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 Crowds and Disciples - John 6 is carefully constructed
with a miracle/dialogue/discourse pattern as we also see in the chapter five.
Miracle The Feeding of the Five Thousand (6:1-15)
(Miracle) Walking on the Water (6:16-24)
Dialogue With the Crowd (6:25-34)
Discourse Crowd and the Disciples (6:35-59)
An Early Story - This story of Jesus feeding the crowds was
clearly popular as it circulated among early Christians evidenced by the number of times
it is recalled in John and the synoptic gospels. Internally, the story lends itself to
Eucharistic overtones-in the synoptic gospels, for instance, Jesus takes the loaves and
blesses, breaks, and gives ; in John’s gospel such is played down and instead, Jesus
himself is the bread given to the world. [1]
Balancing Act - These two stories raise important questions about the balance
between grace and glory . . . Jesus gives himself to the crowd as an extraordinary,
unprecedented gift of grace. Yet the crowd is intrigued with the possibilities of
glory-they want to force Jesus to become king. Yet Jesus will not allow his grace and
glory to be twisted, turned, bent, or manipulated to personal agendas. So he hides
himself. But he will not hold back his glory from those in need, because this is his
mission: to make God known (1:18). How we hold the grace and glory of Jesus in balance is
critical for our own faith communities. [2]
 Describe both a good experience within a large crowd setting and a bad
experience.
When has God stretched your limited resources (physical, emotional, etc.) far beyond
what you could have imagined? In what way do you need to trust God to do so now?
How are you like Philip and Andrew---failing to remember something about Jesus when
you’ve faced a difficult situation?
 Please
refer to this week's featured sermon and the DPS archives.
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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), page
593.
[2] Ibid, page 597.
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