wonder but were not fully appreciating the Divinity of the one with whom they were conversing. ‘Rabbi’ they said ‘when camest thou hither?’ One commentator notes, ‘while the question hints at a new miracle, it comes from hearts that are eager only to see miracles and not to understand them aright.’ Jesus rebuked them in the memorable words, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.’ They needed to be directed to the true lesson they ought to have learned from the wonderful miracle, namely, that Jesus was the Divine Son of God, the promised Messiah.
We see that this miracle, and the subsequent interaction, gave a starting point for Christ to speak of Himself as the bread of life. The great question for ourselves is, ‘have we fed on Him by faith as that bread of life?’ Once again, as we have considered this further sign of the Son of God we are to remember the words of John 20:31 ‘But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.’
G B Macdonald
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