John – Chapter 6:16-25
Excursus on signs and teaching – The feeding of the five thousand (6:1-15) precedes and introduces the Bread of Life discourse (6:26-58). This is not the narrative moving from the concrete and real to the metaphorical and spiritual. The feeding of the five thousand is concrete, real, but also preliminary, symbolic. Jesus will claim that He is Living Bread from heaven, the true Manna, and that whoever eats this Manna is gathered together into the new Israel and receives eternal life. This is just as concrete and real for us and received by us in the Lord’s Supper. This is shown to us in a few ways. First, the feeding of the five thousand is presented as a Passover meal (6:4) and Christ of the Supper is our Passover. Second, the feeding is a “sign,” pointing backward to the redemption from Egypt and forward to the passover of Jesus’ death. Third, Jesus is presented in John as the host of the meal, just as He is in the institution of the Lord’s Supper (Mt 26:26-30; Ml 14:22-26; Lk 22:17-20). Fourth, the scene is that of a banquet (see Psalm 78:19-20). Fifth, the terminology of the Lord’s Supper is used, i.e. “to take,” “to bless,” “to break,” and “to give.” Sixth, bread and fish are used in early Christian iconography of the Lord’s Supper. Seventh, the gathering of the fragments shows us how all are gathered into the body of Christ (see 1Cor 10:14-22; Eph 4:4-6). 6:16-19 “The sea was turbulent” – This story is also connected with the feeding of the five thousand in Matthew and Mark. Given the strong tradition of these stories being interrelated, the walking on water is to be read in the context of the Passover (6:4). The crossing of the Red Sea is associated with the Manna (see Psalm 78:13-25). In Exodus, these events are part of an interlocking narrative: Passover (Ex 12-13), Red Sea and pillars of fire/cloud (Ex 13-15), the manna from heaven (Ex 16), and the water from the rock (Ex 17). Darkness has overtaken the disciples; they are without Jesus; the sea is turbulent and treacherous, signs of chaos and disorder and judgment. See Psalm 104:5-9; 89:9-10; Job 26:12; Is 27:1; Ps 29:3-4,10-11; 77:16-19; Is 43:16; 51:10. Darkness was an aspect of that primordial chaos that God overcame at Creation (Gen 1:2-5) and again when He defeated…