077. Chapter 18 - The Debate with the Zealots

Chapter 18 - The Debate with the Zealots Matthew 14:34-36;Mark 6:53-56;John 6:22-71 The Multitude

Mark declares that when “they came to the land unto Gennesaret,’ “they moored to the shore” (Mark 6:53). Whether this means there was time to change to dry clothes and get some little rest before dawn we are not told. When they disembarked from the boat, the crowd immediately began to swarm about them. Mark reports that the people “ran around about that whole region, and began to carry about on their beds those that were sick, where they heard he was...” (Mark 6:55). Like a smoldering forest fire awakened by the wind, excitement broke out afresh with the arrival of Jesus in the plain of Gennesaret. The people who first recognized Him rushed out to carry the report from village to village, and the sick were brought to be healed even by touching the hem of His garment (Matthew 14:36; Mark 6:56). Evidently many of these had sought Jesus the day before but had found that He had departed to the other side of the lake. The Scripture makes clear that all the people who came to Jesus to be healed at any time were healed. But there is no suggestion that all the people in any section were healed. Nazareth illustrates quite the contrary. That so many people within reach of Capernaum should be in need of healing may seem surprising, but Jesus seems to have been campaigning elsewhere while the apostles were away on their mission. Immediately upon His return the day before, He had left the crowd and crossed the lake. If He had been absent for some months, there would have been the natural number of people who had become sick or disabled. His fame was continually spreading to more distant places, and the unfortunate were being brought to Him to be cured. Many of these folks may have been waiting for days and have been disappointed the day before that they had not been able to reach Him before He crossed the lake. The Zealots

John does not tell of this healing ministry but plunges immediately into the account of the exciting encounter between Jesus and the Zealots in the synagogue in Capernaum. The only notice that John seems to give to this hurrying to and fro of the multitude in the plain of Gennesaret to be healed is the statement that the Zealots, who had camped through the night in the plain at the foot of the mountain, discovered with the morning light that Jesus had escaped through their midst in spite of their vigilant watch. John describes the determined crowd that had remained: “On the morrow the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there….When the multitude therefore saw that Jesus was not there” (John 6:22, John 6:24). Obviously they did not see that Jesus was not there by searching all the mountain range whence He had disappeared. That would have been a futile task. They were standing on the beach studying the mysterious disappearance of Jesus from their midst. There was no other boat in that section of the lake. They had been very sure of this. That Jesus was not now on their side of the lake must have been instantly plain to them by looking across the lake to see the blurred figures of great crowds running to and fro in the Plain of Gennesaret. They knew what that meant. The Crossing Their method of crossing the lake was characteristic. They hitchhiked a voyage across. Verily, as Jesus told them later this morning, they were after more loaves and fishes with no labor attached. They could have walked around the end of the lake as they had come. But the fishing fleet, which had come in the early morning hours from Tiberias, nearly eight miles to the southwest, was now in the most favorable location for fishing. Here the Jordan brought in fresh supplies of food to the fish. By hailing some of the boats nearest them, they could have a chance to tell the fishermen of the amazing miracle and could persuade them to take them across the lake to where Jesus was. By the time they arrived in the Plain of Gennesaret the early-morning healing session was over, and Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6:59). The Issue This discourse is usually called “The Sermon on the Bread of Life.” The sermon was so mysterious and profound that it completed the downfall of His popularity which crumbled under His refusal of the crown the Zealots had offered the day before. They decided that if He would not be their kind of messiah, they would not be His kind of disciples. But more than the deep and difficult character of this message turned the popular current against Him. It was really a debate with the Zealots. Their demand for a military messiah to lead them in revolt against Rome had a strong following in Galilee. Having failed in their plot to seize Jesus and compel Him to join their worldly enterprise, they now resort to the sullen effort to discredit His spiritual campaign by furious debate. Perhaps these Zealots could be called the most ungrateful people who ever shared a miracle that Jesus worked. The manner in which John refers to the miracle of feeding the multitude is noteworthy: “...the place where they ate the bread after Jesus had given thanks” (John 6:23). Does this reflect an unforgettable moment as they listened to Jesus’ prayer of thanksgiving? or is it an implied rebuke to the ingratitude which is now shown by the Zealots and their following? Yesterday they were crying out in triumphant joy that Jesus was indeed the Christ, and they immediately plotted to take over His campaign and turn it to their selfish purposes. Today they give cold rebuff and rejection to Jesus and even cast cynical sneers at His miracles and claims. The Debate This circumstance does not mean that Jesus was now on the defensive. He kept the offense for God in His firm possession. Before the Zealots rebuffed Jesus, He had rebuffed and rejected their worldly objectives. He had refused, as He had in the wilderness, to bow the knee to Satan in order to have the kingdoms of the earth. Because of bitter frustration in their reckless efforts to bend Jesus to their will, the Zealots now meet Jesus in open debate. There was a sufficient number of these Zealots and their followers, who had kept watch at the foot of the mountain through the night, for John to call them a “multitude.” When they made their way into the teaching session now in progress in the synagogue at Capernaum, they must have crowded the building to the utmost. They immediately proceed to challenge Jesus. There was a wonderful spirit of democracy in His services; anyone might ask a question, add a remark, or raise an objection at any time. Much of the teaching of Jesus and some of His sermons come out of the give-and-take of this kind of spirited discussion. A sermon as exalted and fervent as the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on John the Baptist and the unbelieving cities might not allow for any interruption, but under ordinary circumstances there was free discussion. Thus has Christianity survived and grown. The Zealots are not specifically mentioned by John. There were present a large number of these men who were seeking to seize the ministry of Jesus and turn it to their own aims. They are still called a “multitude” (a.s.v. John 6:22), although the a.v. translates “the people.” Twice they are called “the Jews” (John 6:41, John 6:52). This terminology is John’s characteristic method of citing Jews who were unbelieving and hostile. It is significant that there is no mention of scribes or Pharisees We should expect them to be present in the synagogue at Capernaum (John 6:59). There is no evidence that the Pharisees followed Jesus into the desert the previous day. The miracle of feeding the five thousand seems to have been shared only by those who believed. But these selfish, worldly leaders had a very faulty kind of faith as they sought to turn Jesus’ purposes in their own direction. With the thwarting of their plot their selfish faith is turned into cold unbelief. Perhaps John does not specify they are members of the political party seeking to start a rebellion against Rome because there were others joined with them in this effort to turn Jesus’ movement from its spiritual aims. The Pharisees seem to be allowing the Zealots to carry the brunt of the battle against Jesus in this discussion. After this fashion the Pharisees and Sadducees took turns in the debates during the final week of Jesus’ ministry.

There are four separate rounds in the debate. This exchange is called “The Sermon on the Bread of Life.” Indeed the heart of Jesus’ message lies here, but the manner of the discussion was a debate. The Zealots tried to take the initiative. They asked four challenging questions in succession, but Jesus’ answers were detailed and overpowering. They found themselves unable to comprehend or to deny. They lapsed into whispered objections (John 6:41, John 6:42), and then to disagreement among themselves (John 6:52). That they did see that Jesus was claiming to be God as well as man is made very clear by their resort to the argument that Jesus certainly was a human being as others, with a father and a mother known to them (John 6:42). This sermon is filled with tremendous affirmations of deity. The Zealots selected as the clearest, most objectionable of these, “I am come down out of heaven.” They felt that they could contradict Him by citing His birth as a human being. But Jesus had said more than His descent from heaven. He had affirmed that He was “the Bread which came down out of heaven.” He specified that He was the Bread of life — “the true bread which my Father giveth you,” “the food which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you.” The sermon revolves around the figure of bread because it is the aftermath of the previous day’s feeding of the five thousand and the present desire to have Jesus provide food for them daily without work on their part. They were typical “something for nothing” enthusiasts. The Miracle and the Sermon

A. B. Bruce raises the question in his Training of the Twelve as to whether the sermon arose out of the miracle or the miracle was worked in order to make an introduction to the sermon. He holds that the miracle was not worked because the crowd was in real distress; they could have reached home by being sent home a little earlier. Jesus performed the miracle in order to introduce this sermon which by its supreme difficulty screened the crowd. The curiosity seekers and the selfish were caused to leave in disgust. But there is a strong emphasis on the compassion of Jesus for this crowd in their plight as sheep without a shepherd. Their souls were in deep distress over the news of John’s death; their bodies were exhausted from continuing with Jesus. The sermon arose naturally out of the miracle, but Jesus’ foreknowledge may have caused both of these reasons to have been combined.

Since miracles had the purpose of proving Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God, and since the miracle on the lake shore had been brought to a sudden, dramatic conclusion by the plot to seize Him and make Him an earthly king, the scene on the following day fits into His whole program of mercy and instruction. These leaders, who were now hostile, bore unconscious testimony to the miracle by which He had crossed the lake. They had seen the disciples enter into the boat and leave. They had seen Jesus go up into the mountain. They watched vigilantly to prevent His passing through their midst and escaping their plot. They had experienced the storm. They had seen the fleet from Tiberias arrive in the early dawn after the storm. They sensed another miracle and sought immediate verification as they asked Jesus how He had come across. Since their purpose was evil, Jesus did not satisfy their curiosity with a direct answer. He forced them back on the defensive by revealing their worldly ideas and designs. They had not really wanted to see miracles that revealed God’s grandeur and purposes for them, but only miracles that would secure riches and glory without effort. The strong emphasis which Jesus places upon work is noteworthy.

Faith and Salvation The Zealots demanded, then, what sort of work was expected of them. In reply Jesus calls faith work: “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:29). Faith is not a meritorious work in the sense of enabling us to earn salvation, but it is a work which we must do in order to receive God’s grace. There is “a will to believe.” No one else can make this decision of life for us. The Zealots lapsed back into the characteristic demand of the Pharisees that Jesus show them a further and greater miracle than they had witnessed the day before. By way of degrading the impressiveness of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, they cited the fact that Moses had fed a whole nation each day for years in the wilderness with manna. The answer of Jesus was a plain declaration of His deity. It was not Moses who gave the manna; it was God. It was not a mere man who had fed the five thousand. He is the Bread of God come down from heaven. They promptly challenged Jesus to prove His claim and give them this mysterious bread. Jesus answered with the majestic declaration Of deity: “I am the bread of life.” No one would ever hunger or thirst after coming to Him for the essence of life.

Jesus informs them that He had anticipated their rejection of Him. God foreknows who will reject and, in the sense of foreknowing what men will do, He gives to Jesus those who of their own free choice, come to Him. The next phrase confirms this interpretation: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” God does not overpower a man and give him to Jesus by compelling his acceptance. Man chooses and accepts or rejects for himself. God knows beforehand what man will do. In this sense He gives men to Jesus. As the old Negro preacher explained predestination to his congregation: “The Lord says, ‘Yes’; the devil says, ‘No.’ And I casts the deciding vote.” Continually in this sermon salvation is declared to be the gift of God. It is also repeatedly set forth that there is something which man must do in order to receive the gift. The acceptance of God’s gracious gift of redemption requires us to believe in Christ and obey Him — to give Him our lives.

Hypocrisy of the Zealots In this entire discussion the insincerity of these Jewish leaders is evident in their arguments and their demands for further miracles. They are sparring for time; they are determined not to yield their selfish ambitions; they do not want to be convinced; they only hope to entangle Jesus. They had seen the miracle the day before and had been convinced Jesus was the Christ. They are merely trying now to defend their selfish objectives. While their reference to Moses was subtle, Jesus boldly took up this challenge and pointed out the difference between Christ and all earthly leaders; they are of earth; He is from heaven. They can offer satisfaction but for a time; He, for all eternity.

Declarations of Deity

Jesus did not respond to their false statement that He was the son of Joseph with a direct revelation of the virgin birth. But observe how the virgin birth is plainly implied in the answers of Jesus. And this is the Gospel of John! (Modernists attempt to make a capital argument out of the silence of John on the virgin birth.) While Jesus does not answer their problem as to how the incarnation came to pass, He affirms again in the most powerful way that His coming into the world was different from that of any other human being. “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven” (John 6:51). He increases the profound nature of His revelation by declaring that He is the bread that man may eat and live forever. This difficult saying caused an explosive outburst of discussion among the Jewish leaders. The Lord’s Supper The difficulty this sermon has for us is greatly decreased by the later instruction of Jesus in giving the Lord’s Supper. It seems clear that Jesus is speaking in this sermon of the sharing of the loaf and the cup as the symbols of His body and blood, which were given for our redemption. The catacombs bear mute testimony to the fact that the early Christians realized that Jesus was speaking of the Lord’s Supper, for they make the loaves and the fishes of the memorable miracle and debate the symbols of the Lord’s Supper. They make the passage completely spiritual; eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ refer to the soul-satisfying Christian experience which each individual in Christ enjoys. In giving the Lord’s Supper Jesus made it evident that He was using figures of speech; to drink a cup is a metonymy, the container for the contained (1 Corinthians 11:26); to say that a cup is a covenant is a metaphor (Luke 22:20). The loaf and the fruit of the vine were representatively to remind them of His body and blood (for further discussion of the figurative nature of the emblems see section “The Lord’s Supper”). With the rest of the New Testament in our hands we naturally think of the Lord’s Supper as we read this sixth chapter of John. The language of Jesus is figurative in this sermon, where He is the bread of life to be eaten, just as in the statements at the giving of the Lord’s supper.

It is a most ineffective argument to say that Jesus could not have had a reference to the Lord’s Supper in mind because His hearers would not have understood Him. This same feeble argument is used to urge that Jesus did not refer to baptism when He warned Nicodemus that He must be born again, of water and the Spirit. As a matter of fact, Nicodemus did not understand and said so. The people in the synagogue at Capernaum did not understand. This was Jesus’ method of teaching on many occasions. He assigned His students homework to do. It might take months or years of concentrated reflection for them to solve the enigma. Even the apostles did not understand His references to His death until at Caesarea Philippi. They never did understand His predictions of His resurrection until they were in the presence of the risen Christ. The fact enabled them finally to understand the predictions. Thus the further teaching of Jesus helps us to understand this difficult sermon. His disciples called it “a hard saying; who can hear it” (John 6:60).

Identity of the Zealots

Although John does not call these leaders in debate Zealots, it is the only group which fits the specifications of the narratives. The Zealots were concentrated in Galilee. The murder of John the Baptist would have infuriated them. John’s account makes apparent the presence of a hard core of leaders who were tremendously impressed by the miracle and who immediately plotted to take command of Jesus’ campaign, to seize Him by violence, make Him King, and bend Him to their will. Neither the Pharisees, the Sadducees, nor the Herodians fit into this picture. On no occasion when they witnessed the miracles of Jesus did they show other than cold indifference. They simply tightened the bandages on their eyes and ears and stiffened their necks in unbelief. Never do we find these three sects proposing to take Jesus and make Him king. Their hostility was constant and unrelenting. The sudden reversal of position by these leaders fits the Zealots. They had not planned to surrender to Jesus on the plain of Butiha; they planned to force Him to surrender to them. When He thwarted them in their plot of violence, they entered the synagogue the next day, mystified, perplexed, frustrated, angry, and stubbornly unrepentant. Without doubt the Zealots joined in the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. On that day they shouted in wild exultation, “Hail to the King!” They concluded that at last He was about to become their kind of messiah. Five days later they reversed their position of praise and support and cried aloud in rage, “Crucify Him!” The Worldly Crowd When the disciples were filled with perplexity over such difficult teaching, Jesus reminded them that events not far off would afford them further difficulty. He cites the ascension. He explains that His sermon had been figurative: “It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life” (John 6:63). The Apostles As the crowd left the synagogue services, the Zealots carried most of the people with them in their rejection of the teaching of Jesus. “Not our kind of messiah” was the verdict of the Zealots and of the people in general. So sudden a downfall of popularity from the thrilling experience with the five thousand the day before must have been a crushing weight for the apostles to bear. John reminds us that Jesus had known the hearts of those who believed and those who did not. He anticipated this end to His popularity in Galilee. But there is an unmistakable touch of sadness in the voice of Jesus as He said to the apostles, “Would ye also go away?” Not only the great multitude, but many of the disciples who had been accustomed to following Jesus from place to place, when this was possible, had now left Him. Jesus issues a challenge to the twelve. Do they also desire to leave Him? Peter answers for the group; if they should go away, where could they go? They do not understand His procedure, nor this difficult teaching He has given, but where could they go for instruction? They desire above all else the words of life which He alone can give. They have already come to solid faith that He is “the Holy One of God.” Others may leave if they will, but Peter speaks for the twelve that they will remain. The things they do not understand now they hope to understand later on through His instruction. Their intimate association with Christ enables Peter to speak both of their faith and their knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus responded by warning Judas Iscariot for the first time. We do not know what Judas had been doing, saying, or thinking that called forth this drastic warning that one of the twelve was a devil. Nor can we ascertain what the impact of the warning was on Judas. The rest of the twelve would probably have found it hard to understand that this saying was to be taken literally. Amid so much figurative and mysterious language the force of this sharp warning may have been lost upon them.