The Feeding of the Five Thousand
After these things, Jesus traveled across the Sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias. A huge crowd followed him because they had seen the miraculous healings he performed on sick people. Jesus climbed up onto a mountainside and sat down there with his disciples. The Jewish celebration of Passover was approaching. When Jesus looked up and saw the vast crowd walking toward him, he turned to Philip and asked, "Where can we buy enough bread to feed all these people?" Jesus asked this question to test Philip, because Jesus already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, "It would take more than two hundred silver coins to buy enough bread to give each person even a small bite." Andrew, who was Simon Peter's brother and one of Jesus's disciples, spoke up. "There's a young boy here who has five small barley loaves and two little fish. But how could that possibly help when there are so many people?" Jesus said, "Tell everyone to sit down." There was plenty of green grass in that spot, so all the men sat down on the ground. There were about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the bread loaves and the fish in his hands. He gave thanks to God, and then he handed out the food to everyone who was sitting there. He gave them as much as they wanted to eat. After everyone had eaten until they were completely satisfied, Jesus told his disciples, "Collect all the leftover pieces so that nothing goes to waste." The disciples gathered up the remaining food and filled twelve large baskets with the broken pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over after everyone had finished eating. When the people witnessed this miraculous sign that Jesus had done, they started saying to each other, "This man truly is the Prophet that God promised would come into the world." Jesus realized that the crowd was about to force him to become their king, so he slipped away by himself back up into the mountains.
Jesus Walks on Water
When evening arrived, Jesus's disciples made their way down to the lake. They climbed into a boat and began rowing across the water toward the town of Capernaum. Darkness had already fallen, and Jesus had not yet come to join them. A powerful wind began to blow, churning up the water and making the lake rough and choppy. After the disciples had rowed their boat about three or four miles from shore, they suddenly saw something that filled them with terror—Jesus was coming toward their boat, walking right on top of the water. But Jesus called out to them, saying, "It's me! Don't be afraid." The disciples were then ready to welcome him into their boat. The moment they did, their boat instantly arrived at the shore they had been trying to reach.
The Crowd Seeks Jesus
The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the far side of the lake began to piece together what had happened. They remembered that only one boat had been there the evening before, and they knew that Jesus had not gotten into that boat with his disciples—the disciples had left by themselves. Meanwhile, some boats arrived from the town of Tiberias and landed near the very spot where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had blessed it and given thanks. When the crowd realized that Jesus was nowhere to be found and his disciples were also gone, they climbed into these boats and sailed across to Capernaum to search for him.
The Discourse on the Bread of Life
When the crowds found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Teacher, when did you arrive here?" Jesus answered them, "I'm telling you the absolute truth—you're not looking for me because you understood the meaning of the miraculous signs you saw. You're looking for me because you ate the bread and were satisfied. Don't spend your energy working for food that spoils and rots away. Instead, work for the food that lasts forever and gives eternal life. This is the food that I, the Son of Man, will give you. God the Father has put his official seal of approval on me." The people then asked him, "What exactly must we do to accomplish the works that God wants?" Jesus replied, "Here is the work God wants from you: believe in the one he has sent." So they challenged him, "What miraculous sign will you perform so we can see it and believe in you? What will you do to prove yourself? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert wilderness, just as the Scripture says: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus told them, "I'm telling you the absolute truth—it wasn't Moses who gave you that bread from heaven. It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. The bread that comes from God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the entire world." The people said to him, "Sir, give us this bread all the time!" Jesus answered them, "I am the bread of life. Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry again, and anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty again. But as I have already told you, you have seen me with your own eyes, yet you still don't believe. Everyone whom the Father gives to me will come to me, and I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. I have come down from heaven not to do what I want, but to do what the one who sent me wants. And this is what the one who sent me wants: that I should not lose a single person he has given me, but that I should raise them all back to life on the final day. This is my Father's will—that everyone who looks at the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise that person back to life on the final day."
The Jews Grumble About Jesus
The Jewish people started complaining and arguing about Jesus because he had told them, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They kept asking each other, "Isn't this just Jesus, Joseph's son? We know his father and mother. So how can he claim that he came down from heaven?" Jesus answered them, "Stop your complaining and arguing among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws that person to me. And when someone does come to me, I will raise them up on the last day. The prophets wrote, 'God will teach all people.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. This doesn't mean that anyone has actually seen the Father face to face—only the one who comes from God has seen the Father. That's me. "I'm telling you the absolute truth: whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the special bread called manna in the desert, but they still died. But this bread that comes down from heaven is different—anyone who eats it will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, they will live forever. And this bread that I will give to bring life to the world is my own flesh."
Jesus Speaks of Eating His Flesh and Drinking His Blood
When the Jewish leaders heard Jesus say these things, they started arguing fiercely among themselves. "How can this man possibly give us his flesh to eat?" they demanded. Jesus responded to their heated debate with these solemn words: "I'm telling you the absolute truth—unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you at all. But anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I will bring that person back to life on the final day. You see, my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. When someone eats my flesh and drinks my blood, that person lives in me and I live in that person. The living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. In the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, but they still died. However, anyone who eats this bread will live forever." Jesus spoke these words while he was teaching in the synagogue in the town of Capernaum.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
When many of Jesus' followers heard this teaching, they said to each other, "This is too hard to understand. Who can possibly accept what he's saying?" Jesus knew his disciples were complaining and whispering about his words, so he asked them, "Does this upset you? What will you think if you see the Son of Man go back up to heaven where he came from? It is the Spirit who gives life—human effort alone accomplishes nothing. The words I have spoken to you come from the Spirit, and they give life. But some of you still don't believe." Jesus had known from the very beginning which of his followers didn't truly believe in him, and he also knew who would eventually hand him over to his enemies. Then Jesus explained, "This is exactly why I told you that no one can come to me unless my Father makes it possible." After this, many of his disciples walked away and stopped following him entirely. Jesus then turned to his twelve closest disciples and asked them, "Do you want to leave me too?" Simon Peter answered for the group, "Lord, where else would we go? You alone have the words that lead to eternal life. We believe in you, and we know for certain that you are God's Holy One." Jesus replied, "Didn't I choose all twelve of you myself? Yet one of you is working for the devil." He was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Even though Judas was one of the twelve disciples, he would be the one to betray Jesus later on.