A Deeper Look at John 6.1-15

1 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ² and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
⁷ Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages^[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
¹² When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
¹⁴ After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. John 6 NIV


The feeding of the 5,000 mimics the feeding of a hundred in 2 Kings:
⁴² A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.
⁴³ “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.
But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” ⁴⁴ Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord. 2 Kings 4 (NIV )

 The Sea of Galilee is also known as the Sea of Tiberias because of the city of the tetrarchy which had the same name.  ( Mack )"Known in the Hebrew Bible as Chinnereth, Josephus used the Hellenized form of this name, Gennesar or Gennesaritis..The Sea of Galilee is the lowest freshwater lake on earth...the Sea of Galilee is about 1 m (3.3 ft.) higher than it was in the time of Christ. This is apparent from the level of the harbors that have survived from the first century.,, The Jordan River is the main source of water for the lake, supplying about 75 percent of the lake’s annual intake.The Sea of Galilee is known for its violent storms, which can come up suddenly and be life-threatening for any on its waters. These tempests are caused by the situation of the lake in the Jordan Rift with steep hills on all sides...The most violent storms, however, are caused by the fierce winds which blow off the Golan Heights from the east. One such storm in March 1992 sent waves 3 m (10 ft) high crashing into downtown Tiberias and caused significant damage to the city." .(Bible Archaeology ) 



I was thinking about popular people of today, movie stars, political figures, whoever, and how thick crowds of people will be--how overwhelming those crowds can be. Here is a man who is able to actually heal people of illness and demon possession, something incredible now, but incredible then too--especially with limited medical treatments. Imagine a person who could do such now, and the size of the crowds that could be expected! Now, today, when large crowds gather, the famous person is surrounded by security and herded about, kept apart from followers as desired, certainly allowed to eat and rest. 
While He certainly wanted to spend time with these people, that His work might be seen and heard, He also spent a fair amount of time teaching His talmid (students) what His parables meant, etc.         
John points out that it is near Passover, which is a time that Israel had expected the Messiah to appear. (Mack  ) 

It is considered that this event was to be near the town of Bethsaida, as Mack discusses, which is surrounded by hill country (which verse 3 translates into) and grassy slopes.So a pleasant place, but not over filled with vending machines.
Most famous people would probably lose their tempers at this point, with no escape, but thankfully Christ is Christ and instead had compassion on these people. Assuming the crowd had functioned like most star-chasers, they probably took little with them, but hurried to get in front of everyone else, whether wanting healing for themselves, others, or just to see a miracle in person. Those who were more ill and more crippled probably arrived later than the "watchers", since they would need more time to travel or the aid of others to do so. Speaking as one who hurts, is sick, and has been so and likely to remain so...I would do anything to lay before one who could heal me at a word, no matter the cost or effort to get there. I have often wondered if there was any fighting in these crowds, either for a closer placement or to ensure that their ill family member/friend was seen.  The later arrivals probably needed to eat and rest more than anyone there, thinking how I would feel after walking/riding any distance in presumably hot weather, and hear comes sunset.

Christ seeing the later arrivals, asked what they would feed the people---speaking directly to Phillip.
Now I have never paid much attention to what was said to which disciple and why, but apparently one should: "the Master specifically turned His attention to Philip. We know from our first introduction to him.. that he was a student of the TaNaKh and interpreted it literally and believed in the Messiah. So when Christ came to him and said: Follow Me, he embraced Jesus immediately and followed Him without hesitation. That was Philip’s spiritual side. His heart was in the right place. He was a man of faith. But sometimes he was a man of weak faith."

John 1.43-51 covers the calling of Phillip, and how certain he was that he had found the Christ. It also discusses that he was from Bethsaida, meaning he was likely especially aware of what was in and around the area where the 12 now sat.( NIV)

6 "He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do." Ever teaching and forming His talmid, Christ already has a plan, but challenges His followers, specifically Phillip. Phillip seemingly had already been counting heads and estimating the cost to feed them, even if there had been a convenience store to use, and must have been overwhelmed by the size of the crowd. ( Mack)

But the Messiah had said, and so Andrew, who found a boy who had a small amount of food with him,  brought the boy to Christ. ( Mack) The sardines found in the sea of Galilee were a staple of the locals’ diet and these were probably the “two small “fish” which Jesus used to feed the multitude.(Bible Archaeology)

 The disciples distrubuted the bread and fish, which must have been, one, a lot of work what with an estimated 20,000 people with the women and children present, and two, overwhelming to be actually feeding so many people when it started out as such a small, single meal. ( GotQuestions)
The baskets used to gather the remaining food were small baskets that all Jews used to carry a meal and small essential tools, thus avoiding the issue of cleanliness of food. And how many were left? 12, just enough for the disciples. ( Mack)


Since the time was not yet ready for Christ to be made King, nor in the manner and way in which the people wanted, He left the area by Himself before they could force Him to be King. Unusual, really, since so many of us, if offered such a thing would take it, whether we would be a good ruler or not--the pull of fame and fortune being what it is. While Christ could (and will) stop any battle with a word, this fight that the people wanted Him to lead was not the fight that He was to fight. His goal was to win a totally different battle, as found by His death and resurrection.