After Feeding The 5000

Many people came to see Jesus because of the miracles He did. After feeding the 5000, He really attracted attention.

John 6:14-15; Mark 6:45-46

• Observers/participants of the miraculous feeding of the 5000 concluded that Jesus must be the Messiah (v. 14).
• Jesus knew that they were about to forcibly make him king, a grassroots rebellion against Rome.
• To avoid such a confrontation, Jesus instructed his disciple to sail across the lake to Bethsaida (v. 45).
• He himself went up the mountain to pray alone (v. 46).

Meditation Points:

1. Popularity and notoriety are not always to be cherished.
2. Jesus and his disciples had come here get away from the crowds and to rest (Mark 31-33) but the crowds found them, even anticipating where they were going.
3. Jesus prayed at the end of a very busy day.

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Feeding the 5000

This miracle is told in all four gospels. The fullest account is in John 6.

John 6:1-13

• It had been a busy day of teaching and healing.
• It was in the springtime, near Passover season (v. 4).
• Jesus asked a rhetorical question: Where can be buy food for all these people”
• Philip, like many church trustees, countered with “We can’t afford it.” (v. 7).
• Andrew, for whatever reason and with whatever mindset, present a little boy with 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish (v. 8-9).
• Jesus instructs the men to be seated in groups of 50 (v.10). [Aside: did the women stand?]
• Jesus prayed and then distributed to the disciples who, in turn, distributed to those who were seated in groups of 50. [Do the math: 12 disciples, 5000 men in groups of 50=100 groups, or more than 8 groups per disciple]
• Everyone got as much to eat as he wanted (v. 11) and there were still 12 baskets bread left over (v. 13).

Meditation Point:

1. He who created a world from nothing can surely create more from something.
2. Deny the miracle if you will; but do not call yourself a believer.

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A Ghost?

Herod wasn’t sure; but he wanted to find out.

Luke 9:7-9

• Jesus and John were quite dissimilar in many ways. Yet there was this marked similarity: they both preached strongly against sin and many people followed them.
• When Herod heard about Jesus, the king thought that John the Baptist, whom he had beheaded, was come back to life (v. 7).
• The puzzled him, as well it might.
• Others suggested that Jesus was none other than Elijah revived or some other prophet.
• Herod knew John was dead. Who then is the Jesus who is so much like John? (v. 9).
• The king desired to see Jesus (v. 9). Whether the two ever met before, we know that Herod spoke with Jesus immediately before the crucifixion.

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Executed for preaching against divorce

You may know that John the Baptist was decapitated on order of Herod.  But do you know why the King ordered the death of a man that he considered to be holy and just?

Mark 6:14-28

• It’s most likely that John the Baptist spoke often to the king (v. 20). Herod feared (respected?) John and watched him. Herod considered John to be a just and holy man. The preaching/teaching of John brought changes to the king’s life.
• But one day (how many days, we don’t know) John told Herod that his marriage to his brother Philip’s wife was unlawful.
  • Aretas (the king of Arabia Petrea) and Herod had a quarrel, on the account following:—Herod the tetrarch had married the daughter of Aretas, and had lived with her a great while; but when he was once at Rome, he lodged with Herod, {a} who was his brother, indeed, but not by the same mother; for this Herod was the son of the high priest Simon’s daughter. (110) However, he fell in love with Herodias, this last Herod’s wife, who was the daughter of Aristobulus their brother, and the sister of Agrippa the Great. This man ventured to talk to her about a marriage between them; which address, when she admitted, an agreement was made for her to change her habitation, and come to him as soon as he should return from Rome: one article of this marriage also was this, that he should divorce Aretas’ daughter. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 5)
• Herod’s previous wife was yet alive. Herodias’s previous husband was yet alive. Their (second) marriage to each other was unlawful in the eyes of God.
• She pressured him to arrest John the Baptist. Women behind the leader often wield much influence.
• To save face in front of guests, Herod agreed to execute John (v. 26).
• She got her revenge. The preacher was silenced forever.

Matthew 14:12

John’s disciples collected the body for burial.

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