6Verse 1After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias.+Verse 2And a huge crowd was following Him because they had seen His signs that He kept performing on the sick.+Verse 3So Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down there with His disciples.+Verse 4(Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.)+
Food for 15,0006:5 Why 15,000? Well, Matthew 14:21 says plainly that there were about 5,000 men besides women and children. In any crowd what is there usually most of? Since the context was not one of war (where there would be mostly men) I imagine there were at least 15,000 people there (like mothers with sick children).
Verse 5Then, raising His eyes and observing that a huge crowd was coming toward Him, Jesus says to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread so that these folks may eat?”+Verse 6Now He said this to test him, for He Himself knew what He was about to do.Verse 7Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread+would not be enough for them, so that each of them could receive a little.”Verse 8One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, says to Him,Verse 9“There is a little boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two small fish, but what are they for so many?”+Verse 10Then Jesus said, “Make the people recline.” Now there was plenty of grass in the place; so the men reclined, about five thousand in number.Verse 11Then Jesus took the loaves, and having given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples+to those who were reclining; so too with the fish, as much as they wanted.Verse 12So when they were full He says to His disciples, “Collect the leftover fragments so that nothing be wasted.”+Verse 13So they collected and filled twelve baskets+with fragments from the five barley loaves that were left over from those who had eaten.Verse 14Now then, having seen the miraculous sign that Jesus performed the men said, “This One really is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”Verse 15So Jesus, perceiving that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king,+withdrew up the mountain again by Himself, alone.
Jesus walks on water
Verse 16Now as evening came on His disciples had gone down to the sea,Verse 17and getting into the boat they started to go across the sea toward Capernaum.+Well it had been dark for a while and Jesus had not come to them.+Verse 18Further, the sea was being agitated by a strong wind blowing.Verse 19Then, after they had rowed some three or four miles,+they see Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat; and they were afraid.Verse 20But He said to them, “It is I; don't be afraid!”+Verse 21Then they wanted to receive Him into the boat,+and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.+Verse 22The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea,+having seen that there was no other boat there except the one into which His disciples had entered,+and that Jesus had not gotten into the boat with His disciples but only His disciples had gone away—Verse 23although other boats had come from Tiberias,+near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks—Verse 24so when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats+and went to Capernaum, looking for Jesus.+Verse 25When they found Him on another side+of the sea they said to Him, “Rabbi, when+did you get here?”
The Bread of Life
Verse 26Jesus answered them and said: “Most assuredly I say to you, you are not seeking me because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the bread and were filled.+Verse 27Do not work for the food that wastes away but for the food that endures into life eternal, which the Son of the Man will give you;+because on Him God the Father has set His seal.”Verse 28So they said to Him, “What should we do so that we may work the works of God?”+Verse 29Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe into the One whom He sent.”+Verse 30So they said to Him: “Well then, what sign are you going to do so we may see and believe you?+What are you going to perform?Verse 31Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, just as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from Heaven to eat.’ ”+Verse 32Then Jesus said to them: “Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from Heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from Heaven.Verse 33For the bread of God is the One coming down out of Heaven and giving Life to the world.”+Verse 34Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”+Verse 35So Jesus said to them: “I am the bread of the Life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes into me will never thirst.+Verse 36But, as I told you, you have actually seen me, yet you do not believe.Verse 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will not throw out;+Verse 38because it is not to do my own will that I have come down out of Heaven,+but the will of the One who sent me.Verse 39Now this is the will of the Father who sent me, that I should lose nothing out of all that He has given me, but should raise it+up at the last day.Verse 40Again this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who ‘sees’ the Son and believes into Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”+Verse 41Then the Jews+started complaining about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of Heaven.”Verse 42And they were saying: “Isn't this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?+So how can he say, ‘I have come down out of Heaven’?”+Verse 43So Jesus answered and said to them: “Stop complaining among yourselves.Verse 44No one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,+and I will raise him up at the last day.Verse 45It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’+Therefore everyone who listens and learns from the Father comes to me.+Verse 46(Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God—He has seen the Father.)Verse 47Most assuredly I say to you: the one believing into me+has eternal life.Verse 48“I am the bread of the Life.+Verse 49Your fathers ate manna in the desert, and they died.+Verse 50This is the bread that comes down out of Heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die.+Verse 51I am the living bread which came down out of Heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. Actually, the bread that I will give is my flesh,+which I will give on behalf of the life of the world.”+
Chew flesh, drink blood
Verse 52At that the Jews started quarrelling among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?!”+Verse 53So Jesus said to them: “Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of the Man and drink His blood, you do not have Life within yourselves.Verse 54Whoever chews+my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,+and I will raise him up at the last day.Verse 55Really, my flesh is genuine food and my blood is genuine drink.Verse 56Whoever chews my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.+Verse 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds+on me will live because of me.Verse 58This is the bread that came down out of Heaven. Whoever feeds on this bread of mine will live forever (in contrast to your fathers who ate the manna and died).”+Verse 59He said these things while teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum.
Jesus loses many followers
Verse 60Therefore, upon hearing this many from among His disciples said: “This word is hard! Who is able to hear it?”Verse 61So Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were complaining about this, said to them: “Does this offend you?Verse 62What if you should see the Son of the Man going up to where He was at first?+Verse 63The Spirit is the One who makes alive; the flesh does not benefit anything. The words that I speak to you are spirit, are Life.Verse 64But there are some among you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the start who they were who did not believe, and who was betraying Him.)Verse 65And He said, “That is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father.”+Verse 66From that time many of His disciples turned back and stopped going around with Him.+Verse 67So Jesus said to the twelve, “You don't want to go away too, do you?”Verse 68So Simon Peter answered Him: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.Verse 69Further, we have come to believe and to know that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”+Verse 70He said to them: “Did I myself not choose you twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.”+Verse 71He was referring to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.