The Fourth Sign: Feeding of the Five Thousand
1After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). 2A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. 3Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
4Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near. 5So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?” 6He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.
7Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.”
8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9“There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish — but what are they for so many?”
10Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.”
There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand. 11Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated — so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.
12When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” 13So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.
14When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
15Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
The Fifth Sign: Walking on Water
16When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. Darkness had already set in, but Jesus had not yet come to them. 18A high wind arose, and the sea began to churn. 19After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid. 20But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 21Then they were willing to take him on board, and at once the boat was at the shore where they were heading.
The Bread of Life
22The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat. They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone. 23Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”
28“What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.
29Jesus replied, “This is the work of God — that you believe in the one he has sent.”
30“What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? 31Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
32Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. 36But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe. 37Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39This 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. 40For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
41Therefore the Jews started grumbling about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to me — 46not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father.
47“Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, 55because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your ancestors ate — and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”
59He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”
61Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you? 62Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64But there are some among you who don’t believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe and the one who would betray him.) 65He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.”
66From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him. 67So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”
68Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.” 71He was referring to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, one of the Twelve, because he was going to betray him.