"These words are not to be misconstrued and made to refer to the Sacrament of the Altar; whoever so interprets them does violence to this Gospel text." -Luther on John 6
"Dude... what?" -me
Disclaimer, this is not me responding to Luther, I just couldn't think of a better title
Over the last few months, I have been pondering John 6 and what exactly it means, is it about Communion? The Word of God? Both? I feel that I have come to a satisfying conclusion to this matter, so I decided to put my thoughts here!
So, my conclusion is that this is about the Word of God, but not only the Word of God, but also about the Lord’s Supper, and Baptism! Now, you may say, “Isaiah, Baptism? How in the heck?” Well, we will get there in time!
Before we jump into John 6, let me give some context to this chapter which I think is very important. The first thing is about John's Gospel in general, and how it is that we are to read it. John’s Gospel, though still a narrative story, is very much a theological textbook. Much still goes on at the surface level, as in the retelling of events, but John beautifully weaves in much theology underneath the narrative. He does this in such a way that allows us to understand key doctrines very well and from a different way of presentation than if he were to just write them out plainly. For example, as we will see later in this text, John does not recount the Words of Institution, but rather, he lays out what the supper is in other ways throughout the entirety of the Gospel. Another thing that is important to mention is that John’s narrative is not always one that flows in order of events; rather, in such a way as to show and emphasize certain aspects of Christ and His earthly ministry, he omits certain details, and highlights others not present in the other three Gospels,
Next, we will be looking at John 5, starting at verse 24 to get some immediate context as to what occurred in the previous chapter. In this chapter 5 we hear Jesus saying,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
So, we see here from these words of Jesus, that He outlines Himself, what John 6 will be talking about, that being, the word of God. He plainly tells us that if we do not hear and believe His words, then we will come into judgment.
He tells them also,
“And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.”
Here He tells the Jews that they do not have the word abiding in them, because they do not believe in Him, Jesus. He continues by saying,
“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
Here He is outlining just how important it is to have faith in the scriptures, BUT, that you would truly believe them, and the one that truly believes what they say, will come to Jesus for eternal life. For we no life can be found in the words of scripture without Christ being the one who gives it by the Holy Spirit. So, to the Jews who rejected Christ, He is telling them that they have no true faith in the scriptures which they search. He also is saying this to the Jews who search the scriptures to see Laws by which they can perform to gain life, but the Law can give no life. It is similar to this scenario with a birthday card: you get a personal birthday card from the president of the United States or someone you greatly admire, it’s signed and has a sweet message to you, but then you don’t read the message, or who it’s from and you check the envelope to see if there is any cash in there. You are vainly searching the letter for a gift, without acknowledging the giver of the gift, which you would realize the letter is the gift if you did simply acknowledge it! The problem is that, while searching for the gift, the Jews are ignoring that Christ is the Gift and the Giver! He pours out His own Blood and allows His Body to be broken for you so that you may be fed! This Gift is for all the Saints! You could even take it a step further, in the message, the president tells you he will be personally visiting you, but then when he does, you aren’t home because you didn’t just read his message! So that, the Jews were not ready for Christ, because He was not the gift they were looking for!
He ends by telling them,
“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
Jesus is telling the Jews that, because Moses wrote of Him, they are not only rejecting Jesus but also Moses, which would have been a very hard thing for the Jews to hear. Then, Christ brings it back to the main point, His words by saying,
“But if you do not believe his [Moses'] writings, how will you believe My words?”
Thus, Christ is telling of the great importance and necessity to learn and obey all scripture, and that, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”
So, to conclude this section, Jesus is by no means telling them that no life is found in the scriptures, but rather no life is found in the Law, and that we must look to Christ for life, and all the gospel words throughout both the old and New Testament.
Alright, with that introduction out of the way, let’s begin with John 6! First, the chapter begins with the feeding of the five thousand. This to me is setting the stage for the rest of the chapter, as it is laying the foundation of faith as the key component. But faith in what, you may be asking; well, I would say that it is faith in the words of our Lord. This beginning to the chapter is saying that, “if you don’t have faith in the words from the Lord’s mouth, then you will not by any means understand the rest of this chapter!”
So, the disciples come to Christ in faith saying, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish,” thus showing the faith of the little child, to offer such a humble gift. Then, Christ blesses the fish and bread and passes it out to His disciples. His disciples, thus, had a faith in the words Christ said over the bread and fish. They then passed it out and amazingly, by the direction of Christ, gathered up 12 baskets full of leftovers! Now, interestingly enough, we see a recurring theme with many of the Jews, that they sought after “signs and wonders” but did not always listen to Christ’s words; and it was just so this time also, as Christ taught them all the while they were eating, but it was not His words that caused them to adore Him, but rather, the signs He performed among them.
Now before we move on to the next section, I would like to note something interesting that I discovered while looking into this text, and this ties into why this is about communion! So first of all, the feeding of the five thousand is a very clear and great image of the Lord’s Supper, as we take and eat of His body in faith, by the words said, and similarly His blood, so too did the disciples. But what is more, a very interesting thing to take note of here is the number of loaves of bread that this boy (or lad if you’re a KJV kinda guy) gave to Jesus. Five loaves! Remember that for later! Now, let's take a look at another story, back in 1 Samuel 21.
In this story, we see David, running from Saul, comes to a temple in Nob. He is hungry and asks Ahimelech for “five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.” Remember that number from before? Five loaves of bread! So, we see here, this bread given to David is a foreshadowing of this feeding of the five thousand, which in turn, is a foreshadowing of the Lord’s Supper! Sounds like a stretch. Maybe… but let's keep going, because this is no ordinary bread, this is the consecrated bread, the bread of presence! And the priest tells David, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.” What does this sound like to you? Closed communion perhaps? For we too, look inwardly that we may worthily eat of the Lord’s body and blood every time we approach the railings, we look and ask, “Am I committing adultery against God with false idols, that being, an unrepentant sin?” If the answer is no, like it was for David and his men, then we may partake in the meal!
It is also an interesting thing, that the bread is called, the bread of presence! The bread of presence was a symbol to the Israelites that God was present with them, and a hope to them that the Immanuel, “God with us” would one day come to save them and be truly present with them. We see that fulfilled in Christ, and now we eat of the bread of the TRUE presence every divine service! So that this bread of presence was once something that was done for God to give hope to the people, is now, with Christ having fulfilled the Law, given to us as a gift, no longer a shadow of the heavenly things, but rather, the very Thing of Heaven! Or rather, to use Christ's terms, no longer a shadow of the Heavenly things, BUT THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD! So, in the Old Testament, we see many promises in the form of prophecies, but then, through the Mosaic Law, we see the shadow of Heaven! We can see Christ in, with, and under these Laws and feast days! Then, He came into the world, no longer merely as a shadow, but rather as light, so that Earth might not be shadowed but rather but joined with Christ! We can see a few Eucharistic heresies condemned here, one, of course, being the Sacramentarian heresy saying, "the Eucharist is just a symbol," because it clearly is not, that was in the Old Testament bub. Additionally, we see the Calvinistic Symbolic Instrumentalism heresy in which they say, "oh yeah, He's just, like, spiritually there" as if He wasn't spiritually there also where the bread of presence was located and isn't always spiritually with us.
Something else interesting here (last thing I promise) is how He says, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” This means a few things: one, that He is literally telling them to pick up the fragments. Two, it is a subtle command to preach the Word to the Gentiles, being the fragments (or leftovers in other translations), that they may not be lost. Three, if we notice how many baskets that were left over, we see that there are twelve. This is significant because when we see twelve in the Bible, it is often a symbol of the whole church, or just the twelve tribes (but even then, the twelve tribes represent the whole Church). So, when we see these twelve baskets left, we see a few things happening, the leftovers/gentiles being picked up that none are lost, and then where are they placed? In the twelve baskets! Thus Christ is essentially saying what Paul echoes in Romans 11, as he talks about the gentiles being grafted into God’s people. And the other bit is how this “bread of presence” is being put into the twelve baskets. Twelve doesn’t always just mean the church itself, but it can also mean, “for the Church as a whole,” so we then see here in this foreshadowing of Communion, that it is a gift given for the whole church! And four, it says that the twelve baskets are full of those five loaves, not many loaves, but five, thus showing the wonderful miracle that Christ has done in defying logic and reason that there are not many loaves, but twelve baskets are full of the 5, all the more reason take Him at His word, and put behind us our human reason. Again, we see Calvin's heretical logic-based view of the supper, especially espoused by Zwingli, where they say that Jesus can't be physically present in the Sacrament because they can't figure out how Jesus as God and man can be in multiple places physically.
Okay… I know I said last thing before… buuuuut, I really want to talk about this. In 1st Kings chapter 17, Elijah meets a widow during a drought. Elijah asks her to bring him a drink as well as some bread. She responds,
“As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
We see here that this widow and her son have next to nothing, and that they will soon die of hunger. But Elijah comforts her by saying,
“Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son.”
So why do I bring this up right here? Well, let’s keep reading; Elijah continues,
“For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ ”
We see here not only does the Lord promise to provide abundantly for her, but also, it is by His word that it is done! This is such a great type for the feeding of the five thousand, as it is only with the blessing of the Lord that this great thing is done! And just after that, the story continues where the widow’s son dies, and the Lord raises him back up and the widow says,
“Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.”
It is that last part, “the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.” Here we see the Word of the Lord recognized in all of its glory and that it is by this Word that any miracle is be done.
Alright! The next part will be out very shortly, I have most of it written but I decided to split it into multiple posts.
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