Pentecost 10-St. John 6:1-15

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,+ and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

‘One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”’ (V. 8)

We do not see Andrew very often. In John’s Gospel, we only see him three times. We first saw Andrew in chapter one (1:35-42) bringing Nathaniel to Jesus. Now we see Andrew here. It is interesting that when we do see Andrew, he seems to be taking Jesus at His word. That fact is especially evident here in chapter six (V. 8). We finally see Andrew in chapter twelve where he and Philip are bringing certain Greeks to see Jesus (12:20-22). When we do see him, He is always doing the same thing. Andrew is always bringing others to Christ. Andrew reminds you and me that we also need to be about the same task.

An old preacher in England talked to a boy about Jesus. That boy grew up to be a shoemaker, a teacher, a preacher, and then a pioneer Christian missionary to India. His name was William Carey. Through the interest and care of one old Christian man, an “Andrew”, a young boy was influenced to the work of God’s kingdom.

Through the influence and the words of a Sunday school teacher, another boy grew up to be a great preacher and evangelist. In this case, it was a boy that more of us are familiar with, it was Dwight Moody. In both cases these boys were brought to Jesus by some “Andrew”. Like the boy whom Andrew brought that day of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus used those two boys as well. The two we have heard about, when they had grown to manhood, fed thousands with the Bread of Life[1].

‘Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.”’ (V. 7)

Philip in this case, was not an Andrew. In fact, he was probably the opposite of Andrew. Philip, unusually, is the spokesman for the group that day. He seems to be voicing the doubt and confusion of the entire group. By saying what he did, Philip is telling Jesus that even if they had the equivalent of two hundred days wages, they would not have enough bread for this entire crowd to have even a little. Imagine it, almost a year’s pay! What an amazingly large group of people.

Philip is being even more doubtful than that. He is not saying that anyone would get enough to fill them up on this bread. Instead, Philip is telling Jesus, “all this amazing amount of money would only give each person a taste”.

‘And a great multitude was following Him, because they were seeing the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.’ (V. 2)

Why was there such a great crowd, you might ask. Well, John tells us earlier in the chapter. He says that they had seen the signs, which Jesus had been performing. As we learn from the number of the crowd, this is the same crowd we heard of last week. John leaves out the details of the boat and the foot race which Mark includes (St. Mk. 6:32f.). John uses the word, “signs” instead of miracles. So, he is referring to such things as the events in Cana when Jesus turned water into wine (ch. 2). As we might imagine and want ourselves, these people wanted to hear Jesus preach again.

In order finally to get that rest that Jesus and the disciples had used the book to try to get, they headed up onto a mountain. This is before the words of Mark, when Jesus sees that they are like sheep without a shepherd. From the boat, Jesus and the twelve, ‘And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.’ (V. 3)

Yet, the great crowd followed them. Now, when they are followed up the high hill from the level of the Jordan River valley up the mountain Jesus has compassion on the crowd and teaches them and heals their sick.

‘Jesus therefore lifting up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?”’ (V. 5)

So, Jesus tells Philip to take care of the matter as the people climb up the mountain toward them. This climb may have taken the crowds a while. In the case of the Jordan River valley, the sides of those mountains are quite steep. In Idaho, there are hills that are similar. Those hills not only were steep, like a high narrow staircase but without the steps.

Most of the time, the climbers in Idaho are helped by the sagebrush that grows all over, sometimes though, those hills also often times had exposed fields of shale rock. That rock was almost like walking on ice for how much the shale moved about as you walked over it. In the case of the Jordan River hills, they were clothed in tall grass. No brush and no shale to complicate things as a person climbed just a very steep hill.

So, Jesus had a bit of time to speak with His disciples as the people approached.

‘One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.’ (Vv. 8-10)

So, now we are back to Andrew. Here Andrew comes, bringing a small lad who happened to have five barley loaves and two fish. Andrew does not understand how this could be of use, yet he brings it up to Jesus anyhow. As I said, Andrew takes Jesus at His word. In this simple way, Andrew tries to do as Jesus had told them. Andrew is trying to figure out what Jesus means by asking where they were to get the bread to feed these people.

As you all know, when you have done any kind of strenuous work, a handful of bread is not going to cut it. Philip knew this also which is why he asked Jesus how they could possibly buy enough bread to fill this entire crowd. He knew the work it took to climb out of the river valley even just part way as he Jesus and the other disciples had done. Andrew knows all this as well, instead of complaining he finds this kid whose mom had sent him out well prepared.

We do not know where the lad came by so much but knowing moms, I can only assume that it was his mother who was responsible in some way for him having five loaves and two fish with him that day. What is interesting is that these were not large loaves, they were probably small. On top of that, this was not the top of the line bread, this was barley bread. Barley bread at the time was considered to be an inferior sort of bread. So, five small loaves. Also, two small fish. Not two fat and large fish, two small fish.

Jesus does not bat an eye. Instead of rejecting what Andrew brings, as we might. Jesus takes what is given and uses it for His purposes. Jesus tells the disciples to have the people sit down on the grass. When you think of this grass, think spring, so nice and thick and green grass. This was also not a well-mown stretch of grass; rather this was a pasture. You all know what that tends to look like as well.

As we know from the other Evangelists, the disciples had the men sit down in groups of hundreds and fifties, in ranks like “garden beds” (St. Mk. 6:40 Gk.). Jesus was looking after these people. He was preparing to feed them first so that then they could listen properly to what Jesus would teach them. No one that day knew what was about to come but Jesus was preparing all of these listeners to experience what the elders of Israel experienced in our Old Testament lesson.

It was no longer to be the exception as we see in the Old Testament that a human would see God and live. Instead, as the elders do in Exodus (24:11), we now sit down with God and eat and drink with Him. The people that day, though they did not know it, they also were eating with God. As with the people in Exodus, they ate and drank with God and then went down from the mountain to the rest of the nation. So also the people in John. In both cases, the people who had eaten with God went out to the rest of the people of God and told them of the amazing events that had happened on the mountain.

You and I also eat with God, and then we who eat with God here go out into the world to tell others of the body of Christ of the amazing communion we have with the Father. We are ‘speaking the truth in love’ (Eph. 4:15), we are telling others the surpassing riches of His grace which have been given to us in kindness in Christ Jesus. Such surpassing riches of His grace which can be theirs as well. We are to be “Andrews” for those in our own lives.

In Jesus’+ Name. Amen.


[1] Encyclopedia of Sermon Illustrations, CPH p. 143, section #658.