Purposeful Kindness
John 6:1-15,
After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then 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. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
One morning last week it occurred to me, in a fresh way, that God’s mercy to me has always been deliberate. Whatever good God has ever given to me, he meant it. He meant to give it to me. It was on purpose. And that’s true for all of us.
The only kind of kindness we ever receive from God is purposeful kindness. This means there’s not a single blessing in our lives that is arbitrary or whimsical — and that goes for everything big and small — from a cup of coffee to a roof over our heads, from a good parking spot in a crowded lot to a dinner table crowded with children.
Every good thing in our lives is from the hand of God on purpose. Purposeful kindness.
And when we get this truth in our heads, we start to see it everywhere. It’s all over the place in John Chapter 6 in this story of Jesus feeding the five thousand — which, by the way, this miracle is unique because it’s the only miracle of Jesus that is recorded in all four Gospels.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each tell this story because it was monumental for the early church. Through this miracle Jesus is shining brightly as the fulfillment of Old Testament hope, and in the Gospel of John especially, the main message that John wants us to get is that Jesus is greater than Moses.
Jesus has already said in Chapter 5, verse 46 that Moses wrote about him, and now we’re going to see how he surpasses Moses. That’s the narrative strategy going on here, but I don’t want us to be too fixed on the narrative strategy that we miss the wonder of Jesus’s heart in this story — his purposeful kindness is on display.
And that’s our focus. I want to show you the purposeful kindness of Jesus in three ways. Here’s the first:
1. Jesus is a patient provider.
Let’s start in verse 1 and notice that it opens with a new setting (and it’s all important information) … Jesus is back in Galilee (where he’s from) and there’s a “large crowd” of people following him. That phrase “large crowd” is used twice, and we learn later that it’s large as in likely over ten thousand people.
Now why was this large crowd following Jesus? Verse 2 says it’s because they’ve seen his signs. We already know from Chapter 4 that the Galileans really loved the signs, and so here they are again coming to see more.
Important Info
Then verse 3 says that Jesus went up on the mountain — John doesn’t tell us what mountain because it doesn’t really matter — we just need to know that Jesus was on a mountain. And this is important because it’s an allusion to Moses. It’s what we could call a ‘Moses-wink.’ (John gives us several little clues in this story to remind us of Moses; you could call them Moses breadcrumbs, but we’re gonna call them “Moses-winks.”)
The most famous mountain in the Hebrew Bible is Mount Sinai where Moses received God’s Law — we know a big part of Moses’s ministry was on a mountain, and then the other big part of Moses’s ministry was, of course, leading the Exodus — which by the way, verse 4 tells us it’s Passover. Passover is the annual feast in Jewish life that remembers Moses leading the exodus (so verses 3 and 4 have back-to-back Moses-winks).
Jesus is on a mountain, during Passover — and there’s a large number of people following him — and look what Jesus does in verse 5.
The text says he lifted up his eyes.
This could just be the basic information of what he did, except that earlier in Chapter 4, verse 35 Jesus commanded his disciples, “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”
Jesus was telling them: Recognize the work of God in the world and join in! And that’s exactly what Jesus is doing here! He’s about to work the work of God! So there’s a drumroll. We’re on the the edge of our seats.
But then he asks one of his disciples a question.
Humorous Irony
He has twelve disciples, but this time he’s talking to Philip, who was from that area, and he asks him, verse 5:
“Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”
And I think there’s meant to be humor in this question. Because the question, at face-value, is crazy. There are thousands of people here, Jesus, what do you mean buy bread?
In fact, everybody look at verse 6 for a minute. This is one I really need you to see, verse 6. Everybody, verse 6. This is John the narrator talking — Verse 6:
“[Jesus] said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.”
So this means the question in verse 5 seems so absurd that in verse 6 John as the narrator has to chime in and explain to us that Jesus is up to something. John is saying: Hang on and watch this.
And at this point, I think the main thing that separates this story from a modern-day sitcom is a laugh track. Now we’re gonna try something we’ve never tried before. Do y’all think we could make our own laugh track? …
Now I’m gonna read this dialogue and when I point at y’all, laugh together. We’re gonna make a live laugh track. Because there’s humorous irony going on in this story and it’ll make sense to you. You’re gonna see it. Here we go:
Jesus, looking at thousands of people, says: “Hey Philip, where are we gonna buy bread so that these people can eat?” [laugh track]
Philip: “16,000 dollars worth of bread would not be enough for each person to get a bite!” [laugh track]
Andrew: “I gotta kid here whose got five loaves and two fish.” [laugh track]
See, this is a sitcom! It’s a situation-comedy.
And then Jesus says, “Have the people sit down” — which instantly takes this scene from comedy to He’s gonna really do it. He’s gonna feed these people. And we’ll get there in a minute, but the first thing that stands out here is that Jesus is even taking the time to have this dialogue with his disciples.
He Takes Care of It
Verse 6 tells us that he knew what he was going to do; so he could have just done it, but instead he chooses to involve his disciples. He chooses to slow the whole thing down to double his giving — because not only is he gonna give food to this crowd, but now he’s gonna give a lesson to his disciples. And this takes amazing patience. And every parent in this room gets this. …
I’m at home and I’ve got to fix a broken cabinet door, so I’ve got my wood-glue and some screws and a clamp and my drill — I’m ready to go — and then one of my dear children walks in and says, “Hey, Dad, can I help?” And in that moment I’ve got to decide: Do I wanna make this go twice as long and be twice as stressful?
You bakers in the room know what I’m talking about. Sometimes you just wanna make a batch of cookies … and then sometimes you want your five-year-old to help. It all depends on your patience level.
Look at how patient Jesus is here! I’m guessing Philip failed this test. A better response would have been to answer Jesus’s question with another question. Philip should’ve said: “Jesus, you can do all things, would you feed them?”
See Andrew gets a little closer (maybe he remembers Jesus turning the water to wine), but neither of these disciples get it exactly right. And notice that Jesus doesn’t rebuke them. He doesn’t shake his head in frustration. He just takes care of it.
One day we’re gonna find out how many times Jesus has done this for us — how many times we’ve not had it right but Jesus was our patient provider.
There’s a prayer of thanksgiving I pray often that goes:
Jesus, thank you for the blessings in my life I was neither capable of achieving nor wise enough to ask for but which you sent anyway.
Thank you for the particular mercies you’ve bestowed on me and for all the ways you’ve been patient with me — for the ways you’ve helped me change and break bad habits and patterns of thought, heart attitude, and practice; and for the ways you’ve protected me from the fuller consequences of my own blindness.
He’s so patient with us. He just takes care of it. One way the purposeful kindness of Jesus is on display is that he is the patient provider.
2. Jesus is a generous host.
In verse 10, Jesus tells the disciples to have all the people sit down, and there are five thousand men. Now if you add the women and children it would at least double the number (that’s where the 10,000 number comes from; some scholars estimate 20,000 total) — either way, this is a lot more people than one paper-bag lunch can serve. That is the most obvious thing going on here. Again, it’s comically obvious.
But Jesus took that little lunch, he gave thanks to his Father, and in verse 11 “he distributed [the lunch] to those who were seated.” And he didn’t ration out the food, but he gave everyone as much bread and fish as they wanted, verse 12, and they all got full.
And then he told his disciples to gather up all the leftovers, which ended up being twelve baskets — so they ended with more food than they had when they started; and each of the twelve disciples had his own basket to carry. Which means each disciple would’ve had a tangible reminder of what Jesus does with basically nothing but a willing heart. (By the way, that’s our only hope in ministry — our hope is that Jesus does it this way, and that he’s the one who gives us a willing heart.)
Putting on a Feast
Now I want to draw special attention to two details Jesus does here. The first is that Jesus distributed the bread. Now I don’t think this means he himself gave a slice of bread to each person individually — the disciples helped him spread it — but the point is that Jesus was hands-on in this experience and none of it was required.
There was a crowd and they were hungry, and all he had to do was just say something. He could’ve just said “Hunger, be gone.” Jesus has the power to just speak and instantly make the empty stomachs not feel empty. He could have just said the word, but he didn’t do it that way.
Also, he could have just limited everyone to a slice of bread — just tear off a piece — but instead it’s Take all you want! Which means Jesus is putting on a feast here — this whole thing is about more than solving hunger. That’s not the point. The point is that Jesus is showing himself to be a generous host. (So he’s kinda like Moses with the manna, except that he’s greater!)
He makes this wide open space his dining room. The ground these people are standing on, which John tells us was lush with grass, becomes banquette seating.
Last week, our younger kids, at their school, did a production of Beauty and the Beast. And my favorite scene of the play, by far, is when Belle is in the castle and the staff invite her to dinner, and the kids altogether sang maybe the greatest Disney song of all time, Be Our Guest. It starts:
Be our guest, be our guest
Put our service to the test
Tie your napkin ‘round your neck, chérie
And we provide the rest
Look, that’s what is happening here, except the “we” is an “I.” Jesus is hosting all of these people as his guests. And it’s to everyone’s surprise.
The disciples apparently didn’t even think about Jesus doing this.
Nobody in this crowd expected this — they were looking for signs, yes, but they couldn’t have guessed this. And that’s what makes it even more amazing!
This is the part that puts Jesus over the top as a generous host. It’s that none of these people deserved this. Jesus knows they’re not really seeking him. He will say later in verse 26 that the only reason these people are sticking with him is for the free food. And look, he knows all of that now! He knows that on the frontside and yet still, look what he does!
He not only gives to those who can’t repay him; he gives to those who don’t even want to repay him.
I feel like if I were there, I’d say:
Jesus, your strategy here is all wrong (and I know because I’m a church planter). See, what you win them with, you win them to. Jesus, you’re making shallow followers here. You’re just meeting their felt-needs and creating a positive experience — at least make the parking bad.
Jesus knows all of the pitfalls here, and he does it anyway. Why? …
Because he’s generous. Because he loves people. Because he wants somebody in that crowd to know he’s generous and loves people — because he wants us to know.
What if the purposeful kindness of Jesus on display in John 6 is actually for us who are reading this story two thousand years later?
Let us marvel at how Jesus is a generous host. And let’s learn from him.
3. Jesus is loyal to his Father’s will.
The conclusion to this miracle is the response of the crowd in verses 14–15, which was not humble worship, but ignorant zeal. They recognize, first, because of this miracle, that Jesus is the prophet promised in Deuteronomy 18:15. That’s when Moses himself said,
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.
This is not a Moses-wink, this is a straight up Moses-spotlight. Jesus is that ‘prophet like Moses.’ Moses wrote of him, and he’s greater than Moses.
The crowd is 100% correct in their assessment of Jesus in verse 14. But it goes sideways in verse 15 because they wanted to take Jesus by force and make him king. This means that these 5,000 men are a mob-in-the-making, but they’re not against Jesus, they want to ‘promote’ him.
And that’s exactly why Jesus gets out of there. But why?! They wanna make him king, Jesus is a king, why doesn’t he go along with this?
Jesus walks away from thousands of ‘loyalists’ because he is loyal to his Father’s will, and the path to the throne prepared by his Father requires a cross. That’s the reason why.
Jesus is the Prophet. Jesus is the King. And Jesus is also the Lamb, and soon enough the will of his Father is gonna lead him to Jerusalem, as one theologian puts it, “not to wield the spear and bring the judgment, but to receive the spear thrust and bear the judgment.” See, Jesus’s ascendancy to glory won’t come through popularity and prestige, but through suffering and sacrifice. Which he endured for us.
Do you see, his loyalty to his Father’s will is our salvation? That’s what he’s after. That’s why the Father has sent him.
He will be crucified in our place, slain for our sins, taking the punishment we deserved. Jesus will die and be raised to live forever so that we can too.
Jesus says, verse 40:
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Church, it is good news that Jesus is loyal to the will of his Father. It’s good news that he does not buckle to the demands of our ignorant desires.
Because if we were there, we would have wanted to make him king too. Like Peter, we would have deterred him from the cross. But he went there anyway even as we stood in his way, because he follows his Father’s will, not ours, on purpose. This is grace unmeasured, love untold!
This is the purposeful kindness of Jesus to us!
Jesus is a patient provider.
Jesus is a generous host.
Jesus is loyal to his Father’s will.
And that’s what brings us to the table.
The Table
What can we do but just thank him? This morning let’s marvel at the glory of Jesus. That’s my invitation to you now.
