10th Sunday after Pentecost John 6:1-21

Ancient Lens

What's the historical context?

A New Kind of Feast

A mountain, a gathering of thousands, and a great feast make for a classic ancient worship scene.  Add in the frequency of local festivals (in this case, Passover) and the mixing of cultures in the region, and you have the kind of location that an archaeologist could spend a career excavating.  A team of students would uncover the bones, analyze the ashes on the sacrificial altars, scrape the residue from the fragments of empty vessels, and pile up the idols and images that the ancient worshipers had brought to the site...

...except in this case, there were no idols, no sacrifices, no fires, and only the bones of two fish.  Even the…

1. Do we come to Jesus for the right reasons? Do we look down on others’ reasons for coming to Jesus? Are wonders and signs a good reason?

2. When do we realize that we have been in the midst of a miracle? During? After?

3. Jesus tested his disciples (v6) and Philip and Andrew revealed the perspectives with which they were viewing their predicament. How do we see challenges in life from our own points of view? From Jesus’?

4. What kind of ruler do we want Jesus to be in our world? In our own lives? What do we want him to do for us?

5. What can Jesus do with the smallest bit of…