Chapter 6:15-25 Jesus Walks on the Water

6:15 When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take Him by force, to make Him a king, He departed again into a mountain himself alone.

Of the irregular zeal of some of Christ's followers; nothing would serve but they would make Him a king.
First, It was grounded upon a mistake concerning the nature of Christ's kingdom, as if it were to be of this world, and he must appear with outward pomp, a crown on his head, and an army at His foot; 

 Right notions of Christ's kingdom would keep us to right methods for advancing it. 

Secondly, It was excited by the love of the flesh; they would make Him their king who could feed them so plentifully without their toil, and save them from the curse of eating their bread in the sweat of their face. 

Thirdly, It was intended to carry on a secular design; they hoped this might be a fair opportunity of shaking off the Roman yoke, of which they were weary.

 Thus is religion often prostituted to a secular interest, and Christ is served only to serve a turn.

6:16 And when even was now come, His disciples went down unto the sea,

The last of the evenings, when night was coming on; for the first of the evenings took place before they sat down to eat.

6:17 And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.
Then it was very dark. Ah, my dear friends, perhaps you know what it is to be in trouble, and to mourn an absent Lord. 

This is a direful description of a specially dark night for the disciples: “It was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.”

6:18 And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
And the sea arose - Swelled, and was tumultuous and raging; the waves mounted up, and tossed the ship to and fro:
by reason of a great wind that blew - which agitated the waters of the sea, and lifted up the waves; which storm seems to have arose after they had set sail, and were got into the midst of the sea.

6:19 So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.
walking upon the sea - as on dry land: though it was so stormy and boisterous, that the disciples, though in a ship, were in the utmost danger, yet He upon the waves, was in none at all; 

by which action He showed Himself 

to be the Lord of the sea, 

and to be truly God.

6:20 But He saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.
He called out aloud unto them, not coming with any intention to fright them, but to save them.

6:21 Then they willingly received Him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.

Immediately the ship was at the land - How far they were from the place at which they landed, when our Lord came to them, we know not. But the evangelist seems to speak of their sudden arrival there as extraordinary and miraculous.
No sooner was Jesus with them than they were where they wanted to be. 

The presence of Christ works wonders for us, 

we are soon at our haven when the Lord of heaven comes to us.

6:22 The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto His disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples were gone away alone;

saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto His disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples were gone away alone; from whence they concluded, that since there was only that boat, and Jesus did not go into it, but that the disciples went off without Him, that He must be therefore somewhere on shore, and not far off, and they hoped to find Him in the morning; 

wherefore it was very surprising to them, 

when they found Him at Capernaum, 

when, and how He got there.

6:23 (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:)
Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias - A city by the sea side, built by Herod, and called so in honor of Tiberius Caesar;

6:24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither His disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.
When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there - At the sea side, at the usual place of taking boat; and having reason to think he was not on that side of the lake, but was gone from thence:

6:25 And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? 

They found Him on the other side of the sea - Note, Christ will be found of those that seek Him, first or last; 

and it is worth while to cross a sea, 

nay, to go from sea to sea, 

and from the river to the ends of the earth, 

to seek Christ, if we may but find Him at last. 

These people appeared afterwards to be unsound, and not actuated by any good principle, and yet were thus zealous.

Chapter 6:1-14 Five Thousand Fed

6:1 After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.
Jesus went over the sea of Galilee - Or, as some translate the words, by the side of the sea of Galilee.

6:2 And a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased.

The company that he was attended with: A great multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracles.

Note, (1.) Our Lord Jesus, while He went about doing good, lived continually in a crowd, which gave Him more trouble than honor. 

(2.) Christ's miracles drew many after Him that were not effectually drawn to Him. They had their curiosity gratified by the strangeness of them, who had not their consciences convinced by the power of them.

6:3 And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.

Went up into a mountain - This mountain must have been in the desert of Bethsaida, in the territories of Philip, tetrarch of Galilee.

6:4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.
And the passover - was nigh - This happened about ten or twelve days before the third passover which Christ celebrated after His baptism.

6:5 When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

When Jesus then lift up His eyes.... Being before engaged in close conversation with his disciples, and looking wistly and intently on them, whilst he was discoursing with them:
and saw a great company come unto Him - who came on foot, over the bridge at Chammath, from Capernaum, and other cities of Galilee:
He saith unto Philip - He directed His discourse to him particularly, because he was of Bethsaida, near to which place Christ now was, and therefore might be best able to answer the following question:
whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? This, according to the other evangelists, must be said after Christ came from the mountain, and the people were come to Him, and He had received them kindly, and had instructed them about the kingdom of God.

6:6 And this He said to prove him: for He Himself knew what He would do.

And this He said to prove him - Or "tempting him", trying his faith, and not only his, but the rest of the disciples; and to prepare them for the following miracle; and that it might appear the more illustrious and marvellous:
for He Himself knew what He would do; Christ had determined to work a miracle, and feed the large number of people that were with Him, with that small provision they had among them; and being God omniscient, He knew that He was able to do it, and that He was determined to do it, and it would be done; but He was willing first to try the faith of his apostles.

6:7 Philip answered Him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

That is our way. When our faith is little, we begin calculating the pennyworths that are wanted, and we make them out to be so much more than we possess or can possibly scrape together. That is not faith, it is reason, — poor, dim, shallow reason, which forgets the Infinite, and begins to calculate its own limited and insufficient forges.

6:8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto Him,

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother - Who also, and his brother Peter, were of Bethsaida, as well as Philip, and was a disciple of Christ's.

6:9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

There is a lad here - Who either belonged to Christ and His disciples, and was employed to carry their provisions for them; which, if so, shows how meanly Christ and his disciples lived; or he belonged to some in the multitude; or rather he came here to sell what he had got:
which hath five barley loaves - The land of Canaan was a land of barley, as well as wheat; this sort of grain grew there in plenty, and was in much use.

6:10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

When Christ bids men sit down, He has a dainty carpet for them to sit upon: “There was much grass in the place.” One might have thought that some of those people would have refused to sit down, for it is not everybody who will sit at a table that has nothing on it. But God knows how to move the hearts of men, and so these people. If they had not strong faith, yet had they faith enough to do as they were bidden. I wish that we all had as much faith as that.

6:11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

Jesus took the loaves - As there were five loaves and five thousand people, so there was one loaf to every thousand men, independently of the women and children.

6:12 When they were filled, He said unto His disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

When they were filled - Had not only eaten, but had made a full meal, and were thoroughly satisfied, having eaten as much as they could, or chose to eat:
He said unto His disciples, gather up the fragments that remain,
that nothing be lost - this He said, partly that the truth, reality, and greatness of the miracle might be clearly discerned; and partly, to teach frugality, that, in the midst of abundance, care be taken that nothing be lost of the good things which God gives; and which may be useful to other persons, or at another time.

6:13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

They filled twelve baskets with the fragments, which was an evidence not only of the truth of the miracle, that they were fed, not with fancy, but with real food (witness those remains), but of the greatness of it; they were not only filled, but there was all this over and above. 

See how large the divine bounty is; it not only fills the cup, but makes it run over; bread enough, and to spare, in our Father's house.

 The fragments filled twelve baskets, 

one for each disciple; 

they were thus repaid with interest for their willingness to part with what they had for public service;

6:14 Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

They were convinced through their stomachs. They came to this conviction merely through eating and drinking, and that faith which comes by the senses is no faith at all, or it is a sensual faith which cannot save the soul.