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.