This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Lord’s Supper” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 5, 1995.

This morning we are reading from the Gospel of John, chapter six. We are beginning with verse one. This is the Gospel of John, chapter six. Let us give our attention to the reading of God’s holy word. After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. A great multitude followed him, because they had seen the miracles he performed on those who were sick. Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. The Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not enough for each of them to have a small portion.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a young boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish, giving as much as they wanted. When they were full, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained after those who had eaten had been satisfied. Then the people, when they had seen the miracle Jesus had done, said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, therefore, perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him king, and he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

I am not going to take time this morning to prove to you that the story of the feeding of the five thousand has much to say to us about the Lord’s Supper. We are going to assume that connection in this message this morning. If you want the proof of this connection, I encourage you to get hold of the tape of my January 30, 1994 message, a sermon I preached at the beginning of this series of Communion messages on John 6.

But assuming that connection, at the same time, it is obvious that there are dissimilarities between the Lord’s Supper and the feeding of the five thousand, and that these dissimilarities are important. Nevertheless, our interest remains with the similarities that exist between the accounts of the Lord’s Supper and the feeding of the multitude. So, as we consider the meal in John chapter 6, and here Jesus tells his disciples to have the multitudes recline, or sit down, verse 10, we are not surprised by the echo in this instruction from Jesus of what we hear later in the accounts of the Lord’s Supper. You may want to take note of the accounts of the Lord’s Supper in the various Gospels and how those accounts speak about the disciples who are present reclining in Jesus’ presence. The reclining or sitting down of the multitudes in John 6, then, finds connection to the reclining disciples in the upper room on that evening before Christ’s crucifixion.

In the common bond between the Last Supper and John 6, the fact is established, then, beyond controversy, that what we are dealing with in these accounts is a meal. It is a meal. And I might state in this connection, then, that we have in our observations at this point a confirmation of our Reformed and our Presbyterian understanding of the sacrament. The sacrament is a meal. It takes shape against the background of a supper. It is in a meal setting that the sacrament and the meaning of the sacrament take shape. The reclining of the people, then, in John 6, conveys to us a sitting down to a meal, or to a table.

The people do not gather in front of an altar. I hope you understand my point. The people do not stand in front of an altar to wonder at a sacrificial process or to gaze upon an elevated host. The people sit down as for a meal, and they do not kneel in worship of something or someone in front of them. Actions such as kneeling or gathering before an altar to wonder at a sacrificial process completely undo and obscure the true meaning of the sacramental action taking place in the meal.

But notice also, as you move from the tenth to the eleventh verse in John 6, that not only have the people been seated, but they remain seated and are served in their places. This means that the people do not come forward to receive the loaves and fish from Christ. Instead, the food is brought to them.

This is becoming clearer and clearer, is it not? You see, my dear Presbyterian and Reformed friends, there is good reason for you to conduct your communion practice as you do. Your practice is well grounded in the Bible. But now it is of greatest importance that you understand the genuine spiritual intention behind our communion practice.

In order that we might gain this deeper understanding, it is necessary for us momentarily to leave John’s Gospel and turn to the Gospel of Luke, particularly chapter twenty-two, and the account found there of Jesus’ Last Supper. You will recall, at the conclusion of the Supper, in Luke’s Gospel, that a controversy arises among the disciples about who is greatest. Verse 24 of Luke 22. Jesus enters their discussion and asks them, who is greater?

The one who reclines at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? Then Jesus provides the capstone to his comments by saying, “But I am among you as one who serves,” verse 27. Jesus is making a comment here about the respective postures at that meal on the eve before his crucifixion. The honored guests at this meal are the ones who are seated.

The honored guests are the disciples. While Jesus, although the Lord, stands as their servant to wait upon them. Now, the same point is made in a slightly different way by Jesus in John’s account of our Lord’s last night before his death in John 13. In this account, Jesus provides a clear example of his genuine service to his disciples by dressing himself as a lowly, common household slave, bowing before his disciples, and washing their feet. Returning now to John 6, when Jesus has the multitudes seated, he is actually giving the multitudes the place of honor, and he stands in his place as their servant. Thus the people are exalted, and Jesus is humbled. Jesus moves among them as their servant, then supplying them with the loaves and the fish. This action speaks about his ultimate true service, in that he would give his life for them upon the cross.

Now, John emphasizes in his account in John chapter 6—something you would not know from the King James Version, because the King James Version has altered the text. John highlights the exclusivity of Jesus’ service in this context when, in verse 11, he states that it is Jesus himself who distributes the food. I know that, as it reads in the King James Version, the disciples are described as distributing the food after Jesus gives the loaves and fish to them. However, the King James translators made this change because they felt compelled to align this passage in John 6 with the accounts of the feeding of the five thousand found in the other Gospels. John’s record differs, and if you consult a New American Standard Bible or a New International Version, you will see the distinction. In these translations, it is clearly stated that Jesus himself is portrayed as distributing the food. As I said, if you compare this with the other Gospels, you will find that in their accounts of the feeding of the five thousand, it is the disciples, not Jesus, who distribute the food.

But John, according to the more accurate text, reports that Jesus himself distributed the food. Now we are asked to account for the difference between John’s account and the synoptic Gospels, and the apparent discrepancy. Why is there this difference? Because John, by the Holy Spirit, intends for us always to recognize Christ’s unique identity and the exclusive nature of his service on our behalf, as he gave his life for us on the cross. At the same time, John also intends for our understanding to be firmly grounded in the truth that Christ truly and genuinely serves us in this meal.

When the other gospel writers tell us that the disciples distribute the loaves and the fish, the point must be, in light of what John has to say, that the disciples are an extension of Christ, conformed to Him in their service to those who are truly served. By way of extension, then, when your pastor distributes the sacramental food, he does so by grace and by the call of the Lord related to Christ in his office, but his purpose must always be to communicate Christ, never himself.

By the same token, your pastor may give the elements to the elders to be distributed, just as Christ gave the loaves and fish to the disciples. Thus your elders stand by grace and by the call of the Lord related to the disciples in their office. But their purpose in distributing the elements must be to communicate Christ, never themselves. Nor can your pastor or your elders stand over you in a spirit of self-importance, much less in a spirit of belligerence or intimidation, as if they were higher and you, by definition and position, were lower. In fact, the actions that take place in the sacrament, the actions performed by your pastor and by the elders, are meant to communicate just the opposite. You are being made the higher, they are the lower. Just as a servant stands to wait on honored guests seated at a fine meal, so your minister and your elders stand to wait upon you, the honored guests seated for this extraordinary meal.

We are your servants. But it is clear, is it not, that our service must never be restricted to such ministry as we perform to you in this meal. Rather, the meal becomes the occasion in which we express the very center of our lives, which are, after the image of Jesus Christ, expended for you. No man, then, should take to himself these offices of minister and elder who has not sworn in his soul to lay down his life for the sheep, to be a servant for the sake of the sheep, just as Jesus laid down his life for us all, and is our servant still. But of course, neither the service, nor Christ’s service to the 5,000, nor his service to you through your pastor and elders, is meant to leave you seated comfortably, weighted upon hand and foot. The goal of Christ’s service to you is your like service to others.

Yes, you have been exalted. Even as you are seated, the heights to which you have been brought are suggested by what verse 10 in John 6 says further. For John has left us with the impression in his telling of the story that Jesus and the disciples are still upon the mountain when the multitudes reach them. Compare verse 3. We have said before that the mountain in the Gospels is the scene of glory. In this context, the mountain does not only answer and fulfill the scene of that great Old Testament mountain, Sinai, in which the Old Testament people were in fact brought together, constituted, and in effect created. But this mountain here in John 6 forecasts the heavenly Zion in which Christ will be seated with his disciples to whom he has promised twelve thrones. Thus, the seating of Christ and the disciples in verse 3 of this sixth chapter. The multitudes arrive and are cast in this mountain setting, so as to have glory conferred upon them, as they now are understood as a new people of God, who by their exaltation in Christ have come to participate in the blessings of Christ’s heavenly reign.

But you will notice here the mention of much grass, an abundance of grass in this tenth verse. With the mention of the abundance of grass, the much grass, the mountain itself is being transformed before your eyes. Ordinarily, the mountain is uninhabitable. But now it is described in terms of much grass, and transformed into a lush and verdant pasture where the flock of God may graze securely.

Indeed, here is a picture of the new people of God, who are the summing up of all that has been said about the people of God of old. Here are the new people of God who know that the Lord, He is God, that it is He who has made us and not we ourselves, that we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. See Psalm 100. When Jesus has the multitudes recline upon the grass, it is difficult not to see them as His sheep, whom He makes to lie down in green pastures. Psalm 23. The multitudes, therefore, are portrayed as the new people of God, exalted, who have not only come to the mountain, but have had made for them there an abundantly rich and safe habitation.

But note further that verse 10 goes on to speak about the 5,000 men. Specifically, the 5,000 men. Why mention the males specifically? Why mention the males and not the women and the children, as some of the other Gospels do, when they give us the story of the feeding of the five thousand?

It is precisely here that it becomes clear that although the multitudes are portrayed gloriously and exalted, and even served and ministered unto, they are also called upon to render service themselves. For I am persuaded that the specific mention of the males, five thousand males, is meant not to exclude the women and children per se, but to draw the whole multitude, man, woman, and child, under the heading of an army. In the Old Testament, the numbering of the men of the tribes was specifically for military purposes.

This means, then, that in this text we have the new people of God presented to us both as a flock of the Lord and as the army of the Lord of hosts. Interestingly, later, as the multitudes play out their role and even their distorted theology, they see themselves as an army and wish to take Jesus by force and make him their king, verse 15. But presently, in this context, verse 10, they are cast in the role of a different sort of army altogether. When it rises from its seat at the table of blessing, it moves out to carry on its campaign with the same spirit with which it has been served by Christ himself. Friends, you are seated at the Lord’s table, not only as the Lord’s flock, but as the Lord’s army. Your commander-in-chief moves among you as a lowly servant, and it is in his meekness and lowliness that you rise from this table to go out and to do battle, not with the weapons of this world, but with the arsenal of Christ—his love and his word.

Let us pray. Our Father, as much as we are confirmed in our understanding of the sacrament and the propriety of our practice, we are challenged so that we, yes, your flock and exalted people even served by you, might rise in service to you with the very spirit with which Christ is present among us to serve us. Our God, may this not be a useless ritual in which we engage, but a confirmation and a challenge to us that we might live fully as your new people, blessed by you, but also extending ourselves in service for the Savior who has loved us and whom we love. As we pray.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.