This coming Sunday is the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. As noted previously, the episode in 6:16–24 when Jesus walks on the water, is missing from the summer Sunday sequence of readings.  It is striking that John’s sequence — the loaves miracle followed by that on the Sea of Galilee — is identical to that of Mark 6:34–51 and Matthew 14:13–33. In all three accounts Jesus calms his disciples with the identical majestic phrase: “It is I. Do not be afraid” (John 6:20; Mark 6:50; Matt 14:27). This phrasing, which in the Greek has no predicate, simply reads egō  eimi = I am, has strong overtones of divinity, echoing the name for Yahweh found in Isa 43:10, 13, 25. Jesus is the divine presence; the disciples need have no fear.

There is a question as to why the water miracle should be situated at this point in a chapter that otherwise speaks exclusively of bread. What is it a sign of? No answer is completely satisfactory, but the following have been offered. Flanagan [990-91] offers:  “(a) The Old Testament Passover miracles were manna bread plus the crossing of the Reed Sea, and water springing from the rock. Exod 14–16 ties together in tight sequence the account of the Reed Sea crossing and the gift of the desert manna. This traditional Exodus coupling of water and bread, found also in Ps 78:13–25, may have encouraged the first Jewish Christians to attach the Christian water-sign to that of the bread. They are so found in Mark 6, Matt 14, and now in John 6. (b) John is simply extending his theme of life-giving word by presenting Jesus as life-giver in time of famine and of storm. (c) The storm scene is intended as a sign of Jesus’ divine status (the “It is I” of verse 19 masks the profound I AM of the original Greek) and his ever-helping presence, “do not be afraid” (v. 20).”

A Transition. 22 The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left. 23 Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

…and a final note… What the Lectionary will divide up across four consecutive Sundays, most Scripture scholars see as a unified section: 6:25-71. This lengthy section can be outlined as follows:

6:25–34   Dialogue between Jesus and crowd (our Gospel this week)
6:35–42   Jesus’ first discourse and “the Jews’” response
6:43–52   Jesus’ second discourse and “the Jews’” response
6:53–59   Jesus’ third discourse
6:60–71   Dialogue between Jesus and disciples

It will be important to see the movement between dialogues as we move from Sunday to Sunday.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand by William Hole (1846-1917) | Edinburgh University Library | PD-US