sunday sermon snippet 09 August 2026
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Jesus, “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what are they for so many?”
~ John 6:8-9, CSB
This week’s posting of the Sunday Sermon Snippet comes from this past Sunday’s sermon on John 6:1-15. In this portion of the sermon below, we try to get ourselves into the headspace of one of those in the crowd of around 20,000 people who—because of the sign Jesus performs of multiplying bread and fish to feed everyone in abundance—mistakenly try to make Jesus their King.
…and if you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
But in order to understand the story, and the people within it, you have to remember that this is a very poor culture. On top of that, they are oppressed and taxed heavily. And so budgets are extremely tight, and food doesn’t come easily, or plentifully, or tastefully. Take note of the meal of the young lad, where John uses wording found only here in the NT to describe not only the quality of his sack lunch — barley is far cheaper than wheat, and doesn’t taste very good, made a bit more palatable by adding some pickled fish — but also the quantity — the portions are very small. (note: the word “loaves” here is deceptive, for the word John uses is actually for a small bun, likely more like a little square of pita bread, not a whole loaf; in other words, it is a meal barely able to satisfy one young boy, and thus ludicrously inadequate to the needs of 20,000!)
And remember this as well—Jesus grew up among them, as poor as them. He’s no stranger to hunger pains. He understands their need. And so I believe this miracle isn’t merely for the testing of Peter, but the testing of this huge crowd. How will they respond to being fed by God? Do they truly understand what he’s doing, and the need he’s really meeting?
John doesn’t make it clear what the creation of so much food looked like, exactly how Jesus did it — all we know is that he distributed barley biscuits and pickled fish in such abundance that every single one of 20,000 people had “as much as they wanted, and were full.” (vv11-12) Have you ever been to an all-you-can-eat buffet, and lost all sense of self-control? You know, forming a little food Buddah-belly? I mean, full, and painfully so? My guess is that kind of pain would be a good pain for a crowd like this.
And speaking of this crowd, I think—because of what John says of them in vv14-15, look there—I think they are making connections that Philip and Andrew hadn’t. Don’t forget what time of the year it is—Passover. And it’s a festival, it’s a holiday, it’s a time for feasting and celebration in honor of who God is, and what he has done to provide for his people; namely, he delivered them from the Egyptians, he provided within and then brought them out from the wilderness (remember the manna and the meat?), he set them in his Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. I mean, Passover for them was like Independence Day is for us! Freedom! Celebrations! Parades, parties, food and drink. A time of great nationalistic zeal and pride.
And they know the promises of the prophets, within the stories they’d heard over and over again from their parents and grandparents as they grew up. You see, this picture of eating and drinking as a celebration of God’s goodness is widely used in the Old Testament as a sign and symbol of prosperity—
“I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself…” (Ecclesiastes 8:15)
—and it is often used as a way to describe the blessing of God that his people would enjoy as they live under his covenant promises.Even more starkly, not to be able to eat is a sign of disaster. (L. Morris)
And the Rabbis had taught them that such prosperity pointed to a time when “the poor will eat and be satisfied” (Ps22.6), and that the Messianic banquet would come, in which the delights of the age to come would be signified.
Are you getting the picture? Have you stepped into their head space and experience, and so, the connections they would make as Jesus steps into their lives, with his test, and multiplies barley and fish?
And while we may now be able to be a bit more understanding of them, the truth of it is, they fail the test, because…….
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
