John 6:1-15
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
When Jesus sees the great multitude of five thousand men in the wilderness, He asks His disciple, Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” The evangelist adds, “But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.” The word John uses, πειράζω, is also translated “to tempt.” How it’s understood depends upon who is doing the verb. If the devil is doing this, then it’s understood to be temptation. When the Devil approaches Jesus in the wilderness, he does to tempt Jesus to sin, to tempt Him to forsake His identity as God’s Son and live for Himself. When Satan approaches any of Christ’s Christians, he does the same. He tempts us to false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. The devil tempts because he wants to destroy our faith by doubt, disbelief, and willful sinning.
But this isn’t what Christ has in mind when He asked Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Christ does not want to introduce doubt and disbelief in His promises and power. James writes in his epistle, “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (Jam 1:13). When someone is tempted he is tempted to sin, to disbelieve God’s Word, and to trust in himself and follow his own desires. God never tempts anyone to sin, to doubt Him, or to disbelieve His Word, for He is not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor does any evil dwell with Him (Psalm 5:4). When God is doing this verb, He is testing one’s faith, exercising it by giving it a specific opportunity to look to Him to save. Through this exercise He wants to prove Philip’s faith, strengthen it, and purify it from vain imaginations and false beliefs about His power to save to and His desire to do so. Through this exercise, Jesus wants Philip to use his God-given faith to trust in Him, that although he can’t see a way out of this problem, he might believe all the more firmly and confidently that Jesus already knows what He is going to do, how and when He is going to save.
When Jesus asked, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat,” Jesus was looking for faith. His question wasn’t all that different from what He asked the prophet Ezekiel when He showed him a valley of dry, lifeless bones. He asked, “Son of man, can these bones live?” The prophet answered in faith, ““O Lord GOD, You know” (Ez 37:3). Ezekiel saw a situation that we beyond human power, strength, and will, but nevertheless, a situation over which the Lord God had perfect power. Philip looks out upon a situation that was also beyond human power, strength, and will, but only saw human inadequacy. “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little,” he answers. His eyes can only see their lack and the huge sums it would take to accomplish this feat. Andrew offers lamely, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” Andrew sees what they do have at their disposal, which is incredibly small and inadequate compared to the number of mouths they must feed. It is only at the moment when they realize their inadequacy that Jesus acts. For when we have nothing, Jesus has all He needs. Their faith tested, Jesus shows them precisely what He already knew He would do, so that their faith in His ability to save in any situation might be strengthened.
This was written for our learning, as all the Scriptures are. Christ allows us to fall into impossible situations. Often, He leads us into scenarios in which we realize our own resources are woefully inadequate compared to the magnitude of what is before us. Do you worry about the salvation of a member of your family? Does the worry arise in your mind, “What am I going to say to them this time to get through to them?” Jesus allows this to befall you to test you, because He already knows what is necessary in that situation. He wants you to learn all the more to trust Him to give you the right words, but even more so to teach you trust Him to act according to divine wisdom and mercy. Do you worry about how to make ends meet in your home, or about how you will continue to live on your income as the world becomes more unstable? Christ allows this come upon you test you, because He already knows exactly how He is going to provide for you today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life. He tests your faith to purify it from needless fretting about the future and to strengthen your confidence in His promise, “Therefore do not worry, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matt. 6:31-32). Do you see the decay of our culture, our society, and our institutions, then look at the size of Christ’s flock and think, “But what are they among so many?” These are only a few tests the Lord allows to come upon us to make us see our inadequacy and inability, and look in every test to Christ, who already knows precisely when and how He will act on behalf on His faithful people.
What does He say to Philip and the other disciples? “Make the people sit down.” He intends to teach about Himself, His person and His office, that is, who He is and what He has come do. He tests and teaches to strengthen the disciple’s faith so their hearts puff up with confidence at the thought of what their Lord is able to do for them. Jesus takes the five barley loves and “when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down, and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.” Jesus takes their lack and turns it into enough to feed all five thousand. And not just feed them, but satisfy their hunger, and not just satisfy their hunger, but satisfy it with so much that there enough leftovers to fill twelve baskets. That’s one for each disciple, so that as each one picked up bread and placed in into their basket, they would meditate on Jesus’ ability to turn five small barley loaves into all this.
He also shows them—and us—that while He will not use His divine power for His own benefit, He does use it for our benefit. He does today what He refused to do in the wilderness after fasting forty days. In Matthew 4 the devil tempts Jesus to turn stones into bread, to use His divine power to serve Himself. Jesus refuses because “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). He will not turn stones into bread to serve Himself. But He will multiply five barley loaves and two small fish to serve man. This is the sort of God we have in Christ Jesus. The point of the miracle is far greater than simply, “Jesus can bend the rules of nature and the laws of physics because “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). That is most certainly true. This passage does show us this. But it shows us so much more. How does He use His divine power? He uses it not for Himself but for man, just as He will do by suffering on the cross and dying, not for His own sake to be the “propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2), so that all who believe in Him may have forgiveness, new life, and eternal salvation. He teaches them not only that He is able to provide for the needs of man but that that is the reason why He has come. He teaches Philip—and all whom He tests—that “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).
In the moment of our testing, whatever it may be, Christ has no concern for what is lacking in the situation. He sees no improbability. He knows no impossibility. He desires to strengthen your faith by these moments so that you understand, by faith, not experience or hypothesis, that God is able to do all things. More than that, He wants to gently teach you once again that He will give aid, that He desires to deliver, and that He wants to give good things to those who place their trust in Him. He wants to purify our faith by removing from it the dross of doubt. He wants to strengthen our faith so that it is not a flabby faith, but a lively and active faith which boldly trusts God the Father for all good things, even in the worst of situations. He wants His disciples to rejoice in their adversities because they are opportunities for Him to fortify our faith so that it does not fail. In the moment of testing He desires that you turn to His Word and cling to that Word with all your heart, that His promise is not only true but that it is true for you. He wants you trust all the more firmly not only that God is gracious, but that He is gracious to you in Christ Jesus. This is what Christ seeks to teach Philip, Andrew, and all His disciples as they look out on the impossibilities and hardships of life and says, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
