This coming Sunday is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 1After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee (of Tiberias). 2 A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish feast of Passover was near.

While short in length, each verse of the introduction contributes something significant to the narrative that follows: the location at the Sea of Galilee (v.1), the theme of seeing signs (v.2), the distinction between the followers and the crowd (v.3), and Passover (v.4). These simple verses almost act as a pause, asking the reader to reflect upon what has come before.

Consider the crowd’s response in 2:23–25 (Jesus doing other signs during Passover) and to the healing in 5:1–9 (on the Sabbath) in which great signs were done and yet not all believed. Such will be the same in John 6.  As noted earlier in this commentary, Jesus’ self-revelation is to two groups: the crowd and his disciples. This pattern will repeat in John 6.  Jesus’ retreat to the mountain with his disciples in v. 3 sets up the contrast between Jesus’ self-revelation to his disciples and to the crowd. The reference to Passover in v. 4 introduces the exodus theme; exodus imagery figures prominently in vv. 5–59 (e.g., vv. 12, 31–32, 49, 58).

 5 When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” 6 He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little (bit).” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?”

The miracle is initiated by Jesus. Just as Jesus initiated contact with the Samaritan woman (4:9) and initiated the healing of the man by the pool (5:6), so also here he anticipates the hunger of the crowd. His question, “Where can we buy enough food?” is a different question from “How can we provide enough food?”

Philip was the natural person to ask where food might be found to feed them all, for he was a native of nearby Bethsaida (1:44). Perhaps Philip’s answer would have been the same, but the latter question might have helped Philip focus on what is one of the central christological questions in John’s gospel: the source of Jesus’ gifts. If one knows the source of the gifts, one is closer to recognizing Jesus’ identity (consider 4:10). But as Philip and Andrew (also from Bethsaida) point out, in the natural course of things, there is no way that everyone can have enough; in the natural course of things.

Image credit: James J. Tissot, ‘Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes’ (1886-94), Brooklyn Museum, NYC | PD-US