John 6:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Jews once crossed the Red Sea under the leadership of Moses. But there is a great difference between what happened there and what happened here. Moses did everything by prayer, as a servant. Christ did everything with full authority.

There the water yielded to the force of the wind, so that they could pass on dry land. Here the miracle was greater. The sea remained in its natural state and thus bore the Master upon its back.

It confirmed the saying that declares: "He walks upon the heights of the sea," Job 9:8.

Meanwhile He performed the miracle of the loaves at a fitting time, since He was about to enter the obstinate and disobedient Capernaum. He wished to soften the unbelief of that city's inhabitants by miracles, not only those done within it, but also those done outside it.

The gathering into that city of such a multitude, which had shown great zeal, could have softened even a stone. But nothing of the kind happened with them. No, they desired only bodily food, and therefore Jesus rebukes them.

Knowing this, beloved, let us thank God for sensible blessings, but still much more for spiritual blessings. This is what He Himself desires. For the sake of these blessings He grants the others, attracting and teaching the imperfect by them, as people still strongly attached to the world.

Yet if, after receiving these blessings, they stop at them, they fall under condemnation and punishment. Thus Christ wished first to give the paralytic a spiritual blessing, but those present could not bear it.

When He said, "Your sins are forgiven you," Mt 9:2, they said, "He blasphemes."

I urge you, let nothing of this kind happen with us. Let spiritual blessings be the object of our particular care. Why? Because when spiritual blessings are present, no harm comes from the absence of bodily blessings.

But if spiritual blessings are absent, what hope or consolation remains for us? Therefore one must always pray to God for them and ask for them. Christ also taught us to pray for them.

If we examine that prayer, we shall find nothing fleshly in it, but everything spiritual. Even the small sensible thing for which we ask in it becomes spiritual through the manner of asking.

The very instruction to ask for nothing more than "daily" bread would already be a sign of a spiritual and philosophic mind. But see what precedes this: "Hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," Mt 6:9-10.

Then, after speaking of that sensible thing, He immediately turns aside and again comes to spiritual teaching, saying: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," Mt 6:12.

He said nothing about office, nothing about wealth, nothing about glory, nothing about power. He included in the prayer everything that tends to the soul's benefit. There is nothing earthly, but everything heavenly.

Therefore, if we are commanded to abstain from the things of life and of the present age, how wretched and pitiable we shall be if we ask God for what He commanded us to reject, even if we have it.

He commanded this in order to free us from cares. Yet if we have no concern for what He commanded us to ask, or do not even desire it, this is truly empty speech. That is why, although we pray, we make no progress.

How then, you will say, do wicked people become rich? How do the unjust, criminals, robbers, and extortioners become rich? God does not grant this to them. Certainly not. But how does God permit it?

As He once permitted it for the rich man, preserving him for a greater punishment. Hear what was said to him: "Child, you received your good things, and Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and you are in torment," Lk 16:25.

Therefore, lest we also hear this voice, we who vainly and senselessly spend our life in luxury and add sins to sins, let us care for the acquisition of true wealth and perfect wisdom.

Through this we shall receive the promised blessings. May we all be counted worthy of them, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

How evil it is to fall under accusation because of an ignorant tongue, we may learn from another: “If anyone among you thinks himself pious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s piety is vain” (Jas 1:26).

But when the people found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” (Jn 6:25). After the mystery of the miracle, He enters into discourse, so as to feed, if possible, those who had already been fed.

He wished to nourish with words the minds of those whose stomachs He had filled with loaves. Yet this is only if they can take it in. And let even what they cannot take in be received, that the fragments may not perish. Let Him speak, then, and let us listen.

It is not the power of God, by which five loaves were multiplied to feed five thousand men, that draws you now to Me. Rather, it is the feeding itself and the hope for such miraculous aid. Sensible dreams about the Messiah and His kingdom draw you to Me.

But this is not enough. “Labor not for the food that perishes.” You must feel hunger for another food also, and strive to satisfy it. You must seek eternal life and search for the food that gives eternal life.

This food, being changed within you into the sap and blood of your being, would change your whole being into its own eternal being. This is what you must consider.

And if you feel such hunger and desire such food, then the Son of Man is ready to give it to you. To reveal this source of life to you, the Father has given Him also to perform these outward miracles. They are the Father’s seal, and only a seal, a testimony, not the very thing the Father wished to give you.

Yet when they arrived in that city, they saw that Jesus was already there. Not understanding how He could have reached Capernaum faster than they by walking along the shore, they asked Him in amazement, “When did You come here?”

On these boats, many, if not all, went to Capernaum. When they arrived there, they began to seek Jesus there also. They found Him and were so astonished that they asked, “Rabbi, when did You come here?”

In this question another is heard: how did You come here? They suspected that He could not have reached Capernaum by ordinary means of travel. By this question they were drawing Jesus toward openness, but He left their question unanswered.

Knowing perfectly the disposition of the crowd that sought Him, Jesus said: “You seek Me not because you saw miracles, but because you ate the bread and were filled. I have performed many miracles among you. Why, then, did only the last one strike you? Is it not because you think only of earthly things, of the goods of this brief life?

“You are seeking Me now only so that you may be filled again. Do not labor for this perishable food, which nourishes only the body, but for that which nourishes the soul and brings it into eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food. That He will truly give it is confirmed for you by His Father, God, Who has revealed Himself to you in Him and in the works He does.”

Drawn away 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?”

To believe in Him Whom He has sent: this is what is required first of all for entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life.

The conjecture is not groundless, as in Chrysostom and Theophylact, that by a dim intuition the people guessed that something extraordinary had occurred in the Lord’s crossing, some miracle. By their question they wished to learn from the Lord Himself what had happened. Yet the Lord did not answer their direct question, but began to speak of something else.

“Yet,” Chrysostom adds, “even after such a miracle, when they came to Capernaum, they did not ask Him how He crossed or how He arrived. They did not care to learn about such a miracle. What do they say? ‘Rabbi, when did You come here?’ Unless someone should claim that the word when is used here instead of how.”

Saint John Chrysostom sees in this crowd, which had eaten the loaves, decisive signs of an evil will and a hardened heart. This is entirely just, judging from the whole course of this crowd’s dispute with the Lord.

Yet we would venture to note, as we said earlier, that not all who ate the loaves remained on the shore of the sea. Not all came by boats, and not all spoke with the Lord in Capernaum. The most self-willed and stubborn remained on the shore and came to Capernaum, those imbued with the spirit of Judaism.

Otherwise it could not have been written in Matthew 14 concerning the Lord: “And having dismissed the people, He went up the mountain to pray alone.” Therefore the greater part of the people, obedient to the Lord’s word, dispersed and went peacefully along the northern shore, glorifying God for the miracles they had seen.