Divinity That Hides – John 6:1-21

A text – John 6:1-21

6:1 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.
6:2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.
6:3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
6:4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.
6:5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”
6:6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.
6:7 Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”
6:8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,
6:9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”
6:10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all.
6:11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.
6:12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”
6:13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.
6:14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
6:15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
6:16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,
6:17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
6:18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.
6:19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified.
6:20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
6:21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

A reflection:

Two supernatural events happen in our Gospel reading for this week: the feeding of the 5000, and a storm on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus comes walking on the water toward the disciples’ boat. The reaction to these two miracles was essentially the same. The 5000 people Jesus fed wanted to grab him, hold him, and make him their king by force. And when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they wanted to bring him close, take him into the boat, and touch him to see if he was real.

Miracles like these are so profound that we need to grab onto something about them that is really real. If we cannot understand this thing, we want to touch something else we can understand.  There is nothing wrong with such a human reaction. But Jesus did not come to be made an earthly king, nor did he need to get into a boat that was already at the shore. Jesus shows his divinity and then hides a little.

Jesus had spent a lot of time with his students, and they had seen many miracles of healing. They were convinced he had heavenly gifts. But these two events, set back-to-back as they are in the Gospel of John, must have turned their minds toward accepting that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. And how did they live daily with that clearer picture of Jesus’s identity? They still walked with him, ate with him, washed their hands with him. Yet, like his mother Mary, they were more aware that he was not merely human. Perhaps some of them got used to his being both fully human and fully divine. When we come to terms with Jesus’s nature, we see God’s deep love for us humans and God’s desire to live among us, be one of us, know our joy and our suffering. That is the God who made us and loves us. Even now.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for the stories that show us how your disciples came to know that you were both divine and human. Help us to remember you have walked on this earth, seen what we’ve seen, even lost what we lost. Help us to turn to you as our God, knowing that you really know us.   Amen.