The first of Jesus’ “I AM” statements is in John 6:35 – “I am the Bread of Life”.
John begins chapter 6 with the words “After this . . .” which would seem to indicate a rapid succession of time. But in reality, several months have passed since the account of John 5, perhaps even a year, if the feast mentioned John 5:1 is taken as Passover. If it were the Feast of Booths (aka The Feast of Tabernacles), chapter 6 occurs 6 months after chapter 5. John often uses the various Jewish feasts as his timeline marks. It is now close to Passover (John 6:4) and this would be the Passover before Jesus’ crucifixion, so this marks His last year of earthly ministry. If Jesus was crucified in 33 AD (I’ll talk about the evidence for this in a forthcoming post), then this would be April 32 A.D. John doesn’t tell us what happened between chapters 5 and 6, perhaps because the other Gospel writers do.
Jesus preaches in Nazareth and is rejected in His own town (Mark 6:1-5), and continues on to other nearby villages in Galilee (Mark 6:6). He then sends out the disciples in pairs to preach repentance, cast out demons and heal the sick (Mark 6:7-14). During this time, Jesus continues preaching Himself. While the disciples are out on their mission, Herod Antipas has John the Baptist beheaded, fulfilling the wish of his Herodias and her daughter with the preacher’s head served on a silver platter (Mark 6:14-29). The disciples return and tell Jesus about their experiences and apparently also about the news of John the Baptist (Matthew 14:13).
And so Jesus tells his disciples, “Let’s go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.” It was likely meant to be a retreat to debrief, to reflect, and to pray and worship. continue reading…
