It is not possible to be an uncommitted follower of Jesus Christ.  Either you are for him or you are against him (Luke 11:23).  There is no middle ground.  Jesus has just proclaimed to be a suffering Messiah who would die on behalf of his people.  Though the crowd might not have understood everything that Jesus was saying, they understood well enough to get mad and leave.

Jesus is now speaking to his closest followers of all, both the twelve disciples and others who have been faithfully learning from him.  He presents them with a decision that they must make: they may either follow him without doubting him at all, or leave him altogether.  Most choose to leave.

Jesus could see into the hearts of his hearers, and he knew that they did not like what he had to say.  His words had been offensive to many of them, but if they were offended by this, they would certainly be much more offended by his upcoming death and resurrection.  To them, it would seem like his ultimate defeat, though we understand that is is his greatest victory.

The difference between those who do not believe and those who do is the work of the Holy Spirit.  He is the one that “gives life” (John 6:63) and the one that causes people to come to the Father (John 6:65).  He is the one who enables men to lift their eyes up from earthly things to the heavens, so that they are able to understand God and what he requires of them.

Jesus turns to the most faithful of the faithful, the twelve disciples, and he asks them if they will leave as well.  The words that Peter gives in response are the true confession of all Christians everywhere, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69).  He is God Almighty, the giver of life, the redeemer of his people.

Of course, Jesus knew that Peter was exaggerating a bit when he said “we have believed, and have come to know.”  Not all of the twelve truly believed and had truly come to know that Jesus is the God who is to be worshiped and adored.  A traitor was in their midst.

Last week we said that Jesus’ popularity was going to diminish quite a bit in northern Israel due to the events in chapter six.  Some of the crowd left him after he refused to be their king and departed and went up on a mountain.  Nonetheless, some of the crowd still tried to find him; though they seem to be in a bad mood at this point.  Jesus would get rid of almost all of them as well by the end of this chapter, alienating himself from all but his most devoted followers.

Jesus condemns the people seeking him as soon as they find him.  He accuses them of being interested only in receiving a free lunch, not in having eternal life in him.  Their inability to understand spiritual things is made evident by their first question, “What must we do?”  They were unable to understand that eternal life is a gift (John 6:27), not something men earn by doing good things.

Jesus says that feasting on the “bread of life” that he gives is nothing less than delighting oneself in him.  He is the one that satisfies spiritual hunger.  He will surely satisfy the hunger of those whom the Father has given to him.  These people will never slip out of his hand, and he will surely save them and resurrect them from the dead.  Their gaze will always be fixed on him.

The Jews grumble all the more, because Jesus claims to have come from heaven.  Jesus redirects them from their grumbling to the truth of God he is giving to them.  Their desire to “do” things to merit God’s favor is entirely wrong.  Salvation can only come from God, as a gift, since the Father draws men to Jesus.  People do not come by their own volition.  Furthermore, he is the only pathway to get to the Father.  It is only by belief in him and his crucifixion in the “flesh” that people may have eternal life.

Jesus’ words about his “flesh” cause the Jews to grumble all the more.  Jesus keeps going, telling the crowd that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood if they are to have eternal life.  That is to say, his body will soon be nailed to a cross and he will shed his blood on behalf of sinners.  Just as bread is fundamental to physical life, so is Jesus’ death fundamental to spiritual life. Those who depend on the “bread of life” that he offers will never die.

These two miracles are recorded by John to be signs pointing to Jesus’ greatness.  We know that Jesus is the Lord of All, since he is able to provide for his people and control all of nature.

Throughout the Bible, food is often regarded as a blessing from God.  For example, Solomon says, “I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful” (Eccl 8:15).  Whenever we eat, we should be reminded that he provided all of our needs, even those that many would take for granted, like the gift of food.

So, when we look at this familiar story about Jesus feeding the five-thousand, we should remember that he is the one that blesses in abundance.  He has previously changed water into wine, now he changes a few bits of food into enough to feed a multitude.  He does both of these miracles to announce that the great expected king has arrived, the Messiah has come.

This is a high point in Jesus’ ministry.  The crowds (most of whom are more interested in a free lunch than anything else) believe that he is the great prophet (Deut 18:15).  Fueled by nationalistic fervor, they are prepared to carry him on their shoulders to Jerusalem and pronounce him to be their king in defiance of their Roman overlords.  Jesus rejects this earthly kingdom.  Ironically, the crowds are prepared to make him king, yet on their own terms, and they fail to inherit the kingdom he offers to them.

The second miracle displays Jesus’ control over nature.  He may have rejected the earthly kingdom that the Jews offered to him, but he was and still is the king of the whole universe controlling even the wind and the sea.  Though the storm was raging and the darkness setting in on the disciples in their little boat, Jesus came walking across the water and calmed the sea, transporting them safely to the shore.

Through these two miracles, we should realize that Jesus is able to provide for all of our needs.  There is nothing that he is unable to provide, there is no problem he is not able to solve.  He is our provider and our protector through all of life’s troubles, and he will bless us in abundance both in this life and in the life to come.

John’s purpose in this passage of scripture is to convince us that Jesus is the Son of God, is himself God, and therefore equal to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in power and glory.  Jesus is fully and completely God. We should believe that Jesus must be God, since he does the things that only God can do, he judges men as only God can judge, and reliable witnesses reveal to us that he is God.

Jesus infuriated the Jewish leaders by saying “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17).  One the one hand, Jesus makes a distinction between himself and God the Father.  One is the Father, the other the Son.  On the other hand, it is also true that they are both God.  God the Father ceased his work of creating on the sixth day, but this does not mean that he ceased working altogether.  He always works by sustaining the universe by his power.  Without him the entire universe would cease to be (Acts 17:28).  God the Son shares in this work, for if the Son quit working everything would disappear.  This makes him equal with God the Father.  Indeed, Jesus cannot act in independence from God the Father.  He can only do the things he sees his Father doing, and whatever the Father does the Son does also.  Jesus is saying, in effect, “Whenever you see God do anything, I am also doing it.”

Jesus had already said enough to make the Jews mad with him, but he goes much farther.  He claims to be the perfect and righteous judge of all mankind.  The Old Testament taught that God is the one that raises people from the dead and gives them live (Deut 32:29; 1 Sam 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7) and the one who judges their sins (Gen 18:25; Judges 11:27; 1 Sam 2:10; Psalm 67:4).  Jesus claims to be the judge and the one who gives spiritual life.  He is the one who will raise their bodies from the dead as well. Eternal life is given only to those who trust in him, not to those who reject his deity like the Jewish leaders who were standing before him.

Finally, Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that God has sent them reliable witnesses concerning him.  In Jewish courts, there always had to be two or three witnesses concerning any matter (Deut 19:15).  Thus Jesus invites the Jewish leaders to an imaginary courtroom in which several witnesses testify to his deity.  God the Father has testified by sending John the Baptist and by giving men the Old Testament, which speaks of Christ.  John the Baptist also testified about Jesus’ deity, calling people to believe in Jesus.  Jesus’ own works testify to his deity, since he displays the power of God as he works miracles.  Scripture testifies to him, by pointing people to him.  Last, Moses testified to him, and if the Jews had really known anything at all about Moses, they would have accepted him as the Messiah.