Feeding with five loaves: A miracle with a tinge of sadness. Interpretation of Matthew Parable of the Five Loaves interpretation

The king was sad, but not because the head of John brought to the feast could disrupt the fun of the feasters; no, in those days, not only at the courts of eastern despots, but even at the courts of the Roman emperors, morals were not such that even a respected person could stop the further revelry of the participants in the feast. Herod was saddened because he was forced to either break his oath or kill the Prophet, whom he himself protected from the malice of the Pharisees. Both were bad, but one had to choose one of two solutions. And so, he looks at his nobles and elders, as if summoning their answer to the question that occupied him. Probably, the interlocutors decided that it was better to kill a person than to break a carelessly given oath, since by yielding to them, Herod decided to kill. For the sake of the oath and those who reclined with him(), he sent a squire, ordering him to bring the head of John. The prison in which John was kept was not far from Herod's palace, and perhaps even in his palace itself, since at that time prisoners were not kept in separate houses (prisons), but in the palaces of rulers and in the houses of judges. The squire-executioner carried out the order, cut off Ianna’s head and brought it on a platter; Salome took it and took it to her mother.

Mortification of John

Tradition says that Herodias mocked John's head, pricked his tongue with a needle, which accused her of debauchery, and ordered his body to be thrown into one of the ravines surrounding Machera; But students Joanna have taken headless his body, as evidenced by the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, and they laid him in a tomb(). The Evangelists do not say where exactly John’s body was laid, but the legend has preserved some details about this: fearing vengeance on the part of Herodias even over the lifeless body of John, the disciples took him beyond Perea, to where the power of Herod Antipas did not extend, namely to Sebaste, under the authority of Pilate. Sebaste or Sebastia is a city built under Herod the Great, the father of Antipas, on the site of a former destroyed city called Samaria. It was here, in the cave where the prophets Obadiah and Elisha were buried, that, as legend says, the body of the last Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John was laid.

(The sad event of the beheading of John the Baptist is remembered by the Orthodox every year on August 29).

The news that reached Jesus about the death of John; return of the apostles; removal of Jesus with the apostles by boat to a deserted place

Having buried John's body, His disciples went to Jesus and told Him about the death of their Teacher. At the same time, the Apostles also gathered to Him, having fulfilled the assignment entrusted to them, and they told Him everything, and what they had done, and what they had taught(). Meanwhile, at that time there were huge crowds of people around Jesus: there were a lot of people coming and going, so they had no time to eat(). The news of the violent death of the last Prophet could not help but sadden Jesus, and since He always sought solitude from the noisy crowd in moments of grief, now he wanted to go somewhere to a deserted deserted place. Moreover, His Apostles had just gathered from different places, having fulfilled the task entrusted to them. It was necessary to talk with them in private, to receive a report from them, and for this it was necessary to give them the opportunity to first take a break from the noise of the crowd, that is, to temporarily remain alone with their thoughts, concentrate on them and calmly tell the One who sent them everything that they named It was done. This is why Jesus went away with the Apostles One, without a crowd, in a deserted place. Evangelist Matthew says that Jesus went away on a boat to a deserted place One(); Evangelist Mark - that, according to the command of Jesus, the Apostles had to go to a deserted place alone; and Evangelist Luke - that Jesus, taking... with me returned Apostles , withdrew especially to an empty place, near a city called Bethsaida(). From a comparison of the stories of the three Evangelists, it should be concluded that the Evangelist Matthew, by the word One, and Evangelist Mark under the word alone, they mean Jesus alone and the Apostles alone, unaccompanied by the people with whom they were surrounded, but that Jesus withdrew from the people together with the Apostles, and not separately from them, is clear from the narration of the Evangelist Luke that Jesus, taking the Apostles with Him, went away separately, that is, without strangers, but with them; this is also clear from the narration of the Evangelist Mark that the people saw how They they set off... and fled there on foot from all the cities; they ran, of course, not after the Apostles, but after Jesus, who sailed away with them.

According to the legend of the Evangelist Luke, Jesus and the Apostles were heading towards the city of Bethsaida. How long this journey lasted, the Evangelists do not say; but from the narration of Evangelist Mark we can conclude that the crowd of people who remained on the shore ran along the shore of the lake in the direction where the boat with Jesus and the Apostles was sailing, and, increased along the way by people coming out of the cities to meet it, walked along the shore, followed the boat sailing with Jesus and Apostles with a boat and got ahead of them ( and warned them). Seeing the multitude of people gathered on the shore, Jesus could no longer continue His journey to Bethsaida; He took pity on those who were waiting for Him, like a flock of sheep that had no shepherd, ordered them to land on the shore, and got out of the boat and started teaching them a lot; according to the legend of the Evangelist Luke, and healed those who needed healing ().

The miraculous feeding of more than five thousand people with five loaves and two fish

Arriving at the deserted shore of the lake, where there was no housing, where the crowds of people waiting for Jesus could not find either lodging or food, the Apostles, as evening fell, turned to Jesus with a request to let the people go: The place here is deserted and the time is already late; release the people so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves(). But Jesus said - they don't need to go, you let them eat(), - went up the mountain with the Apostles and sat there. The people followed Him. Then, pointing to the crowds coming towards them, Jesus, wanting to test the faith of the Apostle Philip, asked him: where can we buy bread to feed them?“Yes, we don’t even have the means to buy bread for such a crowd,” answered Philip, “after all, There will not be enough bread for them for two hundred denarii, so that each of them gets at least a little. Not realizing that the One who raised the dead and healed the blind, dumb and paralytic can feed the hungry, the Apostle Andrew, Peter’s brother, says to Christ: here one boy has five barley loaves and two fish; but what is this for such a multitude? ().

Seeing the lack of faith of His Apostles, Jesus immediately proves to them that nothing is impossible for Him, and so that they know exactly how many people He is going to feed, He orders them to seat everyone in sections or rows on the green grass, one hundred or fifty people each, and in this way count everyone. There were about five thousand people, except women and children.

Then, taking the five loaves of bread and two fish that were brought to Him, Jesus raised His eyes to heaven, prayed, blessed the loaves, broke them and gave them to His disciples to distribute to the people; and he divided the two fish among everyone. The disciples carried pieces of bread and fish to the people reclining and saw the greatest miracle happening in their hands: as they were distributed to the people, the number of pieces of bread and fish did not decrease, but increased: “everyone ate as much as anyone wanted, and were satisfied.”

All four Evangelists claim that ate everything, that is, significantly more than five thousand people, and that all who ate were satisfied (; ; ; ); and the Evangelist John adds that the disciples of Jesus distributed so much bread and fish to those who were reclining, as much as anyone wanted. When, at the command of Jesus, they began to collect the remains of the bread, they filled twelve boxes with them. Boxes were those baskets that Jews took with them on trips instead of traveling bags to store food. No matter how small these boxes were, in any case, twelve boxes could not be filled with five loaves of bread broken into pieces, unless the number of these pieces was miraculously multiplied.

The People's Desire to Proclaim Jesus as King

An amazing miracle, performed in front of a crowd of thousands! A miracle that this crowd not only saw, but also felt, and the presence of which had not the slightest reason to doubt! The impression he made on the crowd surrounding Jesus was enormous, and under his influence everyone began to speak: this is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world(), that is, the Messiah, and if He is the Messiah, then it means the King, who must conquer the whole world for the Jews and reign forever; Why does He hesitate to declare Himself King? Behold, Easter is approaching, and Jews from all over the world will gather in Jerusalem for this holiday; Let us take Him, lead Him to Jerusalem for the holiday, there we will declare Him King and overthrow the hated yoke of the Romans. “That’s probably what they thought in the crowd surrounding Jesus.” The crowd was so enthusiastic that they were ready to begin to carry out their plan, but they were calmed down and released in peace by Jesus. As soon as this unrest among the people began, Jesus He immediately compelled his disciples to get into the boat and go forward to the other side of the sea, and He Himself went to the crowd, calmed them down and dismissed them, and then went up the mountain to pray alone.

From the narrative of the Evangelist John, one could conclude that Jesus retired to the mountain immediately as soon as he learned that they wanted to declare Him King: Jesus, having learned that they wanted to come and accidentally take Him and make Him king, again withdrew to the mountain alone. But such a conclusion would contradict the stories of other Evangelists, who convey some details of the departure of Jesus to the mountain; Thus, the Evangelists Matthew and Mark say that Jesus, forcing the Apostles to enter the boat and sail to the other side of the sea, Himself remained on the shore to let the people go (; ); and, having dismissed the people, He went up to the mountain to pray alone as the Evangelist Matthew says; or: and having dismissed them, he went up the mountain to pray, as Evangelist Mark says (;). In addition, it cannot be allowed at all that He, who came to save people from sin and lay down His life for them, so that He could hide from the enthusiastic crowd of people, capable of doing many rash acts in such a state. One must assume that He who could feed a crowd of thousands with five loaves and two fish could also calm them down; He, whose word the furious waves and storms obeyed, who passed unharmed among the brutal crowd of Nazarenes who had gathered to throw Him from the cliff, He, of course, could now fearlessly go to the people standing on the shore and with His word bring the feelings that worried them into a calm state. This is what He did: first he sent the people away, and then he went up the mountain to pray.

Jesus' hasty departure of the apostles by boat

There is no contradiction between the narratives of John, on the one hand, and Matthew and Mark, on the other: the Evangelist John says nothing at all about the fact that Jesus forced the Apostles to enter the boat and sail to the other side of the sea, but only says that they the evenings went down to the sea and, entering the boat, went to the other side of the sea; He does not talk about this compulsion and the fact that Jesus let the people go, not because this did not happen, but simply because he did not consider it necessary to report special details of the miracle of feeding the people with five loaves. Considering it generally necessary only to supplement the narrative of the first three Evangelists, Evangelist John in his Gospel either says nothing at all about what the other Evangelists narrate in detail, or speaks briefly, in order to supplement the stories with some detail or establish a connection with a subsequent event, about about which the first Evangelists report nothing. So it was in this case: the subsequent conversation of Jesus about the bread of life was conveyed only by the Evangelist John, and since this conversation had to be connected with the previous miracle of feeding the people, the Evangelist John talks briefly about it; otherwise he would not have repeated what was told in detail before by his three Evangelists; narrating, of necessity, about this miracle, he supplements the story of the same three Evangelists with the detail they missed about the desire of the people to proclaim Jesus as King. Having thus established the connection between the miracle of feeding the people and the conversation about the bread of life, and supplementing the stories of other Evangelists with a mention of the desire of the people to proclaim Jesus as King, he no longer cared about retelling what was said by others.

So, they wanted to proclaim Jesus as the King, that is, the Messiah. He is truly the Messiah whom the prophets proclaimed. Why did He avoid this? Why didn’t he want the people to openly recognize Him as the Messiah right now? Yes, because not only the people, but also the closest disciples of Jesus, even the Apostles, still had false ideas about the Messiah; they all imagined that the Deliverer-Messiah promised to the Jews would be the King of the earth, the King-Conqueror, and would conquer the whole world to the Jews; no one could yet renounce these prejudices, no one even allowed the thought that the Kingdom of the Messiah could be a Kingdom not of this world. Therefore, with such concepts of the people about the Kingdom of the Messiah, the proclamation of Jesus as King would be nothing more than an open indignation of the people against the power of the Roman emperor.

Return of Jesus to the People

The apostles could not help but sympathize with the crowd who wanted to declare Jesus King, especially since every exaltation of their Teacher pleased them; they could get carried away by the popular excitement, join the crowd and act together with it. That is why, wanting to save His Apostles from being carried away by an impossible dream and from participating in a conspiracy, Jesus immediately ordered them to get into a boat and sail without Him to the opposite shore, and He Himself went to the worried crowd.

The apostles got into the boat and went alone, without Jesus, to the other side of the sea. The Evangelist John says that they went to Capernaum; Evangelist Mark says that Jesus forced the Apostles to go forward to the other side, to Bethsaida, but Evangelist Matthew mentions only the other side of the sea. The question arises: where did the Apostles go, and where did the saturation of the people take place? – John’s disciples told Jesus about the death of their teacher while He was in Capernaum; Immediately Jesus went by boat with the returning Apostles to a deserted place near a city called Bethsaida(); Crowds of people followed Him there, and since from this deserted place the Apostles were returning by boat towards Capernaum or Bethsaida, located on the same bank, it must be admitted that Jesus, having received the news of the death of His Forerunner, left by His Apostles to a deserted place near a city called Bethsaida-Julia, northeast of the Sea of ​​Galilee; The Apostles returned alone to the opposite shore, the northwestern one, on which two cities were located not far from one another - Bethsaida seaside and Capernaum; therefore, the miracle of feeding the people with five loaves and two fish took place on the deserted northeastern shore of the Sea of ​​Galilee, the closest city to which was Bethsaida Julia.

Disaster of the Apostles at Sea

The apostles sailed in a boat; it was getting dark... a strong wind was blowing and the sea was rough; they drove far from the shore , their the boat was already in the middle of the sea, and it was beaten by waves, because the wind was contrary(). Exhausted in the fight against the opposing wind, the Apostles had to remember how they died on the same sea and how the storm instantly subsided with just one word from their Teacher; they should have regretted that they were left alone, without their Savior, and He did not come to them, He remained alone on earth, as Evangelist Mark testifies, and saw them floating in distress(), And on the fourth... watch of the night he approached them, walking on the sea.

The Jews of that time divided the entire night into four parts, called guards, of three hours each. The first watch is from six o'clock in the afternoon our time until nine o'clock; the second - from nine o'clock to midnight; third - from midnight to three o'clock in the morning; and the fourth - from three to six o'clock in the morning.

The procession of Jesus to them on the water

About the fourth watch, that is, about three o'clock in the morning, having spent the whole night in prayer, Jesus went to the needy people at sea, approached a deserted shore where there were no boats (the only boat on which Jesus and the Apostles sailed was now beaten by waves in the middle of the sea), and went further along the sea.

Christ walked on water, that is, He used His divine power to work miracles and dominate the laws and forces of nature. But even in this case, He did not use this power for Himself personally, not to save Himself from danger and not to overcome obstacles to achieving personal goals; no, He walked on the water to save the dying Apostles.

Meanwhile, the Apostles had already sailed about twenty-five or thirty stadia from the shore. A stadion is a Greek unit of length equal to approximately 185 meters. They sailed against the wind, rowed vigorously with oars for at least six hours, and were probably completely exhausted when they saw Jesus walking towards them across the sea. It was already the fourth watch of the night: it was already quite light (it was in the spring, before Easter); The apostles could clearly see the one walking towards them, but they were still so little of faith that they could not even think that it was Jesus coming. People cannot walk on water, but Jesus, according to their concepts, was a Man; therefore He could not walk on the sea; therefore, it is not He, but a ghost. In ancient times, there was a belief that the souls of the dead could appear to people and were visible, like ghosts or shadows. The Apostles mistook Jesus coming to them for such and such a ghost; mistaking this phenomenon for a bad omen about the impending wreck of their boat, they screamed in fear for their lives.

Fear of the Apostles; Peter's procession to Jesus

According to the legend of Evangelist Mark, it even seemed to them that this ghost seemed to be walking past them, wanting to pass them by (). But Jesus immediately spoke to them and said, “Be of good cheer; it's me, don't be afraid. - Ardent Peter, who had just screamed in fear along with the other Apostles, now hearing the voice of his Teacher, rushes to Him and prays to Him: God! If it is You, command me to come to You on the water.

Some interpreters of the Gospel (for example, Trench) find that in the words of Peter - tell me- expressed a desire to stand out from among the Apostles, the same desire that he expressed on another occasion, saying - if everyone is tempted, but not me(), and that partly for this he failed in walking on water.

Saying to Jesus - lead I can come to You on the water, - The Apostle Peter thereby expressed confidence that if Jesus commands, then he, Peter, will reach Him on the water. Jesus answers him: go! that is: “If your faith in Me is strong, then go and do not be afraid! you will come to me".

Rescue of drowning Peter

Peter got out of the boat; the power of faith performed a miracle on him: he walked on water. But the incessant wind and raging waves distracted Peter’s attention from Jesus, who was waiting for him; he was frightened, his faith was shaken, he began to plunge into the water and drown. In desperation he shouted: God! save me. Christ did not stop the wind and waves, but extended his hand Yours to Peter, supported him and said to him: you of little faith! why did you doubt? Why did your faith waver, the strength of which you tested when, leaving the boat, you did not plunge into the water, but went along it to Me? – Jesus did not immediately calm the raging sea deliberately, wanting to show Peter that he, having restored his wavered faith, could walk on water again. And when they entered the boat, the wind died down. From these words of the Evangelist it is clear that, in the same stormy state of the sea, Jesus and Peter reached the boat on the water, and when they entered it, then only the wind died down.

Struck by the miracle, the Apostles, in the words of Evangelist Mark, They were extremely amazed and amazed at themselves, for They they did not understand the miracle of the loaves, because their hearts were hardened(). When Jesus and Peter entered the boat and the wind instantly died down, amazement gave way to awe, and they fell down before Jesus, bowed to Him and said: truly You are the Son of God.

Continuing to sail unhindered, Jesus and the Apostles landed on the shore of the land of Gennesaret, as the Evangelists Matthew and Mark say (;), or: they landed to the shore where they swam, as the Evangelist John says (6, 21). No matter where they land on the shore, it doesn’t matter; The only important thing is the indication of the Evangelist John that the boat immediately landed on the shore. The boat could not be close to the shore; she was in the middle of the sea, 25–30 stadia from the place of departure; therefore, if she immediately, that is, extremely quickly, landed on the shore, then this should be seen only as a continuation of the miracle of walking on water.

Opponents of the reliability of the Gospels see a contradiction between the Evangelists in the fact that, according to John, the Apostles wanted to take Him (Jesus) into the boat; and immediately the boat landed on the shore where they were sailing, and according to the stories of Matthew and Mark, He entered the boat. From a comparison of these narratives, the conclusion is drawn that the Apostles wanted to accept Jesus into the boat, but did not accept him, and the boat without Him landed on the shore, near which it was located at that time.

It is impossible to draw such a conclusion from John’s brief, unspoken narrative. It was explained above why John speaks briefly about the feeding of the people and Jesus walking on water; he didn’t even say anything about Peter walking on water. Therefore, it is at least imprudent to refute the detailed narratives of other Evangelists with a brief (as if passing) reference from John to the same events. And the expression of John - wanted to take Him into the boat- does not in any way exclude His very acceptance: yes, they wanted to take Him into the boat when He told them - It's me; do not be afraid, but they did not accept Him immediately because Peter got out of the boat and went to Him; and then Jesus and Peter got into the boat.

Arrival in the land of Gennesaret; healing the sick on the shore of the lake

And... arrived in the land of Gennesaret(). The land of Gennesaret was the name given to the plain adjacent to the northwestern shore of Lake Gennesaret or Lake of Galilee, on which the cities of Capernaum and Bethsaida were located. In what exact place on this plain Jesus and the Apostles landed is unknown; it was probably not very far from Capernaum, since Jesus was in that city that same day. As soon as Jesus came ashore, he was immediately surrounded by the inhabitants of that place; They recognized Him, hastened to notify all the surrounding villages about this, and brought all the sick to Him. Belief in the miraculous power of Jesus was already so widespread throughout Galilee that the inhabitants of the place where He landed asked only to allow the sick to touch His clothes, and those who touched were healed(); They were healed, of course, not by touch alone, but by their faith and the will of Him whom they touched.

Return to Capernaum wonderfully saturated in the desert

A crowd of thousands of people, miraculously nourished and then calmed by Jesus, remained to spend the night on the same deserted shore where this miracle happened. Everyone saw that there was only one boat standing near the shore and that Jesus’ disciples entered this boat and sailed away, and Jesus, without even entering it, went up the mountain. The next morning they apparently looked for Jesus, but did not find him; His disciples were not here either. Meanwhile, in full view of them, boats that came from Tiberias, a city on the western shore of the lake, landed on the shore. On these boats (ships), many, if not all, went to Capernaum and, having arrived there, began to look for Jesus there too. They found Him and were so amazed that they asked: Rabbi! when did you come here? There is another question in this question: How Have you come here? They guessed that He could not arrive at Capernaum by ordinary means of travel; With this question they challenged Jesus to openness, but He left their question unanswered.

Understanding perfectly the mood of the crowd that was looking for Him, Jesus said: “ You seek Me not because you saw miracles, but because you ate bread and were filled. I have performed many miracles among you; but why did only the latter strike you? Is it because you think only about earthly things, about the benefits of this short-term life?

You are now looking for Me only in order to be satisfied again. Try not for this perishable food, which feeds only the body, but for that which nourishes the soul and leads into eternal life. And the Son of Man will give you this food, and that He will actually give it, this is confirmed to you by His Father, God, who revealed Himself to you in Him and in the works He does.”

Distracted by these words from the thought of perishable food, the Jews asked Jesus: “What must we do to do the works of God and have eternal life?”

Believe in Him whom He sent, - this is what is first required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life.

Faith in Jesus as a necessary condition for entering the kingdom of heaven

Yes, this is the first step towards salvation. Before the coming of Christ, although the Jews believed in God, they often retreated from Him and worshiped idols, and then, under the influence of their teachers, they forgot how to understand the Scriptures and reached a false idea of ​​​​God and the purpose of man. People of other nationalities, although they realized that there was a Supreme Being who rules the world, that is, God, their understanding of God did not extend beyond those limits that were expressed in the inscription over one of the altars in Athens: To the unknown God. Yes, before the coming of Christ, God was an Unknown God for people. But then Christ came, and from Him we learned that man is immortal, that his short-term earthly life is only a preparation for eternal life, that the deeds we have done here on earth will be rewarded at the final Judgment, that people will then be resurrected and , according to the life lived, some will be blissful in the Kingdom of Heaven, while others will suffer, that in order to achieve bliss in the Kingdom of Heaven it is necessary to do the will of God, that God, as infinite Good and Love, requires us to love Himself and our neighbors, that we we must act with all people in general as we would like others to act with us, that, loving our neighbors, we must lay down our souls for them, etc. But in order to accept all this as an immutable truth To believe this, one must be convinced that he could not speak a lie; but even such conviction is not enough: one must be convinced that when He preached, He was not mistaken, but knew for certain everything that He spoke about, and since only God could know this, then one must believe in Him as God incarnate. Studying His life, teaching and the evidence of His omnipotence demonstrated by Him in miracles, we must admit that it was not only a Man, but also God, that is, the God-Man; His resurrection should finally strengthen this faith in us. Having reached such faith, and therefore, knowledge of the will of God, we can already consciously do the works of God, that is, fulfill His will.

This is why Jesus says: to you could do the works of God, first of all, we must so that you may believe in Him Whom He sent.

Jesus said this to those whom he had just miraculously fed with five loaves of bread and two fish. But this miracle was not enough for them. Moses brought down manna from heaven and fed it to the entire Jewish people for forty years, and the Messiah, according to the teachings of the rabbis, will also feed the Jews; Therefore, what does it mean, in comparison with such constant feeding of all Jews, the miraculous feeding of only a few thousand people once? - This is how the ungrateful and hard-hearted Jews reasoned, and they said to Jesus: “Our fathers believed, and we believe, that Moses was sent from God, because he presented evidence of this by bringing down manna from heaven, which our fathers ate in the desert; and what sign will You give us? What are You doing so that we believe You, that You too were sent from God?”

Discourse on the Bread of Life

To this question Jesus answered meekly: “Moses did not give you the heavenly bread of which I am now speaking; the manna that God gave to your fathers through Moses nourished only their bodies; I’m talking about that heavenly bread that nourishes the soul and prepares for eternal life; This is the bread that My Father now gives you, having sent Me to you, for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world".

Constantly needing bread to maintain the vital functions of his body, a person cannot do without nourishing his soul, without spiritual food, if he does not want to be a bestial creature, if he strives for self-improvement. The best souls of the ancient world languished in a vain search for truth, truth, and longed to know the Unknown God; Yes, they languished, since dissatisfaction with the demands of the spirit is no less painful than starvation of the body, and the answer to these requests constitutes that spiritual food, without which a person cannot live consciously. This answer was brought by Christ from God or, as they say, from heaven. This Word is the bread from heaven that Christ is now speaking about, and this Word is Himself.

Impatient listeners, not understanding what kind of bread Jesus is talking about, and believing that the bread He promised, which gives life to the world, will free them forever from worries about acquiring food, interrupt His speech with this request: God! always give us this bread ().

Having already said that the manna fed only the Jews, and the bread of God, which He brought from heaven, will give life to the whole world, Jesus, continuing the interrupted speech, says: I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

These words express the same thought that Jesus expressed to the Samaritan woman, saying: Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life (see above, pp. 213-214).

“You ask to always give you the bread that I speak about. But this depends on you: come to Me and believe that I am telling you the truth, the truth that God told Me; then you will not be tormented by the search for truth and the path to the bliss of eternal life. You will know both the truth and the path, and you will no longer suffer from dissatisfaction with the needs of the spirit, the hunger of the soul. But for this you must believe that I was sent by My Father, and you see Me, and have seen the deeds I have accomplished, and yet you demand from Me a new sign of My messengership from God; and why? Because you do not believe in Me. You asked Me what you should do to do the works of God? And I answered you that in order to do the works of God, that is, to fulfill His will in everything, you must first of all know this will. And since I reveal the will of God to you, you must believe in Me; one must believe that the Heavenly Father really sent Me into the world to save everyone, and that I do the will of Him who sent Me. The Father wants all people to be saved. He calls everyone through Me; and whoever comes to Me, thereby doing the will of My Father, he, according to the will of the Father, is given to Me, or, as it were, given to Me by the Father. And everyone who comes to Me and does the will of the Father, I not only will not cast him out of My Kingdom, but, on the contrary, I will accept with joy, because it is the will of My Father that I should not destroy, but save everyone who comes to Me in His name. , and that I may raise them up on the last day to the bliss of eternal life; and I will raise them up. So, My word, which reveals to you the will of God and gives you the opportunity to do the works of God, is truly the bread that satisfies your spiritual hunger. Yes, I am the bread of life(); he who comes to Me and believes in Me will no longer be tormented by this hunger, will not thirst for truth and will not seek the path to eternal life, for he will find in Me both the truth and the way.”

When the Lord said this, a murmur was heard in the synagogue: the scribes and Pharisees were talking among themselves, repeating what Jesus had said: I am... the bread that came down from heaven. Not understanding or not wanting to understand the meaning of these words, they said almost mockingly: Isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does He say: I came down from heaven?(). They said this in order to cool down in those present the nascent faith in Jesus as sent by God Himself. All the teachings of Jesus and the works that He did suggested to many of His listeners that He truly came from God; and at this very time the protest of the Pharisees is heard: “What is He saying? Is it possible to believe Him that He came from God, from heaven? He did not come from heaven, but from Nazareth; we all know that; we know that He is the son of Joseph the carpenter, and Himself a carpenter; we also know His Mother. How does He say that He came down from heaven? Who can believe this?

That not everyone who was in the synagogue at that time grumbled so much, but only the scribes and Pharisees, is clear from the fact that, in response to this grumbling, Jesus refers to prophecies, which he never did when teaching people ignorant of the Scriptures.

This open murmur, these daring words of the enemies of Christ forced the Lord to interrupt His speech to the people and turn to the side where they were sitting. Looking at them, the Lord said: “ Don't grumble among yourself(); do not stir up unnecessary murmuring among those who listen to Me. Take the book of the prophets and read what is written in it: and they will all be taught by God()? Think about the meaning of these words and finally understand that no one has seen God except the One Whom He sent into the world; He alone saw God; only He can know His will and, knowing it, teach you; therefore, only through Him can you be taught by God. And since both My words and my deeds prove to you that I am the One Whom He sent into the world, then everyone who listens to Me and believes that I was sent by God learns through Me from God Himself. Therefore, only he who believes in Me, who believes that I was sent from God, can be saved and merit the bliss of Eternal Life. That's why I tell you that I am... the bread of life! not the kind of bread that your ancestors ate in the desert: that bread, although it nourished their bodies, could not save them from death, and they died. I am the bread that feeds the soul and gives it eternal life, that is, delivering it from spiritual death, from eternal torment. I am living bread, descended from heaven; and whoever eats this bread will live forever. These words of mine tempt you; you do not want to believe that I, who revealed to you the will of My Father, feed those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God, and therefore I call Myself the bread that came down from heaven. What will you say when I reveal to you the greatest secret, which you cannot understand now, which only those who believe in Me will understand, and even then not now, but later? What will you think if I tell you that I will give My body for the salvation of the world and that this Body of Mine will be the true bread, giving eternal life?..”

Talking with the Pharisee Nicodemus (see p. 199), the Lord said: “If I am telling you about earthly things, about things that are so clear to anyone not infected with the false teachings of the Pharisee, and you do not understand Me, will you understand if I say do you believe that the Messiah, the Son of Man, should be lifted up on the cross, so that everyone who believes in Him may be rewarded with the bliss of eternal life?” Nicodemus, who expected the Messiah as a warlike King who would reign forever, could not, of course, believe that this King would be ascended to the cross. Likewise, in this conversation with the scribes and Pharisees about the bread of life, the Lord said: “If you do not understand that the word of God feeds the human soul, then how can you understand that in order to save people, the Son of Man will have to give His body, and it, and likewise His blood, will become true food and true drink, leading to eternal life?”

Murmurs were heard again in the synagogue; the enemies of Christ began to speak loudly among themselves and argue: how can He give us His flesh to eat?

If the Jews argued among themselves, as the Evangelist says, then it means that there were among them those who did not find anything strange in the words of Jesus, who were ready to believe in Him as coming from God, as the true bread of life. But there were, of course, very few of these among the people who made up the party hostile to Jesus. However, this murmur and these disputes, as we will see below, had an effect on many of those in the synagogue, and this was just what the insidious Pharisees sought.

Later, in His farewell conversation with the Apostles at the Last Supper, Jesus, blessing the bread, broke it and, distributing it to the Apostles, said: take, eat: this is My Body. Giving them a cup of wine, he said: drink from it, all of you, for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (). Do this in My remembrance(). These words were spoken that evening when Jesus and the Apostles, according to the custom of the Jews, ate the Old Testament Passover, which served as a remembrance of the deliverance of the Jews from captivity and the yoke of Egypt. That Passover consisted of a baked lamb, which the Jews ate with unleavened bread and bitter herbs; and they ate it for the first time on the night before they left Egypt. That was the Old Testament Passover. Now Jesus, pointing to His impending death on the cross, and to Himself as the New Testament Lamb, taking upon Himself the sins of the whole world (), says that His body and His blood, taken in the guise of bread and wine, will constitute the Passover New Testament. The blood of the Old Testament lamb, with which the Jews, before the exodus from Egypt, smeared the doorposts and lintels of their houses in order to preserve their firstborn from destruction (), is now replaced by the blood of Christ, the blood of the New Testament, which He shed for many for the remission of sins their. Thus, at the Last Supper, the Sacrament of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, the Sacrament of the Eucharist, was finally established; in the conversation about the bread of life in the Capernaum synagogue, Jesus does not point to bread and wine, under the guise of which those who believe in Him must receive His Body and Blood, but says that the bread that He will give is His flesh, which He will give for the life of the world .

Yes, in order to consciously do the will of God and through this not only be saved from condemnation, but also be rewarded with the bliss of Eternal Life, you need to know this will. Christ announced this will to people; but in order to accept it as the actual will of God, one must believe Christ, one must believe that everything that He says is said by God Himself, that He and the Father are one. What made it difficult to believe was that Jesus was a Man; no one, not even the Apostles, could then understand the mystery of the incarnation of God, the mystery of the God-manhood of Jesus. Therefore, Jesus Christ had to sacrifice His life as a Man, His human body, so that by his subsequent Resurrection he would convince people of His Divinity, and therefore of the truth of everything He said. And then this resurrected His body and His shed blood will truly be that heavenly food that will nourish faith in Christ as God, and will lead believers to the bliss of eternal life. That's why Jesus said that the bread that came down from heaven is His body, which He gives for the life of the world, that is, for giving people the opportunity to believe in Him and through this achieve Eternal Life.

The scribes and Pharisees continued to argue, but the Lord, wanting to stop this dispute, spoke to them, twice confirming the justice of His words (true, true): If you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him... and I will resurrect him on the last day ().

Words - abides in Me, and I in him- leave no doubt that the Body and Blood of Christ, given by Him for the salvation of people, constitute a necessary means for the communion of all believers with Christ, for their unity in Christ. It is not enough to just believe in Jesus as the God-man; we must merge with Him and abide in Him, so that He may also abide in us. In Him, as the God-Man, the complete merging of His human will with the will of God was expressed; We, too, must strive for a similar merging of our will with the will of God; with all the strength of our will, with all our thoughts and desires, we must abide in Christ, desire what He wanted, act in everything as He taught; then He, guiding our will and our actions, will abide in us, and then only, that is, under such conditions, He will resurrect us on the last day to Eternal Blissful Life (everyone will be resurrected, but not all to Blissful Life). And for such unity, Jesus established the Sacrament of receiving His Body and Blood. Just as... I live by the Father, so he who eats Me will live by Me.(), and you will not live like your fathers, who ate manna and died; no, he will live forever.

This conversation took place in Capernaum, in the synagogue, in the presence of the Apostles and other disciples of Jesus. Now it was no longer the Pharisees and scribes, but many of His disciples, quietly, as if in a whisper, saying to each other: What strange words! who can listen to this?(). This murmuring was not noticed by others in the synagogue, but could not escape the omniscient Jesus, and He He said to them, “Is this tempting you?” What if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ().

“The speech is pathetically fragmentary, requiring an addition, which should be this: if this tempts you, will you not be more tempted when you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? The Lord here speaks of His ascension to the Father in a broad sense, as an ascent to His glory through suffering (); in visible suffering is the beginning of His glory; having suffered, He died and rose again and ascended. It is this initial, so to speak, point of His glory - His suffering and shameful death - that He points out here as an object of temptation for the Jews even greater than the temptation about His present speech. If you are now tempted by My word about the bread of life, My Flesh, what will happen, won’t there be a greater temptation for you when you see My suffering and shame, not realizing, in the carnal direction of your views, that this suffering and death is the path to glory Mine and rising to where I was before? (Bishop Michael. Explanatory Gospel).

Telling the grumbling disciples that they would be even more seduced by the end of His earthly career when they saw Him crucified on the Cross, although this godmother would only be the beginning of His ascension to where He was before, the Lord said: “You think everything about earthly things, about the carnal, and you cannot renounce it even when I tell you about heavenly things, about the salvation of your souls. Understand that true life, Eternal Life, is given not by bodily food, not by the manna that your fathers ate, but by that spiritual food, that heavenly bread that I give you. After all, true Eternal Life is the life of the spirit, and not the body; the spirit animates the body, the spirit gives life, but not flesh; the flesh does not benefit at all, does not lead to the bliss of eternal life. You think only about earthly, carnal things, the words that I speak to you are spirit and life; they lead to the perfection of the spirit, to the perfection of your souls, and provide you with the bliss of Eternal Life. But to understand them you need faith in Me, and I see that among you there are also unbelievers; they do not understand Me; not understanding Me, they do not follow Me; refusing to fulfill the will of God, they cannot come to Me. It is the will of My Father that everyone should believe in Me and everyone should come to Me; he who comes to Me comes according to the will of My Father, and this coming of him is, as it were, given to him by the Father; and whoever rejects the will of God is not given it by My Father to come to Me. That is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is given to him from My Father.".

Abandonment of Jesus by Many Disciples

The conversation about the bread of life is over. Jesus left the synagogue, and then there was a division of the crowd that had followed Him everywhere; many of His disciples departed from Him and no longer walked with Him().

These disciples finally understood that Jesus was not at all the kind of Messiah that the Jews were waiting for, and that He, in the spirit of His teaching, could not be the King-Deliverer who must overthrow the yoke of the Romans, hated by the Jews, and conquer the whole world; Realizing this, they left Jesus and did not return to Him.

Until now, countless crowds of people have followed Jesus; many constantly followed Him, constantly listened to His teachings, and therefore were called His disciples. But the vast majority of those who followed Him were amazed only by the miracles He performed, but did not have true faith in Him. Such followers are unreliable and fickle. They need more and more miracles to maintain their enthusiastic mood; for example, after the miraculous feeding of a crowd of thousands, many of the witnesses to this miracle dared to ask Jesus: “What have you done so that we can believe you that you too were sent from God?” The inconstancy and unreliability of such people were expressed especially strongly in the last days of Jesus’ earthly life: amazed by the new extraordinary miracle of the resurrection of the dead and already decaying Lazarus, the Jews enthusiastically welcomed the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and four days after that they shouted to Pilate: “Crucify! crucify Him!” No, such people would not have believed in Jesus as the true Messiah, even if He had explained to them in a language they could understand the meaning of the Sacrament of receiving His Body and Blood that He established. That is why Jesus did not continue to explain to them the doctrine of the bread of life, nor did He hold them back when they began to disperse from Him. It was not the large number of disciples that Jesus needed to spread His teachings throughout the world, but the unshakable faith in Him of the few who were ready to lay down their souls for Him. Having lost even one of His twelve chosen disciples, Jesus, in a farewell conversation with the eleven, said: take heart: I have conquered the world().

Jesus asked the apostles if they too would like to leave

Jesus grieved, of course, that the sensually inclined crowd could not renounce their prejudices and false teachings, could not rise to the understanding of His teaching, but the division of all those who had previously followed Him into believers and those who did not believe in Him should have happen; it was necessary for the success of His work, and it happened now: Jesus remained with a few disciples. Wanting to test the faith of His chosen Apostles, He asked them: would you like to leave too?? With this question, He gave the Apostles complete freedom to follow Him or leave Him, following the example of others. On behalf of all the Apostles, Simon Peter answered: God! who should we go to? there is no other teacher to whom we could go; You, and You alone, teach such a teaching that will lead those who believe in You to eternal life; You have the verbs of eternal life. No, we will not leave You; we have believed and known that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Peter said this for everyone Apostles, but Jesus, penetrating the soul of each of them, corrected Peter, saying that Not all they have such faith that one of them is as hostile to Him as the devil. Jesus did not say who this one was; but the Evangelist explains that it was He who spoke about Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed Him.

It is unknown when exactly the criminal thought of betraying his Teacher sank into the soul of Judas. From the further narrative of the Evangelist John, we know that Judas was the treasurer of the small community of Christ, that is, he carried the box into which believers in Jesus put their donations, and made all expenses to meet the modest needs of Jesus and the Apostles; we also know that this treasurer there was a thief(), that is, he appropriated for himself from the cash drawer what constituted common property. Having become a thief, did not Judas remain among the twelve only because he found it profitable for himself? Had he not long ago planned to betray Jesus to His enemies, who relentlessly followed Him wherever He went? – If this question should be answered in the affirmative, then Jesus, who pointed out one of the twelve as a traitor and His enemy, thereby revealed His omniscience; if at that time Judas had not yet thought about betrayal, then Jesus, by saying this, proved that He also knew the future. In both cases, we see the manifestation by Jesus of such properties that are inherent only in God.

After the conversation about the bread of life, Jesus left Capernaum and walked around Galilee. Evangelist John, speaking about the miraculous feeding of the people in the desert, said that at that time Easter, a Jewish holiday, was approaching. Jesus always went to Jerusalem for this festival, but now he did not go and did not want to be in the country called Judea at all, because Jews, that is, the scribes, Pharisees and elders of the people, having already decided to get rid of Him by force, only were looking for case kill him(). Jesus did not shy away from death on the cross, but He Himself went to meet it when it was necessary to fulfill the will of the One who sent Him. Now that time had not yet come, and therefore He did not go to Jerusalem, but continued to preach in Galilee.

The mystery of the birth of Jesus was unknown to His enemies and talking about it now would be pointless; but it was necessary to point out the path that could lead to faith in Christ. And so, for this purpose the Lord said: No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him (Jn. 6, 44).

Taking these words literally, one involuntarily asks the question: if only those people who are drawn to Him by the Father can come to Christ and, therefore, be saved, then what is the fault of those whom the Father has not attracted and does not want to attract to Him? Answering this question, we must remember that God the Father, out of His boundless love for the human race, out of His boundless goodness, wants all people to be saved; For this purpose He sent His only begotten Son into the world; For this reason, He calls everyone to the Son, He calls them with the works that He gave the Son to do publicly. And with such concepts of ours about God, based on the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is impossible to say that the Father attracts to the Son not everyone, but whomever he wants. And if you can’t talk about the Father like that, then you can’t take literally the above words of Jesus Christ.

How should we understand these words? I think that they are not talking about the Father, to whom all people, by nature, should have an attraction, but about people, some of whom have a natural, innate attraction to their Creator, while others, having fogged their minds and hardened their hearts , drowned out this natural attraction in themselves. And if we accept this explanation, then the true meaning of the Lord’s words will be this: whoever has no attraction to God the Father, who does not love Him and does not try to do His will, in a word, who is indifferent to the Father, whom nothing attracts to Him, is , of course, will not go to the Son; the Father was revealed in the Son, and if people are not interested in the Father, will they become interested in the Son?

Yes, no one will come to the Son if he does not feel a natural attraction to the Father, and we see this almost every day in our age of unbelief: people who reject the existence of God or are indifferent to the question of his existence are not at all interested in the Gospel. Why should they know Christ, in whom the God they rejected was revealed? God, in whose existence they do not believe, does not attract them to Himself. That's why they don't come to Christ. People who seek God, and therefore have an attraction to Him, first of all take up the Gospel, that is, they go to Christ and try to know God in Him.

Jesus Christ was a revolutionary. But this blasphemous slander is refuted by the stories of the holy Evangelists. A wonderfully crowded crowd, in which there were about five thousand adult men alone, offered Jesus royal power, even despite His desire, they wanted to lead Him to Jerusalem and there to proclaim Him the King of Israel. There is no doubt that this crowd, on the way to Jerusalem, would have been joined by countless crowds of people who passionately wanted to overthrow the Roman yoke and begin to realize the people's dreams of the conquest of the whole world by Jews. The people were so prepared for an uprising, a revolution, that as soon as Jesus Christ agreed to declare Himself the King of Israel, almost all the Jews would have followed Him. But Christ refused such an offer. And who among the revolutionaries would not take advantage of such an opportunity to become the head of the popular movement and carry out their revolutionary plans? Was this the only case? Every day Christ could create such occasions to proclaim Himself King. And the resurrection of Lazarus, when many even from the party hostile to Jesus believed in Him? And the solemn entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, when all the people met Him as the desired King of Israel, and shouted in victory Hosanna? Which revolutionary would not take advantage of such a favorable opportunity to rouse the people and declare himself king? And Christ, although He accepted the honor of Him as the true Messiah, promised by God and foretold by the prophets, did not accept the power of an earthly king. The people were so excited at that time that they would follow Jesus wherever He led them; and the people were confident that the Son of David, who was solemnly entering the capital of His Kingdom, would immediately accept the scepter that belonged to Him. But in fact it turned out that Christ, having examined the temple and seeing it again turned into a market square, did nothing, due to the lateness of the hour, and went on foot with his Apostles to Bethany for the night; the next day the Lord healed all the sick who were in the temple, and on the third day he denounced the Pharisees and scribes, but not only did not say a word about His royal power, but even commanded that the things that are Caesar’s be given to Caesar. And this refusal of the proposed Royal power, in connection with the instigations of the high priests, scribes and Pharisees, produced a revolution in the opinions of the people about Jesus. If He did not accept power and did not proclaim Himself the King of Israel, then He is not the Messiah; so, undoubtedly, the people reasoned; and it pained him to recognize his dreams as unfulfilled; It was painful to descend from behind the clouds of the universal kingdom of the Jews onto an unsightly land guarded by the swords of merciless Roman soldiers. Disappointment in a person often entails terrible anger towards him. If Jesus is not the Messiah, then crucify, crucify Him! And the Lord knew that all this would be so, and, despite this, he did not become the head of the nascent revolution, and rejected the scepter of the King of Israel from Himself. So let no one dare to call Him a revolutionary! Let them not confuse simple-minded people who have a vague concept of Christ, the Son of God!

The scribes and Pharisees, who were always hostile to Jesus Christ, did not miss the slightest reason to shake the people’s faith in Him as the Messiah. And now that the Lord said that He came down from heaven... to do the will... of the Father who sent Him(), they, with undisguised mockery, turned to the people, saying that Jesus was from Nazareth, Whose father and mother we know(), could not come down from heaven.

The miraculous feeding of the people with five loaves

Soon after the death of John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and his disciples went to the other side of the lake. People ran after him along the shore on foot. When the boat stopped, a lot of people had already gathered on the shore. Jesus Christ, seeing a multitude of people, took pity on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He went ashore and talked a lot and for a long time with the people about the Kingdom of Heaven, and healed many sick people. The people listened to Him with such zeal that they did not notice how time passed. Finally, the day began to turn towards evening.

The disciples approached Jesus Christ and said: “The place here is deserted, and the time is late; let the people go so that they can go to the nearest villages to buy bread for themselves, because they have nothing to eat.”

But the Lord answered the disciples: “They don’t need to go; you give them something to eat.”

The Apostle Philip said to Him: “Even two hundred denarii of bread will not be enough for them, so that each of them will have at least a little.”

Jesus said, “How much bread do you have? Come and see.”

When they found out, the Apostle Andrew said: “A boy here has five barley loaves and two fish; but what is this for so many people!?”

Then Jesus Christ said: “Bring them here to Me,” and ordered the disciples to seat the people in rows of one hundred and fifty people.

Then Jesus Christ took five loaves and two fish and, looking at heaven, blessed them, broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples distributed them to the people.

Everyone ate and were satisfied.

When everyone was satisfied, Jesus Christ said to His disciples: “gather up the remaining pieces so that nothing is lost.”

The disciples went, gathered and filled twelve full boxes with the remaining pieces, and those who ate were about five thousand people, not counting women and children.

Another time, the Lord fed 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish, also not counting women and children.

NOTE: See the Gospel of Matthew, ch. 14, 14-21; from Mark, ch. 6, 32-44; from Luke, ch. 9, 10-17 from John, ch. 6, 1-15.