Home • Bible Studies • The Feeding of the Five Thousand & the Sufficiency of Christ: A Study of John 6
Excursus on the Passover
By Jake Hanson
I. Introductory Information (vv. 1-4) — Excursus on the Passover
When? Passover Drawing Near
In verse 4 we see that the Passover was near. While this very point of timing seems insignificant on its surface, I think John is making an important point. This is no incidental, or coincidental reference to the Passover as we will see below. One question that does arise, however, and may have a bearing on how we interpret this passage is what John exactly means by “near.” It is my belief that the Passover was to occur that night, and the miraculous feeding was the celebration of this Passover feast. This would explain the crowds which would have been making their way to Jerusalem for the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread which Mosaic Law required each male to attend. But if this is the case, then what does it mean? To answer this, we need to look back at what Passover is and was.
The First Passover—Exodus 12
To look at the history of the Passover, we have to go all the way back to Exodus 12. You will probably remember that Exodus is the story of the people of God (the Hebrews), and how they were led out of Egypt. They were slaves of Pharaoh, and Moses was called to lead his people out of Egypt and to the Promised Land in Canaan. When Moses and Aaron called on Pharaoh to “let my people go,” Pharaoh refused. As a result, the Lord sent ten plagues on Egypt to demonstrate His power, and served as a warning against refusing the Lord’s demand. But refuse, Pharaoh did.
As a last straw, the Lord was going to do something drastic—something that Pharaoh could not ignore. The Lord was going to kill the first-born of every household that did not meet His particular requirement which was that every household that slaughtered a lamb and spread its blood on the door posts would not incur the wrath of the Lord. The Lord would “pass over” that house which obeyed His word. This was more than the straw that broke the camel’s back—it was more like the weight that crushed the camel. Pharaoh’s own son was killed, and so he immediately told Moses to take his people and leave—which they quickly did, before Pharaoh changed his mind and sent off after him before being overcome at the crossing of the Red Sea.
Just a couple features of the Passover that are important from Exodus 12 that have a bearing on our passage. First, the people were commanded to commemorate this feast yearly as the beginning of the religious year, and a reminder of the birth of their nation. So Passover was a hugely important celebration with religious and national implications—almost a 4th of July celebration mixed with Christmas. Second, a lamb was to be sacrificed at ‘twilight,’ and is an indirect prophecy to Jesus as the Lamb of God (called typology). And third, it would be celebrated forevermore as redemption from the oppression of the Egyptians—again an indirect prophecy of our redemption from satan and sin.
The Passover in John
The Gospel of John records three instances of the Passover which has been important in dating the ministry of Jesus. Because it is referred to explicitly 3 different times, we know that His ministry spread over at least those three Passovers—sometime over two years (some also suggest that the Passover is referred to, without being named, in 5:1, which would make Jesus’ ministry at least three years in length).
The first time the Passover is mentioned is in John 2 where Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the feast and cleansed the Temple. It is there that He made His first declaration, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19), speaking not of the actual Temple building, but of His body. This points to His coming sacrificial death as the Lamb of God and to His Resurrection. So we see that Jesus’ speech at the Temple is not disconnected from the Passover theme of the death of the Lamb of God.
The second instance of the Passover is mentioned in our present study in John 6 which I will briefly discuss below. But the final time it is mentioned is when Jesus comes to Jerusalem in John 11 and 12 for what He knows to be His sacrificial death, and He spends the Passover dinner with His disciples, which is more commonly referred to as “The Last Supper,” where Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper connects Jesus most explicitly to the Passover, and serves as the fulfillment of it. Just as the Passover was to be remembered regularly by the people of God to recall, and to declare redemption from Egypt, so also the Lord’s Supper is to be remembered regularly by the people of God in order to proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Corinthians 11:26). Jesus’ sacrificial death during the Passover is no coincidence.
Passover in John 6
The connection between the Passover and the message of John 6 can be difficult to ascertain, but it is still there. As noted above, Jesus Himself in John 2 and John 11-12 connects the Passover Feast to His sacrificial death. John 6 does as well, though a little work needs to be done to connect the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand to the discourse which follows. Not only is this not hard to do, it is essential to the understanding of the miracle and its implications for us.
One other thing to note about the Gospel of John is its apparent connection, and parallel to the book of Exodus. Just as at the first Passover, the people celebrated it, and then left Egypt to cross the great Red Sea, so also Jesus follows this miracle feast with the walking on water at the Sea of Galilee. Following the crossing of the Red Sea, the people of God spent forty years in the wilderness where the Lord provided manna from heaven. What follows Jesus’ walking on the sea is a discussion of manna, and Jesus’ fulfillment of it. This is not due to some imagination on some interpreter’s mind, but rather some very real connections which John seems to be making.
While this is not essential to understand to gain meaning from the passage, it does add another layer to the narrative which is important. Furthermore, it elevates the need for the miracle beyond just feeding a hungry mass of people (important though that is—see Matthew 15:32). This was their means to fulfill the requirement of the Law to celebrate the Passover at ‘twilight’ with the rest of the nation, as required by mosaic Law (Exodus 12:6, also see Mark 6:35 regarding the lateness of the day).
Jesus is using the Passover as a platform to teach that He is the Passover Lamb. Jesus makes this clear with His declaration in John 6:56, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him,” using the Passover once again as an instance which would point to His death.
This may not seem important, and in the grand scheme of things, it is not essential that everyone knows how John is using the Passover (which is why I left it out of the teaching). But it does show the power of short, simple phrases, to pack potent ideas which enrich our understanding of the text. Jesus is indeed the Lamb of God, completely and totally sufficient to take away the sin of the world.