Consider this statement in the Chronological Bible commentary; Jesus remains in Galilee for a while longer, apparently not even leaving to attend the Passover Feast in Jerusalem....
As stated before, just because it isn't written in Scripture
doesn't mean it didn't happen. Jesus was faithful in honoring the
commanded Feast Days.
When Jesus fed the 5,000 men (had the women and children been counted, the
number would have been much higher) He was moved with compassion. This means he
was full of tenderness and concern at their plight. Notice Philip immediately
told Jesus how much food it would take to feed this many people. Andrew on the
other hand immediately brought Jesus the loaves and fishes, knowing that He
could somehow make it work.
The people thought the Prophet had come. They wanted to make
Jesus king. They wanted their physical needs met.
Jesus sent His disciples ahead of Him with the promise that He
would join them later. It was between the hours of 3 and 6 am when they saw
Jesus walking on the water. Peter wanted to come to Him, so Jesus commanded him
to come. Peter did just fine until he took his eyes off Jesus. Does that happen
to us? When we take our eyes off Jesus we begin to sink. When the winds of life
thrash around us, do they beat us down and make us afraid? If so, time to
look to Jesus! Remember, He can calm the wind and the waves of our lives.
Jesus rebukes the people who are looking for miraculous signs. Even though they had witnessed the miracle of the feeding of the multitude and they knew the crossing to the other side of the lake was a miracle, they still seemed to pay little attention to it and only wanted the miracles of God in ways to satisfy the physical needs, namely the demands of their appetite. Few were looking for the spiritual blessings. They wanted physical food not spiritual food.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone
eats of this bread, he will live forever.”
If we bury ourselves in the Word, we will eat and drink the
Word, something we must do every day! Just as we must eat every day or we will
get weak. If we don’t internalize the Word every day we will get weak in our
faith. Jesus said that His flesh was real food. The word real is a
misleading translation of the Greek word, which means "true".
“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer
followed him.”
Did they turn back to their sinful ways? To remember the parable of the soils,
did the birds come and eat the seeds? Did they turn back because of hard
teaching or because they didn’t believe? Check out the address of this
scripture. Its John 6:66. Hmmm....
Jesus asked the Twelve if they wanted to leave too. Peter
answers, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words to eternal
life.”
Indeed! Only Jesus!
Jesus condemned many of the traditions, such as the ceremonial
washing of dishes.
“You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions
of men.”
The Pharisees and teachers of the law were more concerned about
tradition than the truth. Jesus quoted Isaiah who said, "Their
worship of me is in vain;" In other words, their worship
meant nothing.
Can you think of some ways that we hold on to the traditions of
men and ignore the commands of God? How about the way we celebrate Jesus’ birth
or the way we celebrate His death and resurrection? Do we celebrate according
to the traditions of men? Or do we honor His birth, death, and resurrection as
fulfillment of prophecy?
No comments:
Post a Comment