Jesus Feeds 5000 Bread From Heaven (Jn 6:1-15)
Did Jesus secretly buy the food and trick the audience?
(Jn 6:5-10) When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” 6 He said this to test them, because he himself knew what he was going to do... 9 There is a boy here who has five barely loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many. 10 Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined about five thousand in number.
'John' himself was amazed about the unusual amount of grass! Logically this was wild untrimmed grass that could grow high enough to obscure the vision of someone reclined. When the 5000 get reclined, they can’t see the ‘MIRACLE’. Jesus ‘himself knew what he was going to do’, so he told them to recline (so that they cannot see what he will do next). Jesus already chose the timing, location, scenario… They followed him to where he had already hid the pre-purchased food (amid the ‘great deal of grass’). Jesus simply tricked them that this bread that appeared amid the ‘great deal of grass’ was fresh from heaven… The innocent crowd fell for it.
All that Jesus needed is a pit or depression in the ground (naturally occurring everywhere, especially in that mountainous area). He put the food there and then covered it with the same grass. This is why he asked them to recline so that they can't see where the bread came from (even if the food wasn't covered with grass). He raised his hands to heaven, abracadabra and then uncovered the food (still hidden to them).
Praise the Lord! Cheesecakes freshly backed in heaven!!! ]
The next day something happened that exposed everything. Not the entire crowd fell for it. Some of the crowd did not believe that it was a miracle and followed Jesus in disbelief. He noticed their disbelief and tried to correct the situation. To avoid confrontation, he quickly admits to the crowds that they are following him not because they had seen real miracles, but because he fed them:
26 Jesus answered them and said, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
But they still insist to see a real miracle:
30 So they said to him “What sign can you do, that we may see and to believe in you? What can you do? 31 Our ancestors ate manna in the desert. As it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’”
The crowds ask Jesus to show them any miracle for them to believe in him, affirming what he has just declared and asserting that they did not see him the previous day do any miracle. They didn’t see him do the ‘MIRACLE’ because they were laying amid the ‘great deal of grass’. On the contrary, they ask him to feed them by a miracle like Moses did when he fed them in the desert. If they saw the miracle the day before, they wouldn’t have asked him to show them the same miracle again. The people themselves never said that Jesus fed them by a miracle but that they are still waiting for a miracle for them to believe in him. The crowds asked him to show them the same miracle again, but of course this time he was not prepared. This time he did not have any pre-purchased food, so he tries to evade:
32 So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
Now that he is exposed, he doesn’t want the story of ‘bread from heaven’ to stop circulating, so he tries to convince this unbelieving crowd with another type of ‘bread from heaven’:
33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst”.
“Sir, give us this bread always” referring to the ‘bread of life’. Jesus is convincing this crowd of another type of bread from heaven, the ‘bread of life’. Jesus won this crowd over with a promise, instead of a real miracle.
49 Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died; 50 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
This crowd circulates the story of ‘bread of life’, and the first crowd circulates the story of ‘bread form heaven’. It is easy to figure out how the five thousand fell for it. They ate pre-purchased bread while reclining amid ‘great deal of grass’ (and then were filled). Those who noticed that it was a hoax followed Jesus in disbelief. He himself admits their disbelief: 36 But I told you that although you have seen [me], you do not believe. Then they asked him to show them a true miracle or to feed them by a miracle like Moses did. Unable to do so, Jesus won them over not with physical bread from heaven, but with a promise of ‘Bread of Life’. In the end, everybody ate some sort of ‘bread from heaven’ and was filled. Till this day, Christians still eat this ‘bread from heaven’ and get filled.
