Home • Bible Studies • The Feeding of the Five Thousand & the Sufficiency of Christ: A Study of John 6
The People's Interpretation of the Sign
By Jake Hanson
V. The People’s Interpretation of the Sign (vv. 14-15)
14Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.
Signs in John
It is important to note the significance of “signs” in the Gospel of John. Signs, just like signs on the roadway, point to something other than themselves. A sign on a road might point to a curve or bump in the road. So also, the miraculous signs of Jesus point to something about His nature. And this is a point that John is picking up on from Jesus’ miracles. These are not magic tricks. And as important as the miracles are for the people who encounter the miracles of healing and feeding, etc., the significance of them are beyond even the benefits of them. In short, these signs reveal something of the glory of Jesus.
Signs and their interpretation are so important in John that the book can almost be broken up into sections of signs and their interpretation. Depending on how you recon it, there are anywhere from 5-7 “signs” recorded in John. There are five if you require that the word “sign” be used in the narrative to be considered a sign, or seven if you include two narratives without the label. Below is a list of these signs with a note on the ones which do not include the language of “signs.”
List of Signs in John
1. Turning Water to Wine (2:1-11)
2. Healing of Nobleman’s Son (4:46-54)
3. Healing at Bethesda (5:1-17) ‘Sign’ not listed
4. Feeding of the Five Thousand (6:1-15)
5. Walking on Water (6:16-25) ‘Sign’ not listed
6. Healing of the Man Born Blind (9:1-41)
7. Resurrection of Lazarus (11:1-44)
The interpretation of these signs can get a little bit murky, so I will not include interpretations right now (for example, the turning of Water in to Wine shows that Jesus has authority over nature, but it also teaches something about the nature of the Kingdom of God, with its new wine, etc.).
The People's Interpretation
Key Question: What did the crowd think the miracle of the feeding pointed to?
Verse 14 tells us that they thought this meant Jesus was the “Prophet.” They were referring to Deuteronomy 18:15ff. Take a look at it:
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me [Moses] from among you…[verse 18] and I will put My words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”
There was this hope and expectation that the people had for a promised prophet who would match, and even exceed the work of Moses. This would be the “chosen One,” the Messiah. But you will remember that Moses led the people of God through the wilderness, and under his leadership the people lived on miraculous bread from heaven for forty years. In this miracle, the people saw a glimpse of Moses. And in this, they were right.
The People's (Misguided) Hope
Key Question: But what were they hoping for this Messiah to do?
They were hoping for Jesus to be an earthly king who would defeat the oppressive Romans—the Herods, Pilate and the other wicked leaders who had been in authority of the Jews. And this idea is not so foreign to the ideas taught in the Old Testament. We consistently read in Scripture of a coming King who will bring forth justice, and draw all nations to Himself.
And if you think of it in today’s terms, Jesus as King would have had a welfare program second to none on earth. He could feed the hungry with just a little. And His health care plan could not be beat. When there were sick people, He could just heal them. Jesus would have been a fantastic king to our eyes.
It is hard to blame them for their expectation. They wanted to make Him king.
Jesus on the Peak
So we find Jesus on the very peak of His ministry. An army of five thousand men ready to fight for and with Him.
Key Question: And what does Jesus do?
He goes off to be alone (to pray), in order that they not make Him king.
Key Question: Why does Jesus do this?
This is all about timing. It was not yet Jesus’ time to be king.
The people wanted something from Jesus that He was not. They were misguided, and when Jesus wants to correct their false notions, some will not be corrected (see Judas). This is a form of idolatry—second class idolatry, of course—the worship of God for something that He is not. But we need to pursue the One True God. I think C.S. Lewis says it best: “I want God, not my idea of God.”
This ties back to the question we began with:
Key Question: Why do people seek Jesus? What are people hoping for? Why do you seek Jesus? What are you hoping for?
These people wanted Jesus to be king. But Jesus had come to down from heaven, not for a crown of jewels with which to rule the nations, but for a crown of thorns with which to establish a Kingdom far greater than any dynasty the earth has ever known or will know—a Kingdom that could not come without the Cross, and a Kingdom that will be fulfilled in all its glory at Christ’s return.
Key Question: Why does it matter if we follow Jesus for His benefits—real or false benefits—rather than for Himself for who He truly is?
If you seek the benefits of the Lord, and not the Lord Himself, in the end you will get neither the Lord, nor His benefits.
And this is the truth that we will begin to see more clearly as we examine the Bread of Life discourse, Jesus’ explanation of the miracle in verses 26-71.