“Who is this Jesus?”

Karen sloan 25/07/2021

Reading - John 6:1-21

The feeding of the five thousand is one of those stories that most people who have been in the church, even for 5 minutes would know.  I have a soft spot for it since my time in Israel with Nev and Marg some years ago.

There is of course a church to mark the location, near Capernaum, Jesus’ home town, a beautiful church, the floor inlaid with mosaics of loaves and fishes.

But there is also an area away from the church, on the banks of the Sea of Galilee for quiet meditation and prayer. It was earthy, and plain, but said so much to all of us about Jesus himself.  We stayed there for quite a while, in silence, before heading on our way. Not before buying a few things mind you, including this bowl…

All the gospels have a version of the story, with the details a little different in each. 

Why did we read John’s version today,  coming with the added bonus of Jesus walking on the water?  I think it has to do with John’s grand theme, rather than just a record of the story itself.

Remember that the gospel of John was written sometime during the last decade of the first century, nearly 70 years after the life of Jesus of Nazareth.  While we don’t really know the name of the author, by convention it is called John, we do know that the writer was a Jewish mystic. A mystic is someone who is deeply in tune with God, God’s way, God’s presence and God’s calling.   Because of this, the gospel contains lots of stories and writings that try to direct us to how his community, people in the first century, saw Jesus, but more importantly what Jesus’ relationship was to God. It is  regarded as the most spiritual and least factual of the gospels so understanding it on a purely factual level misses the point.

Rather John is the bigger picture gospel.  He points us to God through the words and actions of Jesus. Jesus becomes for John, the bread and water of life, the way, the truth and the light, all a short hand way of saying, see Jesus, there you will see God. In fact Jesus is called by many the ultimate mystic.

But I am getting ahead of myself.  For we only have the start of this journey. But keep in mind these stories are central to the picture of Jesus.

So there are a number of ways the feeding of the 5000 can be interpreted.

Firstly the feeding of the 5,000 can be seen as a supernatural event of bread being multiplied.  A straight forward miracle giving Jesus power over nature and therefore, power.

This understanding is difficult to hold in a modern world, with computers, technology, and the Hubble telescope. Many scholars of Johns gospel would agree.  For so much of the story reflects the Old Testament scriptures. Stories from the Hebrew prophets, from Exodus and Moses, trying to feed his people with heavenly bread called manna, and from Elisha and reference to the 12 tribes of Israel. John has added the story to his gospel to equate Jesus with Moses in particular, but also with the great prophets.  As Jack Spong concludes, the signs of Moses, are wrapped around Jesus and transcended by Jesus. 

New doors are being opened.

But this is not the only problem with a literal understanding of the story as a straight out miracle.  Jesus himself wasn’t to fussed on faith that came from just believing in the miraculous.

The Jesus in Johns account has very little sympathy for the crowds who follow because of the miracle or who want to make him King.  In the reading we hear him be dismissive of them. And throughout this gospel we find people being chastised by Jesus who believe only because of miracles and the amazing things he did,.  They have to be born again. Think Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman at the well.

So there is more to the story than meets the eye!

The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth.

Many, particularly on the left or progressive side of Christianity have interpreted the feeding of the 5,000 as a different type of miracle where people’s hearts rather than the bread has changed.  In this understanding Jesus is seen as a man of courage and compassion.  It is Jesus who transforms a frightened and hungry crowd into one where all are in and no one is left out.

So miracles need not be supernatural events, but rather the wonder and beauty of the life that surrounds us, the miracles of the everyday and the people who are transformed to follow the way of Jesus in the world.  Read my cover story on the back of the plan if you want to hear an everyday miracle!

But Rev Prof Bill Loader would suggest, that while this seems attractive, it reflects something that isn’t really there in the reading. Even if we wish it to be.

So where does that leave us.

Let’s look at  a third and final understanding, which links with what I talked about in the beginning.

As Bill says, John consistently takes stories from the tradition about Jesus and moulds them so that they now make statements about who Jesus is for us.  His understanding, to relate to Jesus is to relate to God. 

John has taken the miracle of the feeding much further, using it symbolically to point to Jesus and is in keeping with the aim of the whole gospel.  John’s gospel is about how Jesus and God are intertwined.  While he in the end short cuts his language so it seems that Jesus and God are one, we have to remember Jesus was a human being, a God infused human being  but a human being none the less.  One who travelled around the Sea of Galilee speaking, and teaching and eating with his followers, surrounded by dust and dirt. Like Nev and Marg and Cathie and I imagined when we sat near the lake all those years ago.

Whatever has been placed upon him in the centuries after his death, and there’s been a lot, Jesus himself, particularly in Johns gospel, dismisses faith that has to rely on miracles for it to grow. Instead his message is  about bringing life to people, to see in him the work of the father, of God and for that to transform them.  To change the way they saw each other, and how they saw God.  A radical, inclusive, loving and compassionate presence.

This message is emphasised by the walking on the water miracle that follows the feeding of the 5,000.  It’s almost like the disciples and the people don’t seem to get it and so it has to be reinforced by John.

The disciples see Jesus coming to them on the water, saying, I am, or it should say that, for that is the Greek translation,  I am.  Jesus was claiming the name of God.  I am the life of God.  I am the love of God.  Do not be afraid.

Not that Jesus is God, but that Jesus reveals the life and love of God.

I feel like he might have added, Have you got it now!

………..

Because that’s the thing isn’t it.

Is Jesus a pointer to God, to a deeper level of seeing and knowing God or some icon that we worship as a miracle worker?

Who is this Jesus for us? This is not an intellectual question but a heart question. A question of commitment.

As Frederick Buechner says, “Being a Christian is about living, participating in, being caught up by the way of life that Jesus embodied, that was his way.   Thus it’s possible to be on Christ’s way and with his mark upon you without ever having hear of Christ and for that reason to be on your way to God though maybe you don’t even believe in God.”

“A Christian is one who is on the way, though not necessarily very far along it and who has at least some dim and half-baked idea of whom to thank”

I love that, so I’m going to leave it there.

Amen