For those of you who are eagle-eyed and eagle-eared, you have probably
spotted that we have changed Gospels. Year B is of course the year when we
read our way through the holy Gospel according to Mark, but it’s the shortest of
all the Gospels, and that gives us the opportunity to insert some readings from
John. St John’s Gospel is different from the other three: Matthew, Mark and
Luke are sometimes referred to as “synoptic” Gospels – which means seen with
the same eye (think of optic referring to vision). You can place their Gospels
side by side and they will at times describe the same incident or the same
parable using very similar words, like seeing with the same eye. John’s Gospel
is rather different, and it dives so much deeper in our getting to know Jesus.
One of its big characteristics is that it so emphasises the divinity of Christ. It is
the Gospel that begins with the prologue: “In the beginning was the word”,
which we hear read at Christmas time. When you read today’s Gospel, you see
that Jesus knows what He is doing, He is in control of the situation, and the
Gospel writer puts in certain details to help the reader to keep up, such as
where Philip is asked: “Where can we buy some bread for these people to
eat?” But he explains to us: “[Jesus] only said this to test Philip; he himself
knew exactly what he was going to do”.
St John’s Gospel is also one that particularly makes the case that the author was
an eyewitness (and perhaps with a good and rather detailed memory as well).
He names the different people involved, rather than just saying, e.g., a man said
to Jesus... He also situates what happened in a particular geographic location,
once again sometimes with details. If you have a look at the previous chapter,
chapter five, the scene is set. It says: “Now at the Sheep Pool in Jerusalem
there is a building, called Bethzatha in Hebrew, consisting of five porticos”
(John 5:2). I remember when I was at seminary, someone said he had been
reading a book in which it said that certain scholars had questioned how
accurate this was. They had thought that having five porticos was an unlikely
architectural design. But the Lord was to scatter the proud-hearted, as later
archaeological discovery showed the remains of exactly such a place, with five
porticos. St John had been there – the scholars had not. Similarly with today’s
Gospel: where would there have been a place with a big enough amount of
grass to seat five thousand people (or more)? A possible answer: a big
meadow on the eastern bank of the Sea of Tiberias called el-Batihah.
The scene is set and the miracle is performed, and St John is giving us the
detail to say, yes, this really happened, and you can go and visit the site if you
want to. But there’s more detail yet. No little crumb goes to waste, and that’s
not just the multiplied bread and fish. We are told: “It was shortly before the
Jewish feast of Passover”. So what? If you’re a Christian, a few bells should
start to ring.
When was the Last Supper celebrated? At the time of the Jewish feast of
Passover. What did Our Lord do? He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it and
gave it to His disciples. Yes, he took, gave thanks, broke and gave. Did you
spot those words earlier? “Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave
them out to all who were sitting ready” – in other words, there is Eucharistic
language buried here in the text, and over the next few weeks Our Lord is
going to expound on the Eucharist, describing Himself as the Bread of Life.
And here’s another detail – this applies to other books in Scripture, not just the
Gospel according to John – parallels are drawn. At the end of this section, the
crowd recognises Jesus as the Messiah, but then He has to escape from them –
they’ve got completely the wrong idea of what it’s all about. They are thinking
of a messiah-king, who will come and beat up all the Romans, and re-establish
the kingdom of Israel. The salvation Our Lord has come to bring about is not
about political situations and who owns which piece of land and who pays tax
to whom. It’s about salvation from sin and death, and it’s going to result in
Christ’s Death and Resurrection, not in a riot that leaves Pontius Pilate and his
men in a big pile, and puppet-king Herod sent packing. In a few weeks’ time,
as we get to the end of looking at John 6 (spoiler alert!) we will see the crowds
turn away, because their idea of who Jesus should be does not fit with who He
really is and what He wants to give them. He is not a political saviour, neither
does He want to go along with people’s misinterpretations of Judaism. They
need to learn, and some of them find it a hard lesson to learn.
So at the start of this chapter, we begin with ordinary bread, and finish with
Christ the living Bread. And that’s what happens each time we gather, and a
priest takes, give thanks, breaks and gives. St John knew what He was writing
about – because He had been there and seen it for Himself.
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk