A Greater Moses

John 6:1-21

Main Idea: In Jesus, God sent a greater Moses to rescue his people.

1. Jesus Miraculously Feeds the People.
2. Jesus Miraculously Crosses the Sea.
3. Jesus Is Greater Than Moses.

George Washington’s impact on the birth of the United States is reflected across the country. A state is named after him, as well as the nation’s capital. Two hundred forty-one townships and twenty-six cities are named Washington. Four forts, five mountains, and three ports bear his name. Bridges and parks and at least a dozen colleges are named after him. Imagine if you combined George Washington with the Pope or with Billy Graham, so that Washington was not only the founder of the nation, but he was also the leader of your religion. Even if you did that, you still wouldn’t come close to matching how the Jews felt about Moses. Moses was their great hero. Not only was he responsible for bringing them out of Egypt and governing them as a nation for the first time, but he was also the greatest religious leader in their history. He’s the one who went up the mountain to meet with God and receive the Ten Commandments.

The Jews’ reverence for Moses is the background for John 6. Moses was mentioned at the end of chapter 5 when Jesus told the religious leaders they failed to believe Moses because Moses wrote about him (v. 46). One day Moses himself would condemn these men for their failure to believe on Jesus. In chapter 6 we discover God sent a greater Moses to rescue his people. The first few verses of chapter 6 set the context that Jesus is to be understood as a Moses-type figure. Four details in the opening verses connect Jesus to Moses and show us Jesus is like Moses. None of these details are especially significant in themselves, but when you put them together, you see Jesus doing what Moses did.

First, Jesus is leading a crowd just like Moses did. Moses was the leader of Israel when Israel escaped from slavery in Egypt. When we think of Moses, we think of a man leading a large crowd from Egypt to the promised land.

Second, the crowd is following Jesus because they saw the signs he did. Why did the crowd follow Moses? They saw the signs he did in Egypt. Moses was the one God used to bring the ten plagues on Egypt. Those signs authenticated his role as one sent by God.

Third, Jesus and his disciples went up on the mountain. After performing signs and leading Israel out of Egypt, Moses and his servant Joshua went up on the mountain to receive the law from God.

Fourth, these events took place during the Passover, a yearly Jewish festival celebrating when God rescued his people from Egypt. The final plague was the death of the firstborn. God commanded Moses to have each family kill a lamb and spread its blood on the doorposts of their house. If they did, death would pass over them, and their firstborn would be spared.

The context of the next two events shows us that Jesus is walking in the footsteps of Moses. What follows these two events is a discussion about how Moses fed them with manna in the wilderness on the way to the promised land. Jesus is revealing himself to be like Moses, but the convincing proof comes in the next two events. Anyone could have led a crowd up a mountain at Passover. That by itself wouldn’t make a person like Moses. So, how is Jesus like Moses?

Jesus Miraculously Feeds the People

Moses was tasked with leading the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt across the wilderness to a new home in the land God had promised to give them. It was no easy task. The size of the nation alone—between one and two million people—made it almost impossible. Can you imagine trying to lead that many people to do anything, much less traverse the wilderness in search of a new home? One of the main problems was how to feed a group this large. Where would the food come from for them to survive this trek? You couldn’t plant crops out in the wilderness and wait for them to grow. You couldn’t leave Egypt with forty years’ worth of food in your saddlebags.

How would they eat? God would provide their food. He told Moses to tell the people he would send bread from heaven for them to eat. Every morning this bread (called manna) would be on the ground, and they could take baskets and collect enough to feed their families that day. Any extra would spoil overnight. The next day the manna would be back on the ground for that day’s meals.

Jesus faced a similar circumstance. He had a great crowd and no way to feed them (vv. 5-6). He asks one of his disciples what to do. Why did Jesus ask? So that he could see how Philip would respond, and so that when he did something miraculous the disciples would understand how amazing it was. Jesus wants his disciples to fully understand who he is. He could have solved the problem without involving them, but he wanted them to see. He wanted them to understand his power, so they would believe. The miracle isn’t just for the hungry people. It’s for the disciples, so they would not underestimate the power of Jesus.

Philip says it would cost more than “two hundred denarii” (v. 7). A denarius is equal to one day’s labor. Philip’s answer shows the immensity of the problem. Even if they were to spend eight months’ salary on bread, it wouldn’t be enough for each person there to get a bite. They didn’t have the money to feed the people, and even if they did, where would the bread come from? Human ingenuity couldn’t solve the problem. Because we live in an age of great technological advance, we sometimes act as if we’re invincible. This passage is a great reminder that we will always be confronted with problems too big for us to solve. Death, disease, war—those are the big ones. Even when we shrink them down to a personal size, we realize how powerless we are. Who can stop himself from getting sick? Who can make sure he’s never misunderstood or mistreated? Who can make sure everyone likes him all the time? We are powerless, just like Philip. Like Philip we’re quick to look for human solutions. A problem comes and our minds start going. We’re going to fix it. And like Philip, we forget who’s standing with us. Jesus asked Philip the question so Philip would learn that no problem is a match for Jesus’s power.

Another disciple, Andrew, brings Jesus a boy who has a lunch with him (vv. 8-9). It seems like a great act of faith until it’s undermined by his final comment, “But what are they for so many?” It’s as if he were saying, “Here you go, Jesus, but I don’t know what good it will do.” If you grew up in a home with a bunch of men, you understand Andrew’s comment. Five loaves wouldn’t have been enough. What chance would they have of feeding five thousand men? That’s one thousand men per loaf. These loaves weren’t large. We would probably call them biscuits. Imagine five thousand men show up for breakfast, and there are five biscuits and a small bowl of gravy for the whole group. That’s the situation here.

We can be really hard on the disciples. They had already seen Jesus turn water into wine. Of course he can feed five thousand with five loaves! But I don’t think that’s fair. How many times do we have to see God work before we stop doubting? I don’t know. I certainly haven’t reached that point. When I face a situation that seems impossible, I look for human solutions (as Philip did), and if I don’t see any, then I despair (as Andrew did), thinking, What good will it do? What difference will it make? There’s a small boy with a small lunch of small fish. It’s hopeless. It looks like everyone’s going hungry.

Then just like Moses, Jesus fed the multitude miraculously (vv. 10-11). There was no sleight of hand. He prayed, thanked his Father for what he was about to do, and turned five loaves and two fishes into an all-you-can-eat buffet: “as much as they wanted” (v. 11). When Jesus supplies, it’s never too little. He never runs out. Jesus loves to go above and beyond not only what we can ask but even what we can think (Eph 3:20). Jesus has never yet run into a problem he can’t solve.

• No wine at the wedding. No problem.
• No food in the wilderness. No problem.
• No life in the tomb. No problem.

When you follow Jesus, you never reach a dead end.

After he finished, he had the disciples collect the leftovers into baskets (vv. 12-13), so that none would be “wasted” or lost (v. 12). The concept comes up again later in the chapter. Jesus says, “This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day” (6:39; emphasis added). Jesus never wastes anything. Nothing of his will ever be lost. He’s showing the disciples his care and illustrating what it means that he will not lose any of those who belong to him. If Jesus cares enough to make sure none of the leftovers are lost, how much more will he make sure none of his people are lost? Just like Moses thousands of years earlier, Jesus cares for each one of his people. He provides the food they need in a way that shatters all human expectations.

Jesus Miraculously Crosses the Sea

After leading the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt, Moses found himself in a terrible predicament. The Egyptian army led by a vengeful Pharaoh was approaching from the rear, and the Red Sea was cutting them off in the front. What should Moses do? If they didn’t keep moving, Pharaoh’s army would cut them down, but there was nowhere to go. God told Moses to stretch his staff out toward the sea. When Moses did, God divided the sea, and the people marched through on dry ground. Pharaoh’s army tried to follow, and the walls of water collapsed on them, drowning them and their horses.

Jesus sends the disciples across the sea without him (vv. 16-17). I’m not sure they knew how he would cross. It’s too far to swim—six miles across—but he sends them and they go. The sea starts to get choppy (v. 18). In fact, it’s so bad these experienced fishermen spend most of the night rowing and only make it halfway across (v. 19). Why is the water so choppy? Because a “high wind,” a powerful wind, was blowing. Do you know what God sent to part the Red Sea when the Israelite nation needed to cross?

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back with a powerful east wind all that night and turned the sea into dry land. So the waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left. (Exod 14:21-22; emphasis added)

God caused a powerful wind to blow so that Moses could miraculously lead his people across the sea.

Jesus walks across the sea as effortlessly as if he were walking on dry ground (John 6:19). Can you imagine? That’s mind-boggling. Why’d he do it? Why not just meet them on the other side? Jesus walked to them on the water for the same reason he fed the five thousand: so they would witness his power and understand who he is.

When they see Jesus, they’re scared. They’re witnesses to deity. They’ve seen something that is far beyond what’s natural. They’re confronted with a being far more powerful than they can fathom. Here, in the midst of the storm, they don’t fear the storm. They fear the Maker of the storm. At this moment on the Sea of Galilee, the disciples were confronted with a power beyond their reckoning. They saw the power of God, and they were afraid. But what does Jesus say? “Don’t be afraid” (v. 20). There is a God with power our minds cannot fathom. He is just and will someday use his power to right all wrongs and judge all sin. Yet, through his Son, Jesus, he reaches out to each of us and says, “You don’t need to be afraid. If you believe in Jesus, if you receive him, there’s no need to fear.”

With these two acts, Jesus identifies himself as one like Moses: he feeds the people and crosses the sea, both in ways that require divine help. Some who see him make the connection (v. 14). They don’t call Jesus a prophet. They call him the Prophet. He’s a particular prophet the nation of Israel has been anticipating. All the way back in Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses wrote, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” Jesus was making clear he was the prophet like Moses. The book of Deuteronomy ends with these words:

No prophet has arisen again in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unparalleled for all the signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do against the land of Egypt—to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land, and for all the mighty acts of power and terrifying deeds that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. (Deut 34:10-12)

A special prophet would come who would do mighty signs and wonders just as Moses did. Century after century, Israel waited for the prophet like Moses, and here he is. They see the works of Jesus, and they recognize the fulfillment of Moses’s prophecy.

Jesus Is Greater Than Moses

What was Moses’s greatest accomplishment? His defining legacy was leading the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and bringing them to a new land, the land God promised them. Moses was the great liberator of Israel. When Jesus was born, Israel was in slavery again, not in Egypt but in their own land. The Romans had conquered Israel and made it part of the empire. When someone like Moses shows up, what do you think the Israelites want him to do? They want him to lead them out of slavery. They want to start a revolution and overthrow their foreign captors.

Here’s a crowd of five thousand Jewish men, chafing under Roman oppression. They recognize the second Moses, and they think, Finally! Finally we’ll be free from Rome. No longer will we be slaves in our own cities. Let’s make Jesus king and take back the kingdom(see John 6:15). Jesus thwarted their plans. He saw the revolution in their eyes, and he left. Was it fear? Was it doubt? Why leave? Because Jesus wasn’t worried about victory over Rome. He was after a greater victory. Jesus came to wage war against sin and suffering. He came to duel with death.

They wanted to make Jesus king, but before he would wear the crown of gold, he chose to wear a crown of thorns. Before he would sit on the throne, he would hang on a cross. The crucifixion would come before the coronation. Moses won a great victory, but it pales in comparison to the victory Jesus won when he rose from the grave, triumphant over death and hell.

Application

Think about how you approach Jesus. The Israelites wanted to make Jesus their king by force (v. 15). So they did want Jesus, but they wanted him to be their puppet. They would follow Jesus as their king as long as he did what they wanted, as long as he overthrew Rome.

That is not Christianity. The Jesus of the Bible is no man’s puppet, but how often we come to him telling him what we want him to do. We bargain with him. We claim to follow him as long as he doesn’t say or do something we dislike. We want the kingdom without the King. We want the liberty without the liberator. We want all of the blessings Jesus can secure for us without actually having to obey and follow him.

If we want Jesus to fix all of our problems but we don’t want to have to follow Jesus, all we want is a puppet king. We want another Moses—someone to get us out of trouble and make our lives a little more comfortable. Jesus is so much more, so much greater.

The only way to come to Jesus is to lay down your expectations, put aside your requirements, let go of the strings, and follow him. When you do, you will find that not only is Jesus greater than Moses, but Jesus is far greater than anything you can ever imagine.

Reflect and Discuss

1. What four details in John 6:1-4 connect Jesus to Moses?
2. Why is Moses used as a comparison for Jesus?
3. What is different about the way Jesus feeds the crowd and the way Moses fed the Israelites?
4. How do you think you would respond if you were one of the five thousand?
5. Why does Jesus have the disciples gather the leftovers?
6. Why does Jesus walk across the water to his disciples? Why not just go with them on the boat?
7. Why does Jesus withdraw when he sees the crowd coming to make him king?
8. Compare Moses’s leading the Israelites out of slavery to Jesus’s death and resurrection. What are the similarities? How is Jesus’s victory greater?
9. Describe what it looks like to approach Jesus to get something from him.
10. Describe what it looks like to approach Jesus to get him.