John 6:1-15

New week, new month just ahead, and a new series begins!  Let’s go!

During October, we’re going to take a deep dive into just one chapter, John 6.  Which means a deep dive into Jesus.

John 6 contains the only one of Jesus’ miracles reported in all four Gospels, the Feeding of the 5000.  This is immediately followed by Jesus walking on the water.  Next comes the longest of Jesus’ sermons recorded by John, what we might call “The Bread Sermon.”

So John 6 opens with a leader leading a crowd of people into a remote location.  Sound familiar? Remote locations usually don’t have much to offer in the way of food.  The leader miraculously provides food for everyone?  Sound familiar?  There’s a lot of grumbling by the people?  Sound familiar?

Our chapter also has a miraculous water crossing (verses 16-24).  Sound familiar?

That’s right.  Just as John uses Genesis language throughout his Gospel (“In the beginning…”), chapter 6 is loaded with Exodus language and imagery.

In Exodus, Moses led God’s people Israel out of Egypt, into the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.  When there was no food, God through Moses provided manna (“the bread of heaven”) for them to eat.  And Moses led Israel through the Red Sea “on dry ground.” The people of Israel spend a lot of time grumbling, questioning, complaining, particularly about Moses’ leadership. And later, in the Book of Deuteronomy, God promises to give his people another prophet, another leader in the Moses-mold (see Deuteronomy 18:15, 18).

The Old Testament is constantly pointing beyond itself.  It isn’t that the Old Testament is “deficient,” more that it is a story awaiting its completion.

Moses indeed led Israel out of Egypt; but why is there a need for some kind of “new Moses”?  Until this “new Moses” comes, are we still in a kind of desert – or still in a kind of Egyptian slavery?

God gave his people manna in the desert.  Why are we still hungry – and what are we really hungry for?

The Bible is ultimately about Jesus.  Even when we are reading in the Old Testament, it is pointing us towards Jesus, preparing us for Jesus, focusing on the One in and through whom God is completing his redemptive, new-creation work.  Until we “get” Jesus, we don’t really “get” the Bible.

And of course: the real issue is not us “getting” Jesus.  It’s us being gotten by Jesus!

Consider spending time in John 6 during each day of October.  Slow down, take your time. If the chapter is like a museum, what pictures and images particularly grab you?  If it’s like a building, what do you notice about its structure and architecture?  If it’s like a fine meal, which parts do you savor and find delicious?  Which “tastes” strike you as strange, “spicy” or not-sure-I-like-this?