Jesus our sustainer and protector
John 6:1-21
Chapter 6 is a turning point for the nation. It is now two years into the ministry of Jesus, he has gained great popularity and there is a growing Messianic expectation among the people. Yet when we come to end of this chapter many of these same followers turn away from following him.
Both of these miracles have a number of parallels with the events found in Exodus, with Moses and the nation of Israel being delivered from Egypt and the provisions provided for them in the wilderness to sustain their life.
In the feeding of the 5000, we are brought face to face with the inability of the disciples to solve the dilemma of how to feed all these people. Jesus then uses what was available to him from any insignificant person with insignificant resources and uses them to feed all the people. Two lessons come out of this: 1) give him what you got and let him do the rest and 2) we need to view everything we have with thanksgiving as having coming from God himself. The people made the connection with Moses (Deut 18:15-19) and attempted to make Jesus king. Jesus then withdraws himself from the people knowing that their motives were wrong (v26) and sends his disciples away.
In the second miracle, the disciples are attempting to cross the sea and encounter a severe storm. Jesus walks out to them and delivers them from the storm. Again there is a parallel to the nation being delivered across the Red Sea under Moses leadership (Psa 77:16-20) and Jesus uses the same term to describe himself as he had with Moses, it is I (I AM).
We have seen so far with these 5 miracles that Jesus is: 1) the creator of life, 2) the restorer of life, 3) the hope of life and now he is shown to be 4) our sustainer of life and 5) our protector of life.
He is God guiding his people thru the calamities of life and stands ready to protect us by forgiving us our sins, when we turn to him for salvation. How will you respond to his grace?