Satisfied

– by Jeremiah Bolich –

 

Jesus spent the majority of His life in the northern portion of the land of Israel called Galilee.  This was familiar territory to Him.  Galilee was where he grew up, ministered, and called His disciples.  It was also the area where most of His followers lived.  As we will discover, Galilee was the location of His first miracle and is the place where He will first send His disciples after resurrecting from the dead.

 

As John tells it, the Galileans were consistent spectators of Jesus ministry. They witnessed his first miracle at a wedding in Cana, were persuaded to belief by His signs at the first Passover feast of His ministry in Jerusalem, witnessed the healing of a royal official’s son in Capernaum, and partook of the first of two feeding miracles in the Galilean countryside.  Galilee and its people were key components when retelling Jesus life and ministry.

 

By the time we enter chapter six of John’s Gospel, we see that Jesus’ Galilean followers have grown to about 5,000 in number.  They are an enthusiastic and highly motivated crowd, not to be detoured from following Jesus.  They have followed Him to the Galilean countryside, where upon witnessing the miraculous feeding, recognize Him as “the Prophet who is to come into the world.”  Jesus has convinced this crowd that He is the Messiah, the coming Christ, and as attested in verse 14, they fully intend to make Him their King.

 

It is precisely at this point, where the story takes a turn.  As we find in verse 14, Jesus perceives the crowd’s intent and flees from them to the mountain by Himself.  What will spill out in the remainder of the chapter is the crowd’s pursuit of Jesus, His address, and their response.  Below is an outline which will give insight and structure to the events which will unfold between Jesus and the 5,000 crowd throughout the remainder of this chapter.

 

John 6:1-71

vv1-15	Jesus Feeds the 5,000
vv16-21	Jesus Flees the 5,000
vv22-24	Jesus Found in Capernaum
vv25-59	Jesus Faces the Crowd
vv60-71	Jesus Forsaken by Many

 

Miraculous Signs

Throughout his Gospel, John refers to the supernatural events of Jesus not as miracles, but as “signs.”  Depending on your translation, you might read “miraculous signs” (NASB) or just “miracle” (NCV).  Regardless the translation, John uses specific grammar so that we would see Jesus’ miracles as more than just miraculous events, but as signs.  When John uses the word “sign,” he is using it in much the same way we might use it today.  Signs give direction, they point to something beyond themselves.  Just as we are not confused when seeing a stop sign, we should not be confused in seeing Jesus’ miracles.

 

Take for example Jesus’ first miracle, where during a wedding He turned water into wine.  The significance of the miracle is not in Jesus providing wine for a wedding party.  It is clear from the story the wedding guests already had their share of wine.  The miracle becomes a sign when you consider why Jesus chose the provisions used for the miracle.  An important question to ask is why Jesus put the water into ceremonial washing jars.  John records the details of Jesus’ directions in John 2:6-7

 

“Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washing, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  Jesus told the servants, ‘Fill the water jars with water.”

 

Jesus could have instructed the servants to fill water pots from the kitchen or even new, empty wine vats.  Why did Jesus specifically single out the ceremonial washing jars?

 

This is the sign!  It is a sign that God has fulfilled in Jesus the Old Covenant ritual for ceremonial cleansing.  We are no longer ceremonially clean through outward ceremonial acts, but only through the washing of the blood of Jesus.

 

The Feeding of the 5,000 Sign

As I look back at my life, I can say with absolute confidence, I was not an evil person.  I suppose there are such people living among us in our world, and some might have thought I was one of those, but I really was not.  Even at my worst, during my service in the USMC when I lived drunk and strung out on drugs, I was not evil.  I did not live with wicked intentions, seeking to destroy, pillage, rape and murder.  I wasn’t a pirate, just a young man in search of fulfillment.  Like every other human being on the planet, I had wants and needs, a desire to “fit in,” and a longing to know love.  Like so many others who live life deceived, I thought I could fulfill in my life what only Jesus can fulfill.

 

This is the great tragedy of our chapter.  The Answer to all problems and The Solution to all circumstances had finally come, but they only knew Him as Jesus the miracle worker.  He had lived among them for 2 years, healing their sicknesses and encouraging their hearts.  He spoke of hope for a future and a life that would never see death, a life which He would provide Himself.  He was without doubt, certainty of love, peace and fulfillment and He was once again miraculously meeting their need.  And then He was gone, fleeing the scene up the side of the mountain because of their unbelief.

 

After Jesus departs from the crowd, He joins with his disciples on the Sea of Galilee headed to Capernaum.  The next day the crowd discovers that Jesus had indeed gone away and, upon the arrival of boats from Tiberias, leaves the countryside and travels to Capernaum.  Once arriving in the city, the crowd finds Jesus teaching in the synagogue and asks Him, “Teacher, when did you come here?”  Jesus replies, “I tell you the solemn truth, you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate all the loaves of bread you wanted.”  The NIV translation reveals further this important statement by Jesus.  In the last part of verse 26, Jesus tells the crowd that their motivation in seeking Him was because “…you ate the loaves and had your fill.”

 

The Crowd, bent and salivating over a meal, are blind to the real meaning of Jesus’ works.  He has come not as a steppingstone to a meal, but to be the meal itself.  God is doing a new thing and signs of it are present in the hands of Jesus.  He has come to meet every need, because every need finds its fulfillment in Him.  Therefore, the sign the crowd misses is Jesus Himself and they have overlooked, ironically enough, that which they desired most.  In short, the crowd finds themselves satisfied with something other than Jesus.

 

Satisfied

Reflecting on this story, it is not hard to see how similar this crowd is with many who sit in church today.  Christianity seems to be trending toward socially acceptable and politically correct behavior, rather than radical dependance upon and intimacy with the person of Jesus Christ.  Just like the 5,000 crowd, we too seem to get distracted and even satisfied with “things.”

 

The Good News that Jesus brings to the 5,000 crowd is the same message we are bringing today: Jesus Himself is our salvation, He is the goal we are fixing our eyes upon.  As Jesus calls out to the crowd of His day, I too want to call out to you.  Fix your eyes on Jesus and don’t be satisfied with anything other than Him. •