John 6:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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John 6:2

Comments

We read in the other Gospels that John the Baptist had just been beheaded, murdered by Herod, and there would have been great heavy-heartedness among the disciples of Christ and on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So he crosses the sea in order to withdraw for some quiet – and they have just a little, but not much, because the great crowds follow, but supplemented by those who had been following John the Baptist. By and large they have been directed to Christ, and so the crowds are even bigger than before. We are going to read in due course that there were at least 5,000 men, and in addition there would have been women and children who stayed for an entire day. The reason they followed him is because they saw his miracles. The tense of the verb in Greek indicates continuous action – it is not just that they saw them; they were seeing them. They were currently completely absorbed by the spectacular nature of Christ’s miracles. They wanted to see first one, then another, and this was the excitement of the moment.It was the time of the year when the Passover was approaching, and the minds of the people would be focused on redemption, the ancient redemption from Egypt, promised redemption through a Redeemer and through a Messiah. Unfortunately however their teachers had pretty well all decided that the Redeemer, when he came, would be a political redeemer and that the great thing would be deliverance from the Roman occupation and the re-establishment of the nation in wealth and prosperity and power. Surely a miracle worker – and there had not been one who could perform miracles for centuries among the Jews – must be the Messiah. They were therefore following him not only to see the miracles and to have members of their own family healed if possible, but because they felt that here was surely the Messiah they longed for. They wanted something here and now, something in this present time, in this present world. They just did not listen to him when he spoke about repentance and remission of sin, which he did constantly. Their ears were closed to such talk. So they crowded round the northern side of the lake and flocked after him.

Application

You get it today among theological liberals, who of course think of the Christian faith only in terms of what it can do to the present world, as though Christ came in order to make a peaceful and prosperous world, and to lift up the poor, and so on. That has been their view for years: this complete misinterpretation of the Christian faith that will help us here and now.

You get it even among some professing Christians. In the charismatic world, for example, even where they have the Gospel, more people seem to be interested in what it is going to do for them, here and now on earth. With a kind of ecstatic enjoyment and pleasures – I want God’s best for me. It is all about our present uplift and enjoyment and healing with so many. People want demonstrations of power in this present physical world that can help them in some way. They are not so interested in repentance and remission, and changed lives, and separation from sin and worldliness, and living for his glory. It is all for me. So it should not surprise us that there was a massive following for some present benefit.

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John 6:2 Commentary and Bible Study