The King We Needed
Lent Day 10
“…They were going to carry him off to make him king...”
— John 6:15—
John’s Gospel starts off telling us that “The Jewish feast of Passover was near.” What transpires next is the feeding of the five thousand. There are many interesting symbols and allusions to the Old Testament in this section. We could talk about Moses going up to Mount Sinai and Jesus going up the Mountain; we could talk about Jesus’ command to the people to “recline in the grass” and its allusion to Psalm 23:2 — “He makes me lie down in green pastures”; we could discuss the significance of the twelve baskets, or the barley and its parallel to Elisha’s feeding of the few hundred. Instead, I would like to focus on the distinction between King Saul and King Jesus.
The crowd, it is stated, is following Jesus because of his miracles (Jn. 6:2). It’s clear that those who follow Jesus because of his miracles and not his teachings are shallow in their faith. They are like the seed on rocky soil. If they don’t have the miraculous, their faith will wither. Our commentators affirm this as well:
“The Gospel has shown that those who come to Jesus on account of his miracles often possess a shallow interest in him because they see him only as a wonder-worker (2:23-25; 4:48)”1
We must be wary that we are not following Jesus for the same reasons. Otherwise, we will follow a version of Jesus that is appealing to us and our modern senses, rather than the Jesus that is true yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
After Jesus has filled the crowds, they begin to get excited and intend to make Jesus their king. It may be the case that this is an allusion to the actions of their forefathers when they desired a king over Israel rather than God:
So all the elders of Israel gathered together. They came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old. Your sons don’t live as you do. So appoint a king to lead us. We want a king just like the kings all the other nations have.”2
The Jewish people are not thinking here, “We will have a king just like the other kings.” They are thinking, “Our king will be far superior to any king in the world. How do you like them apples?” But isn’t this how we all would prefer it?
The Jewish people desired to be free. They were awaiting a savior that would liberate them from the hands of the Roman empire. Many have tried but in vain. After seeing a miracle like this, who could blame them for thinking in these terms?
Jesus is not the King we want; he is the King we need. This is ultimately the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism. In Protestantism, Jesus can be as modern and symbolic or as ancient and radical as you want him to be; in short, for every man’s desire to make Jesus his king, there is a commune of believers organized around a Jesus that is most appealing to them. But when you come into the Church, you are offered the teachings of Christ and the Church. Mainly, without the Eucharist, you do not have eternal life. You are free to accept or reject this teaching, but you are not free to make Jesus into the king you prefer.
A modern church is not an authentic church. It must twist and bend the text to make it say something its original audience would have never accepted. If they adopted non-Christian ideas, they were ejected from the ancient Christian communities, or they just left (Jn. 6:66). Our faith is ancient, and the world has always attempted to make the Church in its image. As our commentary states:
…The temptation to be a Church other than the one willed by the Father by accepting people’s criteria of what a proper church should be…Many in the world offer acceptance to the Church if hte Church does as they say. Yet the Church must always be the Church willed by the Father and, when necessary, suffer ridicule and even rejection as its Lord did. Only then can the Church be the faithful witness that ultimately leads people to salvation in Christ.3
— DR
Martin, F., & Wright, W. M. (2015). The Gospel of John. Baker Academic. 114.
1 Sam. 8:4 NIV
Ibid. 117.