John 6:1-21
Letting Jesus in the Boat
James Sledge July
29, 2018
The Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. The word Lord
doesn’t actually appear in the 23rd psalm, but most English
translations continue a Jewish practice that replaces the personal name of God
with “Lord.” Many Bibles print it in all capitals to alert you to this.
Jesus said, "Make the people sit down."
Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down… Translated
literally, Jesus said, “Make the people lie down,” and they
lie down in the grass, in green pastures. Once I saw that, I couldn’t help but
hear echoes of the 23rd psalm. And those aren’t the only echoes here.
John’s
gospel has no Last Supper, but here, at Passover, Jesus took the loaves, and when
he had given thanks, he distributed them… Jesus also distributes fish
which was often part of communion in the early church. The first readers of
John’s gospel surely saw their own celebration of the Lord’s Supper reflected
in this story.
Jesus
says, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost."
When God had Moses feed the people of Israel with manna in the wilderness, no
leftovers could be gathered. But here the leftover bread, manna, fills twelve
baskets.
John’s
gospel is quite different from the so-called synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. Those three gospels present a very human looking Jesus, but John goes
to great lengths to present Jesus as fully divine. Jesus is the Word, the logos
of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.
In
John, Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the Good Shepherd, the bread of life, the
resurrection and the life, God. But the crowd doesn’t get that. They think him
a prophet and want to make him king, so Jesus withdraws to the mountain. The
gospel doesn’t say how he manages this without the crowd following, but he is
God in the flesh, after all.
Once
they realize Jesus is gone, the crowd disperses and heads home, leaving only the
disciples. As darkness approaches, they make their way to the boat and head for
Capernaum, for home. Says the gospel, It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come
to them.
Does
that strike you as at all odd? Jesus hasn’t come to them yet, hasn’t gotten
there yet, but the disciples head out without him. What’s that about?