WEEK THREE INTRODUCTION 
TITLE: THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST
(JOHN 6–8)                                      
March 5–March 11

In John 6–8, Christ demonstrates his authority or supremacy over all things. In Colossians 1:15-17 Paul clearly states, “Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. He existed before creation began, for it was through him that everything was made, whether spiritual or material, seen or unseen. Through him, and for him, also, were created power and dominion, ownership and authority. In fact, every single thing was created through, and for him. He is both the first principle and the upholding principle of the whole scheme of creation.”  

In John 6, Jesus reveals his command of nature by multiplying the loaves and fishes much like God miraculously provided manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness. Likewise, as God parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could pass through it, so John’s Jesus has divine authority over the wind and the sea as he walks on water and quells the churning waves. 

John 7 takes place during the Feast of Tabernacles. On the last day of the feast, the high priest leads the congregation in a procession down to the pool of Siloam. There he fills a golden flagon with water from the pool. Worshippers return to the temple, singing psalms as they climb the steps to the place they started. Then the priest lifts the flagon to the sky while pouring its contents on the ground. This commemorates God’s provision of water through Moses in the wilderness. The priest would cry, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3 NKJV). But then from the back of the crowd, Christ’s disruptive voice of authority floods the space as he boldly proclaims, “If any man is thirsty, he can come to me and drink! The man who believes in me, as the scripture says, will have rivers of living water flowing from his inmost heart.” (John 7:37)

Who would have the courage to interrupt the high priest but the Son of God? And he just keeps on going. A mob of men throw an adulterous woman at his feet, and he cleverly turns the tables on them and with complete jurisdiction over the situation responds, ““Let the one among you who has never sinned throw the first stone at her.” And at the end of John 8, Christ makes significant promises: 1) those who follow him will not walk in darkness, 2) his truth will set them free, 3) those who believe in him will never die. Then he makes the most audacious claim of all, “before there was an Abraham, I AM!” (John 8:58) This declaration of Christ’s supremacy over Abraham shocks the crowd. “Who is this Jesus?” they wonder. They cannot comprehend one who existed before Adam was created or their father Abraham was born. Yet Christ is first and foremost in the Old Testament, the foundation on which the supremacy of Christ is based in John’s Gospel.

Day 12 - Sunday, March 5
Title: THE FEEDING OF THE 5,000
Scripture: John 6:1–15
After this Jesus crossed the Lake of Galilee (or Lake Tiberias), and a great crowd followed him because they had seen signs which he gave in his dealings with the sick. But Jesus went up the hillside and sat down there with his disciples. The Passover, the Jewish festival, was near. So Jesus, raising his eyes and seeing a great crowd on the way towards him, said to Philip, “Where can we buy food for these people to eat?” (He said this to test Philip, for he himself knew what he was going to do.)

“Ten pounds’ worth of bread would not be enough for them,” Philip replied, “even if they had only a little each.”

Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, another disciple, put in, “There is a boy here who has five small barley loaves and a couple of fish, but what’s the good of that for such a crowd?”

Then Jesus said, “Get the people to sit down.”

There was plenty of grass there, and the men, some five thousand of them, sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks for them and distributed them to the people sitting on the grass, and he distributed the fish in the same way, giving them as much as they wanted. When they had eaten enough, Jesus said to his disciples, “Collect the pieces that are left over so that nothing is wasted.”

So they did as he suggested and filled twelve baskets with the broken pieces of the five barley loaves, which were left over after the people had eaten! When the men saw this sign of Jesus’ power, they kept saying, “This certainly is the Prophet who was to come into the world!”

Then Jesus, realizing that they were going to carry him off and make him their king, retired once more to the hill-side quite alone.

Poetry & Poet: 
“Logos” 
by Mary Oliver

Why worry about the loaves and fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
and the felt ferocity of that love
and the felt necessity of that love,
the fish explode into many.
Imagine him, speaking,
and don’t worry about what is reality,
or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all those things.
If you can imagine it, it is all those things.
Eat, drink, be happy.
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
spoken with love.

JESUS FEEDS THE CROWD

I click to listen to today’s music. “Guide me O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.” I’d heard recordings of this hymn sung by Welsh choirs. I’d sung it on many occasions, both joyous and tearful. But this recording by Helen Miller? It’s not what I expected. The call-and-response style is from a tradition that I’m not very familiar with. Miller’s voice is raw with the distress of being in a barren land. The words are drawn out in agonized longing. The tune I’d learned is lost somewhere in her powerful rendition.

The music is familiar, yet also strange and new. I wonder if that’s how the people on the hillside with Jesus felt. They were in the wilderness without food—like their ancestors who wandered for 40 years. There was bread that appeared as from God’s hand—like manna. But this day was also different. Jesus distributed the bread to them as they sat—no gathering was required. (Perhaps, as suggested by Mary Oliver’s poem, he spoke words of love to each person he gave bread to.) And unlike manna that went bad if people tried to save it, this food provided by Jesus was such that they could eat as much as they want, and there were still leftovers.

Those leftovers gathered in baskets weren’t just a way to leave the mountain neat and tidy. They were a sign of abundance. Abundance is the title of Nigerian artist Osisiego’s art for today. His fish-filled painting might be illustrating our Scripture for today, as the boy’s few fish are multiplied by Jesus along with the bread. It might also remind us of Luke 5:1-11 or John 21:1-11, other accounts of fish brimming over at Jesus’ command. And maybe the orange, blue, and white vertical lines in the painting are water jars filled with wine, another miracle of abundance recorded in John 2:1-11.

But abundance is something we often have difficulty understanding.

The people on the hillside with Jesus that day were unlikely to have full pantries or eat three meals a day. So, it’s natural that physical bread dominated their thinking and it’s not surprising that they wanted to make Jesus king, a we’ll-never-go-hungry-with-him-on-the-throne king, But even we, with our big refrigerators and restaurants, are not immune from the temptation to look to God for material prosperity, physical abundance, and the visible good life. When we read further in John, we see that the multiplication of bread and fish is a sign that underpins Jesus’ statement, “I am the bread of life.” God’s abundant life isn’t about bread (or a big car or an expensive house or an exotic vacation), but about Jesus.

The opposite problem can also cripple us when we live as if scarcity governs the world. Never enough time. Always someone who needs more from me. Will I have enough hours in the day to cross everything off my list? Will my paycheck be enough to cover my expenses? How will the world cope when there’s not enough oil or wheat or water?

But Jesus, attuned to his heavenly Father, knows there is not only enough, but also more than enough, even lavish abundance. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). “You will bear much fruit” (John 15:5). “All these things will be given to you.” (Mt 6:33).

Osisiego’s painting is black and white on one side, but warmly colorful on the other. I see this as a contrast between the paltry kind of life I might choose or imagine for myself and the true full rich life that Jesus offers.

Prayer:
Lord, your abundance is mysterious to me. Keep me from hoarding when I should be giving, scrimping when I should be celebrating. Help me trust that what you give will not only satisfy but will overflow. Help me know what it is I am truly longing for so I can let you “Feed me till I want no more.”

Dr. Kitty Barnhouse Purgason
Professor Emerita
Department of Applied Linguistics and TESOL
Biola University

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab