Proper 12 | Ordinary Time 17, Cycle B

John 6:1-21

This text in which Jesus is portrayed as feeding 5,000 men with five barley loaves and two fish and as walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee begins a section in which the Fourth Gospel follows the pattern established in Mark (compare John 6:1-25 to Mark 6:32-56) more closely and for a more lengthy time than anywhere else prior to the extended passion of Jesus account that begins with Mark 11:1 and John 12:12. Various possible reasons for the similarities that we see between the First and the Fourth Gospels include the following:

1) The persons who wrote both Gospels were inspired by God in a more similar way at some points in their writings than in others.

2) The writers of both Gospels utilized a similar strand of written and oral materials in some places more than in others.

3) The writers of the Fourth Gospel had access to a brief early edition of Mark that contained the series of texts that begin with Mark 6:32 and Mark 11:1, and from this brief early edition of Mark the more fully developed Markan Gospel and the more fully developed Johannine Gospel were formed.

4) The writers of the Fourth Gospel had access to a rather fully developed Markan Gospel (and perhaps to early editions of Matthew and of Luke as well) but chose to use only a few portions of the Synoptic material because they preferred to present their message in their own way.

Regardless of which of the reasons outlined above appears to explain the similarities here most satisfactorily, in most places the Fourth Gospel was developed quite differently from the development of the Synoptics, and the Fourth Gospel was not substantially modified to make it conform closely to the Gospels According to Mark, Matthew, and Luke at a later date when people within the Fourth Gospel tradition obviously had access to fully developed copies of the Synoptics. There is much evidence from a careful comparison of the texts of the Four Gospels to indicate that the writers of the Fourth Gospel chose to develop their account quite differently from the way that those within the Synoptic Gospels tradition had done. This makes it even more noteworthy that here in John 6 the Johannine tradition did not depart extensively from the Synoptic pattern.

Where there are differences between Markan and the Johannine accounts of the feeding of the 5,000, the Fourth Gospel tradition adds that the Passover feast of the Jews was near (John 6:4), that Jesus went up on the mountain (John 6:3), that Jesus knew what he would do to provide food for the multitude (John 6:6), specific names of the disciples (Philip in John 6:5, 7 and Andrew and Simon Peter in John 6:8), that Jesus, having given thanks, distributed the loaves to the multitude (John 6:11), and that, since Jesus knew that the people were planning to come to seize him in order to make him their king, he withdrew to the mountain by himself alone (John 6:15). Many of these additions bring the Johannine account much closer to the covenant ratification ceremonies depicted in Exodus 24:1-18 than is the Markan account.

Ephesians 3:14-21

This Pauline prayer intended for some early Christian audience during the second half of the 1st century is appropriate also for us today. We are in need of “the love of Christ that surpasses all human knowledge” just as much as the people were for whom this document was first written.

The prayer is concluded with a model doxology that deserves more widespread use: “And to God who is able to do infinitely more than all that we ask or think through the power that God has activated within us, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations forever and ever. So let it be!”

2 Kings 4:42-44

This text is a brief story about a man bringing twenty barley loaves and other grain in a sack to Elisha. Although the man considered the food that he had brought to be very inadequate to feed the one hundred men who were there and were hungry, Elisha commanded that the loaves be used to feed the men, saying that the Lord has said that they shall eat and there will be some left. They ate and, as has been said by the Lord, they were filled and had some bread left. Since this account is not well-known by most Christians, it is good that it is designated at this place in our lectionary to be read as the First Reading together with the Johannine account of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Although this 2 Kings 4:42-44 account is not well-known in the Church during our time, it was almost certainly known to the Markan writer and community when the account about Jesus feeding the 5,000 was recorded in what is for us Mark 6:30-44 and was used also in the later Gospels According to Matthew, Luke, and John.

Psalm 145:10-18

In this beautiful psalm that is so important in Jewish daily devotional piety even today we read that the Lord gives food to all who look to the Lord. The psalmist wrote here that the Lord satisfies the desire of every living thing, that the Lord has compassion over everything that the Lord has made, and that the Lord keeps the covenant. This psalm has many points of contact with the John 6:1-15 and the 2 Kings 4:42-44 texts selected for our use next Sunday. Psalm 145 is also especially precious to me personally, because my father used a paraphrase of portions of it as one of his table prayers in our family when I was a child. Much later, when I was an overnight guest in the apartment of Conservative Jewish Rabbi/Dr. Sol Bernards and his wife Ruth, Sol Bernards used Psalm 145 within his table prayers before we ate our evening meal together.

2 Samuel 11:1-15

It seems to me that for next Sunday the semi-continuous selections of 2 Samuel 11:1-15 and with that text Psalm 14 are much less edifying than are the 2 Kings 4:42-44 and Psalm 145:10-18 selections considered above. Nevertheless, the story about King David’s adultery and his order to his field general Joab that are in this 2 Samuel 11:1-15 account and in the semi-continuous reading of the continuation of the story of 2 Samuel 11:26–12:13a on the following Sunday are texts that we should have to consider. These texts are realistic portrayals that people, including people who have very important and powerful positions, often attempt to cover up one sin by committing another. When that happens, many people, including the sinner, are hurt terribly.

Psalm 14

The “fool” depicted in this psalm is not merely ignorant and “brainless.” The fool here is morally corrupt and despicable. It is easy to see the reason that Psalm 14 is paired here with the account in 2 Samuel 11:1-15 about King David’s sin with Bathsheba and David’s unsuccessful attempt to cover up his sin of adultery with the sin of ordering events that will result in the death of Bathsheba’s husband, the valiant Uriah the Hittite, a gallant hero in David’s army.