Well, Jesus sees the crowd coming to Him. It is not just any crowd, but a people hungry for both natural and spiritual food;

 

Well, Jesus sees the crowd coming to Him. It is not just any crowd, but a people hungry for both natural and spiritual food; a crowd of sufferers and unbelievers at the same time. In the Synoptics, Jesus sees and has compassion; here, John mentions only Jesus' initiative and the certainty of what he should do. In the Synoptics, however, it is the disciples who take the initiative. The Johannine accent is tremendously Christological, both in the initiative of the action and in the way of understanding what was happening to those people. In John, it is the disciples who prepare the crowd, but it is Jesus who gives them food. The disciples prepare, and Jesus grants the grace of the saving food. An important fact is the fact that the crowd is COMING TO JESUS. This "coming to Jesus" also indicates, in the present day, the people who tirelessly seek the house of God, in an attempt to be satisfied of their needs and who must find the disciples of Jesus willing to give them the essential food. The people continue "coming to Jesus." The question is whether the disciples are really with Him and for Him today.

Jo brings two important things to this text: a reference to the Jewish Passover and a reference to the Last Supper. In fact, the way it is narrated reminds us of the Eucharistic celebration, which was already celebrated before the Johannine writing. What was already experienced by the Christian community is mentioned in the text. The liturgy precedes the writing of the New Testament. When it mentions, for example, the care taken with the leftover bread, it is very reminiscent of the care due to the leftover Eucharistic particles. The number 12 reminds us of totality, fullness and universality. In this sense, the 12 remaining baskets indicate that this food is for everyone.

The people did not understand the sign. No one doubts Jesus' action, but they do not understand its true meaning. This is the big problem. Upon experiencing this event, the people immediately linked Jesus to the messianic idea of ​​Israel, but not in the way that Jesus understood it. The people wanted Jesus to be the king of Israel, a powerful politician, the liberator of those people. The political hope of liberation has eclipsed the true search for humanity’s inner liberation. To want Jesus as a political liberator is the same as opting for the continuation of the old, rational man, the son of worldly illusions. Jesus wants each one, without fear, to seek Him as the Liberator, the One who frees from sin, who offers new life, even in pain, in daily suffering; the One who offers true life: eternal life; the One who liberates socially, but as a consequence of a converted life, changed according to His grace and His love; the One who demands, above all, that man turn first to God and, because of God, to the greater good of his fellow man.