Feeding
After Jesus feeds the crowd of 5,000, the next day members of the crowd chase Jesus down looking for another free meal (John 6:22-26). The Lord rebukes them sharply for it. Then he adds some of the most difficult teaching of his entire ministry, saying they have no life unless they eat his body and drink his blood (verses 41-60).
This disturbing image is so revolting that many stop following Jesus. The most loyal don’t understand it, but they stick with Jesus when he asks if they will leave too. As Peter puts it, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (verses 66-68)
It’s difficult to calculate how much later it is, but it seems to be not a long time, and Jesus feeds another crowd—4,000 this time. There’s no record of a next-day conversation.
Two times, Jesus miraculously feeds a crowd by multiplying a small amount of bread and fish. We can be pretty sure it’s only these two times. After the second one, Jesus and the twelve are in a boat and the disciples are worried because they forgot to bring bread. They think he’s criticizing them for this when he says, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” Exasperated with them, Jesus reminds them of the large quantity of leftovers there had been after the two feedings, and asks, “How can you think I’m talking about bread?” Then they get it—he’s talking about the teaching of the Pharisees.
If Jesus was regularly or even semi-regularly miraculously feeding crowds, would the disciples have had the anxiety over the bread? And when Jesus reminds them, would he cite only those two times, rather than asking something like, “Don’t you remember all the times I’ve fed people?” So I think it was only those two times.
But why does he do it those two times? Superficially, the reason given both times is that they’re out in the countryside far from anywhere they can buy food. Which would have been the case on other occasions too. When we ask “why” questions like this, the answer is generally going to be in what happens as a result. In the case of the 5,000 the result is that difficult conversation about Jesus’s body and blood, and a major turning point in his ministry.
It's not clear what results from feeding the 4,000, other than the leaven conversation in the boat afterwards. In that conversation Jesus links the two incidents. We aren’t told explicitly, but it seems possible he’s trying to get across a point that was crucial when he was tempted in the wilderness. Quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, at that time Jesus says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)
It seems to me that, taking all of it together, this is a multi-prong teaching about feeding us, spiritually.
Jesus is teaching his disciples, then and now: Consume the Word, not only physical food. And since he’s the living Word, consume him (metaphorically). After all, he has the words of eternal life—where else could we find that? But watch out for false teaching that masquerades as the “bread” of life but is actually leaven. And don’t quit just because some of the Lord’s teaching is hard, putting demands on us we don’t like. Stick with him. Don’t we remember the abundant bread, and how generously he has fed us? To the full, with much left over to be shared with others.
Love, Paul