John 4:7-26

New Testament Mountains

Like the Old Testament, the New Testament has plenty of references to mountains.  There’s the Sermon on the Mount, obviously.  Jesus often went onto hills or mountains to pray.  We have Golgotha and the Mount of Transfiguration.  John (6:1-15) sets the feeding of the 5,000 on a mountain, as does Matthew (15:29-39) with the 4,000. 

These feedings pair well with last week’s Elijah passage (1 Kings 18:22-39) for at least three major reasons.  First, the crowds around Elijah were hoping for rain so that food could grow, whereas Jesus directly made much food out of little (and had 12 and seven baskets left over, respectively).  Second, Elijah sacrificed a bull after asking God to let Himself be made known, but Jesus simply gave…