From the Pulpit

Commentary

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Realizing Jesus didn’t board the disciples’ boat, the crowd searches both shores and eventually finds Him teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum (John 6:59). They may not fully understand what Jesus is trying to teach them, but there’s no doubt as to their zeal! They’ve come a long way to find Jesus.

26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

“Rabbi, when did you get here?”

1. Jesus doesn’t answer the question with any of the expected data (what, when, where, why). He gives an answer that’s entirely different from the question they asked!
2. Sometimes, God leaves questions unanswered, even as He reveals himself to us. There are always details that we won’t quite understand on this side of eternity, no matter how hard we search for them.
3. When he was on his deathbed passing away, Thomas Aquinas, one of the most famed theologians in Christian history, said, “Everything I have written is but straw!” If one of the deepest thinkers of God knew he knew nothing compared to the fullness of God’s revelation, how much can we claim to truly know the depths of God?
4. We can’t understand everything, but we can be humble enough to accept what we’ve been given and trust it given its source.
“Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”
1. Jesus explains their motive to them: they seek Him because his miracle gave them full bellies, not because they grasped the miracle’s meaning. They’re stopping so far short of what they could get!
2. The problem isn’t wanting too much but too little. They avoided hunger for an evening and are excited about that, when they could avoid death for an eternity.
3. “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” -C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
4. “Not that he forbids his followers to labor that they may procure daily food; but he shows that the heavenly life ought to be preferred to this earthly life, because the godly have no other reason for living here than that, being sojourners in the world, they may travel rapidly towards their heavenly country.” -John Calvin, Commentary on John, 6.

28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

“What must we do…

1. 1. [T]hey said this, not that they might learn, and do them, but to obtain from Him another exhibition of His bounty. -Chrysostom, Homlily xIv. 1.
“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent”

1. The belief that Jesus is talking about isn’t just an acknowledgement that he exists or any other sort of intellectual affirmation of the facts. It’s trust. This kind of belief is the kind that we mean when we tell someone we love, “I believe in you.”
2. Laws are important, but they aren’t the core of the Christian life. You don’t become a member of God’s family because you followed the rules well enough. We’re adopted into the family of God through Christ. We follow the law because we love our Father and trust him, not because it earns us our spot in his family..

30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?”
1. Even after they witnessed one of Christ’s miracles firsthand, they insist that they should get to see an even greater miracle so that Jesus can earn their trust. Their ancestors saw this miracle! It’s too old! What’s something better that Jesus can offer up?
2. They want to stay in control, rather than yield to Jesus. Belief is less about evidence than most people think. The inclination of the heart is more influential than any amount of evidence.
3. Romans 1:20 explains that we’ve all seen enough evidence of God’s existence just by looking around creation: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Even with more miracles, a resistant heart reinterprets signs as coincidence and asks for more.
“it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven,”
1. Jesus corrects an important detail: Moses didn’t give anyone bread from heaven. God gave them bread from heaven, and he’s offering it to them again right now.
2. “Therefore, both that manna signified this meat, and all those signs were signs of me. You have longed for signs of me; do ye despise Him that was signified? Not Moses then gave bread from heaven: God gives bread. But what bread? Manna, perhaps? No, but the bread which manna signified, namely, the Lord Jesus Himself. My Father gives you the true bread.” – Augustine, Tractate 25, 13.
3. “‘But was it not true bread that their ancestors had in the desert?’
  I answer: If we define the true as defined against the false, then that bread was true, for the miracle of the manna was not false; but if we define the true as defined against the symbolic, then that bread was not true, but a symbol pointing to the spiritual bread, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the manna signified, as the Apostle says, 1 Cor. c. 10, 3: ‘all ate the same spiritual food.’” -Aquinas, Commentary on John, Lecture 4, 908

34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

“I am the bread of life.”

1. “He does not say, I am the bread of nourishment, but of life, for, whereas all things brought death, Christ hath quickened us by Himself. But the life here is not our common life, but that which is not cut short by death: He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and He that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” -Theophylact, Commentary on John, Ch. 6
“I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
1. Jesus isn’t there to do the crowd’s will or even his own will! He lives to do the Father’s will. And what is that will? Giving eternal life to those given to him.
2. God’s number one objective is solving the biggest problems: sin and death. Daily issues matter, but they’re not nearly as big and don’t matter nearly as much as we think they do.
“I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.”

1. “They therefore who by God’s unerring providence are foreknown, and predestined, called, justified, glorified, even before their new birth, or before they are born at all, are already the sons of God, and cannot possibly perish; these are they who truly come to Christ. By Him there is given also perseverance in good unto the end; which is given only to those who will not perish. Those who do not persevere will perish.” -Augustine, de Cor. et Gratia, c. ix.
Life constantly throws new problems at us. Even today’s solutions lead to tomorrow’s problems! Bread today requires bread tomorrow. Most problems and solutions are temporary. Only God endures.

Full Transcript

We’ve been going through John chapter 6 here. The big question we’ve had on our minds as we go through is: if God is all-powerful, why doesn’t he give us what we want? Why doesn’t he give us health and wealth? We’ve thought of some different ways that people today answer that question.

The first week, we thought about prosperity gospel preachers—the people who say, “Why doesn’t God give you everything you want? He wants to! He wants to give you a million dollars. He wants to give you a new car. The problem is you. You don’t have enough faith. If you had more faith, God would be able to give you everything he wants to give you.” But when we look in John chapter 6, sometimes Jesus does say no. Sometimes Jesus puts people through difficult trials. Jesus doesn’t always give us an easy life. Not only that, but as we look through Christian history, there have been a lot of Christians who were very good, devout, and faithful, but were neither particularly healthy nor particularly wealthy. God doesn’t always give us everything we want.

Then we looked at another way people might try to answer that question, one that falls short of Christian orthodoxy. We thought about the people who kind of spiritualize it. They say, “Why doesn’t God give us everything we want? Because that’s not really what He does. That’s not what God’s interested in. God is not a god of earthly things; He’s a god of heavenly things. Go to Him with problems that are on your heart, problems that you know are on your mind, and problems that are about salvation, courage, and the things you can’t see and touch. That’s what God deals with. He doesn’t deal with stuff like food or money; that’s too earthly. It’s not good to go to him with things like that.”

But again, looking at John chapter 6, God does work that way. God works in ways that definitely impact the earth and earthly things. He multiplies food for hungry people. When his disciples are struggling to get across the Sea of Galilee, he helps them get to the other side. Not only does he repeatedly find ways to change the world, but he uses things that people actually do. He takes this offering of bread and fish from a boy and multiplies it. He takes the hard work that the disciples have put in and gets them all the way across. God does care not only about the physical world, but about what we do in it. He wants to see our work and magnify it. God’s not just a God of the heart; he’s the God over everything.

Today I want to introduce one more kind of answer to that question. The two we’ve looked at at least have a Christian framework. Today we’re going to look at one that does not: “Why doesn’t God give me everything I want if he’s all-powerful?” Some people respond, “Because he’s not real. If God were a person, we would not suffer the way we do.” People who have this answer very often have a wound they’re dealing with—some personal frustration or some hurt that is real. They ask things like, “If God’s real, why did my mom get sick? If God is all-powerful, why did my child die? If God is real, why did I suffer the way that I did while He didn’t lift a finger to help me? If God is all-powerful, He’s not good. Frankly, I don’t even think He’s real.”

That alone, I think, makes some of us hesitate. We see the woundedness and we don’t want to be insensitive, but I think we still need to acknowledge that that’s a wrong way of thinking. It’s easier to identify it when it’s in the positive. It’s easier to say, “God isn’t going to give you a million dollars just because you want it,” than it is to say, “God won’t always make your life easy, even when important things are on the line—even when you’re asking for someone you deeply care about to be healed, or even when you’re dealing with basic household economics and things aren’t coming out in the positive.” God doesn’t guarantee that everything is always going to go your way. Even when you aren’t just trying to get something actively positive, but are enduring something negative, there’s not always a miracle that comes in and sweeps you off your feet, hard as that is to acknowledge.

But it’s not that God doesn’t care. God cares. His plans are often hard for us to understand, but he cares. Do we trust him? That’s what’s at stake, and that’s what we’re going to be engaging with throughout these passages: trusting God even when we don’t get the things that seem like an obvious good, things that He knows are good.

Let’s engage here in chapter 6, starting at verse 22. Remember, we started at the beginning of the chapter. Thousands of people go around the Sea of Galilee to listen to Jesus speak and to have Him heal people for them. Jesus turns to Philip and says, “How are we going to feed all these people?” This is a test; he knows what he’s going to do. Philip says, “We can’t. Too many people. Can’t afford it.” Then the boy offers up his bread and fish. Jesus starts handing it out and just keeps handing it out. He just keeps going and going, handing out more than enough from this tiny little meal of a kid. The crowd sees that, and they get to thinking, “All right, if this guy can make bread and fish, what else can he do? I want this guy solving all my problems. Let’s get him working for us. Let’s make him the king. I don’t care what he thinks, I want him to be working for me.”

Jesus sees this happening. He sends the disciples across the Sea of Galilee, and he himself goes up on a mountain to pray. It’s a stormy day, and a storm kicks up over the sea. The disciples row all night, from evening until the dawn breaks, muscles aching and blisters forming on their hands, and they’re only halfway after all those hours. Jesus sees them, comes to them over the water, and they accept him onto their boat. Immediately, they’re where they need to be. I’m not saying that in an abstract way; they are at the other side. The second they take Jesus into their boat, they reach the other side.

Now we pick up, but we’re going to go back. We’re going to be with the crowd—the same crowd that saw Jesus do the loaves and fishes. They’re waking up the next morning and figuring things out. The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the opposite side of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

They wake up and they realize, after enduring this night of storms—I don’t know how they slept, if they brought tents, or what their sleeping arrangement was—but they wake up and wonder, “Where’d the disciples go?” Gone. They took a boat last night. “Where’s Jesus?” Nobody knows. Nobody saw him. Maybe they even went up that mountain. Maybe someone saw him going up there. They’re peeking around for him. This is thousands of people; you can imagine how chaotic it would be to figure out what’s going on! So they spend all morning trying to figure it out. They don’t find him, and they don’t find any of the disciples, so they go on a search for Jesus.

Here’s just a little detail. I don’t think it has any deep spiritual or symbolic meaning, but I just think it’s a good thing to remember. Did you notice that boats come? The disciples were the only ones with a boat last night. There were no other boats—thousands of people, no boats. Now there are boats landing to take them. Why were there no boats the night before? Because there was a storm coming! Everyone else had taken their boats in. The disciples were the only ones crazy enough to get in their boat and try to cross the sea when there was a storm of that magnitude, and even then, it was only because Jesus told them to. Little details like that are helpful. It reminds us that this is not Aesop’s fables. Boats don’t just appear and disappear at random. These are real people in the real world. There are reasons for things. When the boats weren’t there, it’s because conditions were bad and the storm might damage them. When they are there, there is a rationale to it.

Verse 25 says, “When they found him on the other side of the lake…” This is another moment where I think it would be easy to misimagine what’s going on. It’s helpful to skip ahead a little bit to get the setting. Verse 59 tells us where they find Jesus; it says Jesus was speaking to them while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. So, this does not unfold on the beach. We don’t just go hang out on the beach with the crowd while Jesus and his disciples sit quietly, waiting for everyone to catch up with them. They’ve got places to be. They’re trying to make it to Capernaum. They get there, Jesus goes to the synagogue, and he starts teaching. He doesn’t just sit there quietly while the crowd catches up. So, that’s where they are; you can keep that in your mind.

This crowd is so eager to see Jesus that they not only walk around the sea and then boat over it, but they search for him on one side and then search for him on the other side, all the way to the point where they find him teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum. As much as they don’t get Jesus, you can’t doubt that they want to. They’re trying. These are people who are really, genuinely attempting to get it—crossing the sea twice and searching for him on both sides.

When they found him on the other side, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Can you imagine if he answered that? “Oh yeah, I was up on the mountain praying, but then I saw down in the storm that my disciples were having a hard time. So I just kind of strolled down and walked across the water to help them out. Then I used a little bit of miraculous power to teleport them the rest of the way. We took a break that morning while you were searching, strolled into Capernaum, and I started teaching.” He doesn’t say that. You have to wonder if they would even believe it if they heard it. They’ve seen Him multiply loaves and fishes, but would they believe He can walk across water? Would they believe he can teleport boats? You have to wonder if they would be able to believe any of those things. They don’t even have a framework to think about it properly.

But we don’t get to find out because Jesus doesn’t tell them. They ask this question, and Jesus never answers it. They don’t need to know. He just moves on. God does that to us sometimes, doesn’t he? We have questions that are burning on our hearts, and we ask God, “Why, God?” And He doesn’t answer them—sometimes not for days, sometimes not for months, and sometimes we just never know. That’s not because God doesn’t want us to know Him. Scripture as a whole is a revelation of God telling us who He is, what He’s about, and what He’s doing. But there are still these things that we just don’t know.

That’s frustrating. I think it’s frustrating. I am someone who wants to know everything I possibly can, so to know that there are some things I will never know is deeply frustrating, and I know some of you have certainly endured that same frustration. But the question is: can we trust God even when we don’t know all the answers? Can we trust Him even when we lack the framework to understand them, even if He did give them to us?

Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest Christian theologians from the Middle Ages, wrote big commentaries on Scripture. He wrote giant, weighty tomes that are still read to this day, and he was one of the foremost Christian scholars of his era. When he was passing away, kind of drifting in and out of consciousness on his way to be with his Lord, his final words were, “Everything I have written is but straw.” His life’s work—some of the greatest Christian writings that we still look to—he called nothing. I don’t think he was saying that they are useless, but I do think that compared to eternity, compared to what we will know when that veil is lifted and everything is made clear to us, what we have now is so small in comparison. There are some things we just won’t know this side of eternity.

Can we trust God? Can we trust God even when He doesn’t give us the answer that we’re looking for? Jesus doesn’t give this crowd the answer they’re looking for. Instead, He says, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

First off, he immediately knows their hearts, right? Jesus knows why they’re there. There is no fooling him. He knew when they wanted to make him king, and now he knows exactly what got them there. He says, “Oh, I know why you’re here. You want more bread.” And they want more than that too, right? They want all kinds of things. They want the solution to every problem. They want to make him king so that he can execute their vision. But does Jesus scold them? Does he say, “Shame on you for wanting more bread”? Does he say, “Shame on you for wanting solutions to your problems?” Does he say, “It doesn’t really work like that. I’m kind of tired. I can only do so many miracles a day, so I’m kind of in my cool-down period. You’ve got to understand”? He doesn’t say any of that. Instead, Jesus says, “You’re not asking for enough. You are focusing on things that are too small. You want the solution to the problem right in front of you, but you know what’s going to happen after that? Another problem. And after that, there’s going to be another problem, because that’s the way life is. There’s always something, isn’t there? There’s always something new that draws your attention.”

Jesus tells them, “I don’t just want to give you the solution to one problem. I want to give you the solution for all of your problems—the biggest solution there is. Think bigger! You’re getting distracted by the bread. I want to solve death! That’s the problem I want to solve. You are going to die someday, and I want to solve that. I want eternal life for you. I want to take away the biggest thing that is stressing everything, the thing that causes every other problem. I want to address that.”

Think bigger! Address the biggest problem there is. I think C.S. Lewis said it really well: “It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Jesus offers them more than they asked for.

It is worth addressing because I think to many people, just reading that Jesus is offering them the bread of life—this eternal life thing—feels like, “Okay, but that’s a spiritual thing. That’s not something genuinely real that I can touch and have, and that’s not the kind of solution I’m interested in. That’s a luxury.” For people who already have food, money, and their whole lives figured out, then they can dabble in things like eternal life and these theoretical problems.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs comes to mind—this idea that you can’t really focus on self-actualization until you’ve addressed a million other things, and once you get those in place, then finally you can start to think about things like spirituality and eternal life. But here’s the thing: Jesus is addressing a concrete problem, which is death.

Think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In many ways, it’s anti-poor. It assumes that if you don’t have the physical stuff you need, you will have no interest in addressing questions like, “Why do I exist? How do I live a good life?” There can be no bigger question than that. How are you going to live a good life if you don’t know what one is? How are you going to reach the end of your life and say, “I’m glad that I lived the way I did,” unless you know what the point was? Spirituality is not a trifle to be toyed with by people who already have life figured out. It’s the biggest question there is: why do you exist, and how do you live well? That’s what Jesus is addressing. He says, “Seek eternal life. Solve the death problem.”

Then they ask him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Verse 29: “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.'” Look at their question: “What must we do to do the works God requires?” They’re thinking quid pro quo. “What do I have to do? You won’t give me this stuff; I get it. Maybe I’m not good enough. What do I have to do to get to a place where you will give me the things that I am seeking?” And what does Jesus say? “Believe in me.”

When he says “believe,” he’s not saying to theoretically affirm his existence. He’s saying it in a way that means loving trust—the same way you might say, “I believe in you” to a friend that you love. If you turned to someone and said, “I believe in you,” you certainly wouldn’t be saying, “I affirm that you exist.” You’d be saying, “I trust you. I know you’ve got this.” That’s what Jesus is talking about. That’s what he’s looking for—not just adhering to a law, and not just behaving in a way that’s acceptable. Not that laws are bad; there are a lot of laws in the Bible. They are good things, and they are intended to get you on track, but that is not the core of our relationship with God. The core of our relationship with God is trusting Him, loving Him, and believing in Him.

Can you imagine a family that functioned strictly based on rules? There was no affection at all, but all of the kids did exactly what they were told the whole time. The way that family functioned would be bizarre! It would be really weird. I know some of you who have kids are probably like, “I don’t know, I might be able to deal with that a little bit.” But that’s not what a family is about. It’s not about marching orders and strictly adhering to the rules. Love is the core of a family. The rules and laws are good; you hope your kids follow the rules because you love them and want what’s best for them, and you hope that they trust you enough to do what you ask. God wants us to be members of his family. He’s not just looking for us to take marching orders strictly. He says, “I want you to believe in me.” That’s the starting place, and we can go from there.

The crowd’s not thrilled with this answer. They respond, “What sign will you give us that we may see it and believe in you? What will you do? You want us to believe in you? What are you going to give us? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'”

Our other passage touched on this: the Jews are seeking signs. Isn’t it interesting that they’re seeking signs even though they were already given one? They literally saw Jesus multiply bread and fish right in front of their eyes. But when Jesus says, “Trust me. You’re worrying about the little stuff. Trust me and stop worrying,” the first thing they say is, “Well, hold on. You haven’t given us enough evidence to trust you yet. You’re jumping the gun. Sure, you did the bread thing—that was interesting—but let’s be honest, the people in Moses’ day got bread from heaven. We’ve seen that one before. You’re going to have to do better than that if you want us to really trust in you.” They flip it around so that rather than putting their faith in Jesus, giving him agency, and following him, they want to be the ones in the driver’s seat. They say, “Jesus, you do what we say.” Jesus says, “Trust me,” and they say, “You haven’t given me reason to yet. Give me a little more evidence. Give me something bigger.”

That, again, I think is something many people wrestle with. I wrestled with that for a long time. Is there enough evidence? Has God given us sufficient evidence? This group had the advantage of literally seeing the multiplication of bread and fish, but even after that, did they think it was sufficient? No.

God gives us all the evidence we could possibly want. The book of Romans says that in chapter 1: all of the world has sufficient evidence to know that God exists and is good. Just by looking around, just by looking outside, we can see the universe is so intricately and carefully designed. The beauty around us alone is testimony to the fact that God exists and loves us. Who could look at the eclipse and say there’s no evidence? Who could look outside at a field and say there’s no evidence? There’s evidence all around us. God has given us evidence after evidence.

When we say there’s not enough evidence, very often God has already given it to us. But even when we get the evidence—even when God gives us a special revelation, or even when he does a miracle to show us that he’s there, he loves us, and he’s seeking us—if our heart is not in a place where we are able to trust him, there’s no amount of evidence that will be sufficient. God could give us more and more up until eternity, and it wouldn’t be enough. You get one thing and say, “God, if you give me this, I’ll believe in you.” Then you get it and say, “Eh, that’s just a coincidence. I’m going to need another one.” Then something else happens and you think, “I’m not sure. It would need to be bigger.” Being able to believe in Jesus is much less an evidence problem than some people make it out to be. It’s much less about evidence and much more about the heart. Can we trust that someone else is seeking what’s best for us, or are we unwilling to get out of the driver’s seat and trust someone else?

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

We’re back to bread talk. They like that—something physical, something they can wrap their minds around. “Give us that.”

Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should not lose anything, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

“I’m not here to do your will. I’m not here to do my will. I’m here to do the Father’s will.” And he makes the Father’s will clear in no uncertain terms. What does God want? Eternal life for us. That’s what He is seeking. He wants to solve the biggest problem there is.

As we go through life, there are a million problems that catch our eye. We are not so very different from the people who kept chasing Jesus all over the place, trying to get more miracles out of him. We face problems about where we are going to get our meals, problems about governance, and problems about economics. There are a million and one problems constantly bearing down on us. Can we trust God? Can we trust God even when we don’t get what we want all the time? That’s the question we have to endure.

God recognizes that even in spite of the individual problems stacked up against us, there’s a bigger problem bearing down on us. All of these problems that we see are only problems for a day. They are problems for a day that we will endure, we will get past, and we will continue to work through. But everything we see is passing away. None of it is permanent. The little problems aren’t permanent, and the solutions aren’t permanent. We get a bag of bread, and then we need a new bag of bread. There’s only one permanent thing, and that permanent thing is God. He lives forever, he endures, and he wants us to endure too. Put your faith in me. He says, “I will not just solve the little problems; I’m going to solve all of them. I’ve got a plan. Do you trust me?”

Do you trust him?

John 6:1-15: The Feeding of the Five Thousand

May 6, 2026May 12, 2026 ~ Vincent

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Overview: John 6

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From the Pulpit

Commentary

6 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.

3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

“a great crowd of people followed him”
1. Notice that the crowd followed Jesus out into the wilderness without any food to begin with. One can’t help but be impressed by their devotion.
2. “Here we see, in the first place, how eager was the desire of the people to hear Christ, since all of them, forgetting themselves, take no concern about spending the night in a desert place. So much the less excusable is our indifference, or rather our sloth, when we are so far from preferring the heavenly doctrine to the gnawings of hunger, that the slightest interruptions immediately lead us away from meditation on the heavenly life.” -John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentary on John
“The Jewish Passover Festival was near.”
1. This detail adds another interesting dimension to the miracle. Passover commemorates the freedom of the Hebrew people from Egypt, after which people journeyed into the wilderness to reach the promised land. In the wilderness, the people were sustained by miraculous bread from God. At the upcoming feeding of the five thousand, here we are again, with people going into the wilderness and getting sustained by miraculous bread from God. What God did once long ago, he does again here.

5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle, besides the resurrection, found in all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John).
1. “Therefore as to this miracle, since we have heard how great it is, let us also search how profound it is; let us not only be delighted with its surface, but let us also seek to know its depth. This miracle, which we admire on the outside, has something within.” -Augustine, Tractate 24 on John, 2.
The Book of Luke tells us that Jesus also taught and healed while he was in the wilderness with the crowd.
“…to test him…”
1. Notice that Scripture explicitly says that Jesus was testing Philip. There’s intentionality behind his choice to go into the wilderness without food. This is no accident.
2. “Or to shew others it. He was not ignorant of His disciple’s heart Himself.” -Theophylact’s Commentary on John

7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Philip failed the test by relying on earthly calculations, estimating more than a year’s wages would barely suffice. He focused on his capacity instead of Jesus’s.

8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, isn’t mentioned in Scripture a lot, but when he is, he’s consistently bringing people to Jesus.
1. John 1:40–42 Andrew meets Jesus and then runs to Simon to introduce him to Jesus as well.
2. John 12:20-22 A group of Greeks are in Jerusalem for the passover and want to meet Jesus. Philip turns to Andrew to make that introduction.
“…five small barley loaves and two small fish…”
1. Notice that the word “small” is used twice to emphasize just how insufficient this particular meal is.
2. Barley, the cheapest grain (about a third the value of wheat), was “peasant food.” The meal was meager. If this happened today, it may well have been five slices of Wonder Bread and a tin of tuna.

10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

“(about five thousand men were there)”
1. The crowd numbered at least 5,000 men, not including women and children—possibly totaling 7,000 to 15,000.
Notice the three steps that Jesus takes:
1. 1. Took: Jesus took the loaves and fish, signaling that God’s work often involves offering what we have to him. God desires human participation in his work.
  2. Gave Thanks: Jesus gives thanks for the tiny insufficient meal. In his hands, it is more than enough. Sometimes, we may feel insufficient, but the way God sees us is different. In his hands, we are more than enough.
  3. Distributed: He distributed the food, and everyone ate “as much as they wanted.” In God, there isn’t just enough. There’s MORE than enough.

12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

“…twelve baskets…”
1. The miracle of Jesus doesn’t just give people enough; it gives them more than enough.
2. “[W]hy did He give the fragments to His disciples to carry away, and not to the multitude? Because the disciples were to be the teachers of the world, and therefore it was most important that the truth should be impressed upon them.” – Chrysostom, Hom. xlii. 3

14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

“Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
1. “He was the Lord of the prophets, the fulfiller of the prophets, the sanctifier of the prophets, but yet a prophet also: for it was said to Moses, I will raise up for them a prophet like you. Like, according to the flesh, but not according to the majesty…. And the Lord says of Himself, A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country. (Jn 4:44)” -Augustine, Tractate 24 on John, 7.
“…they intended to come and make him king by force…”
1. They wanted to make Jesus an earthly king by force, likely expecting him to overthrow Romans and fix their economy. They saw Jesus as a tool to achieve their goals.
2. There are also many people today who want to harness God for their own personal gain. Preachers of the “prosperity gospel” make all kinds of claims about how God will give people exactly what they want if they only respond in the way that the preacher is insisting they should.
3. Rather than trying to make God follow our agenda, we need to serve His.
4. Be hungry for the bread of life, not just a life of bread.

Full Transcript

If God has infinite power, why doesn’t he use it to solve my problems? If God has infinite power, why don’t I have a new car? Why don’t I have a million dollars? He has miracles, right? Why doesn’t he whip up a miracle and give me a million bucks? That would be a good miracle in my book. Why doesn’t he give me health and wealth? Why doesn’t God do that? Some people will tell you that he does.

Some people will say that’s exactly how God works. God wants to give you a million dollars; God has that new car waiting for you. The problem is you just don’t believe enough. If you have enough faith, he’s going to give you all that and more. We call those people prosperity gospel preachers. The prosperity gospel is the belief that God will solve all of your problems exactly the way you want them solved if you do something. Maybe you need to have more faith, or maybe you need to give him money. Maybe something needs to be done, and then you will get everything you’ve ever dreamed of. You’ll get the money, the car, the health, and the wealth. You’ll get all of it. This is surprisingly popular.

It is wildly popular. The last time I went to Barnes & Noble, the majority of books prominently featured in the Christian section were by prosperity gospel writers. I’m sure anyone who’s ever seen a preacher on TV knows that televangelists are famously associated with the prosperity gospel. That doesn’t mean all authors and all TV preachers are like that, but a lot of them are. It’s a popular thing because it’s attractive. Who doesn’t want a silver bullet out there that’s going to solve all their problems? That would be great! Now I don’t have to worry about it; I just need that “thing.”

The problem, of course, is that it’s not true. That should be pretty obvious, at least because if you think about the Bible, you have to ask: was Jesus rich? This is not a theoretical question; this is for you. Was Jesus rich? Jesus was not rich. Was Peter rich? Was John rich? Was Andrew rich? None of them were rich. This is a faith about a crucified God. The apostles mostly were martyrs, with the sole exception of John, who died in exile. None of them got rich quick. The fact that people somehow hijack Christianity to claim that you can get rich quick today just doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t fit, but that has not stopped people from making the claim anyway.

This past week, I looked through some prosperity gospel preachers just to see the kind of things they say. Here were some of my favorite quotes: “Don’t wait for the pie in the sky by and by when you die. Get yours now with ice cream and a cherry on top.” “Sow a seed on your Mastercard, your Visa, or your American Express, and when you do, expect God to open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing.” “You must believe and then you’ll receive.”

My personal favorite apparently made headlines. There was one televangelist who explained to everyone that he had heard from God, and God told him that he was going to “call him home” unless his congregation could fundraise eight million dollars in three months. It’s just shameless. A lot of stuff like this is out there, and it’s just shameless. God doesn’t work like that.

The core idea here—that God wants to solve all of your problems on your terms—is half true. God wants to solve our problems. The biggest thing that gets in the way is that we don’t even know what our biggest problems are. We think we know. We think if God would just give us a million dollars, that would solve the problem. But God says, “That’s not your biggest problem. There’s some other stuff that’s way bigger in your life, and I’m working on that.”

Let’s dive into chapter six. Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. As you can probably surmise from the theme of this chapter, the crowd is going to get a lot of stuff wrong in the coming verses. But I like how we start. We start in a good place. These people are excited to know Jesus. Jesus is going to the other side of a sea, and their response is to go to the other side of the sea, too. They didn’t even have anything to eat. Thousands of people went to the other side of a sea just for the opportunity to spend more time with Jesus. That is a level of enthusiasm that is admirable regardless of what follows.

Are you that excited this morning? I hope you are. I hope you have that level of excitement in you because you should be excited. I think it’s easy for some folks to get ho-hum about church because we can’t see the spiritual reality of it; we only see the physical reality. We see the same walls and the same people. But we are in the house of God and Jesus is with us, and we get the chance to know him better. You should be excited. If you’re not excited, get excited.

Here are some people who are excited. They know how great Jesus is, and they want the chance to know him better. Verse three says: “Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover festival was near.” Why are they telling us that detail? On one hand, they are telling us this because it helps you locate it in the time of the year.

I think another reason they’re invoking Passover here is that Passover is about remembering the plagues. That’s the final plague that came on Egypt. The angel of death came to Egypt because they would not free the Hebrew slaves and killed the firstborn of all the Egyptians. After that day, Pharaoh said to let the Israelites go free. That is really what we’re celebrating here: the freedom and what happened right after they were free. They went into the wilderness for a long time and were sustained by bread from heaven. Isn’t it interesting? Here are some people going into the wilderness to be sustained by some miraculous bread. God does something once, and then he does it again later. It’s almost like echoes of something that already happened—in this case, an even bigger instance of something from the past.

Verse five says when Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming towards him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” By the way, this particular miracle is the only miracle in the entire four gospels that appears in each one of them, barring the resurrection. In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there are a lot of stories that make it to two or three gospels, but this is a miraculous story that appears in all of them. This is really helpful because it tells us some of the details if you read across the breadth of scripture.

People are just coming up to Jesus, and he says, “We have to get food ready.” What are they doing out there? Are they just going to get a meal? Luckily, Luke fills in some of the details. It tells us that Jesus, during their time out here, also taught them and healed them. That is just a little that can be filled in by looking at the other scriptures.

Picking up again, when Jesus saw a great crowd coming towards him, he turned to Philip and asked, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. It’s important that it tells us he was testing him. Can you imagine if that little detail wasn’t there? It would change the feel of the whole thing. Jesus turns to Philip and asks if they have any way to feed these people, Philip says they don’t because it’s too expensive, and then Jesus says he guesses he has to pull a miracle out. It would make the whole thing feel unintentional, like an accident where Jesus doesn’t understand money and has to do something to make up for it. It changes the whole vibe if you don’t know it’s a test.

God knows everything. He already knows what’s going to happen. He gives people the opportunity to do what’s right and show that they get it, or he gives people the opportunity to show that they need a little more time being educated. That’s what’s happening to Philip here. It’s important to note that because it happens throughout the Bible. Sometimes God asks someone a question when he already knows the answer. Sometimes God says one thing and then later does it a little differently because someone has spoken with him. It seems almost like he’s changed his mind, but God didn’t change his mind; he gave someone the opportunity to speak truth in a way that was good.

God tests people, and it’s true with us, too. Sometimes we go through some stuff and it’s not what we expect. God tests us. He gives us the opportunity to do what’s right or to show we need some more education. Philip, unfortunately, fails this particular test. He responds by saying it would take more than a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. Faced with this crazy task, Philip immediately relies on himself. He’s from the area and knows things pretty well. He seems to be able to look at the crowd and think about where he could get food. He probably at some point has spoken with Judas, the treasurer of the group.

How crazy is that to think about, by the way? Jesus chose Judas to be the treasurer. Thank goodness we have Charity and Todd; I’d hate to have a Judas in that position. So, Philip knows about how much money they have. He knows the tools he has and what he brings to the table, and he knows this is not possible. He relies on his skills rather than on Jesus. He needs a little more education.

Then Andrew comes up in verse eight. Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up: “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Every time you see Andrew, he is introducing someone to Jesus. We saw him earlier in the book of John, and Andrew was introducing other people who would become disciples. Here, he’s introducing a young boy with loaves and fishes, and later on, he’s going to be introducing Gentiles to Jesus. Andrew is always introducing people to Jesus; it’s just one of those things he’s good at.

He introduces this boy who has five small barley loaves and two small fish. Notice that “small” is used twice here. This is not a big meal; it’s a boy’s meal. Some translations even say it’s a young boy’s meal. You have to imagine it’s not particularly big. Sometimes when you see Christian art, the boy comes forward with five nice, thick Italian loaves or big baguettes. Sometimes he’s got King’s Hawaiian—which, why wouldn’t you? It’s one of the best bread choices you can make. Those are all visually appealing, and there is nothing wrong with that, but in scripture, it’s not anything big. It’s five small barley loaves.

Barley loaves are not nice. Barley would have been the cheapest grain you could get; you can read about it in Ezekiel and Revelation. Barley comes up in both of those books as something that is not particularly valuable. If you give your kingdom away for a few handfuls of barley, you’ve given it away for nothing. Barley is worth about a third of what wheat is worth, so barley loaves are peasant food—commoner food. They’re not nice, and no one is necessarily excited to get them. It will fill your stomach, but it’s not particularly fancy.

A modern equivalent might be to imagine one of the kids that came up for the children’s moment. Imagine there was a church meal afterward and nothing had been prepared. One of those kids comes forward and they’ve got five slices of Wonder Bread and a tin of tuna. That’s what we’re looking at. This is not grand. People were probably thinking this wasn’t going to work. Even Andrew says as much: he notes the boy has some stuff to offer, but doesn’t know how far it’s going to get them.

But Jesus says, “Have the people sit down.” There is plenty of grass, so they sat down—about five thousand men were there. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He begins by taking it. Obviously, the kid offered it; Jesus isn’t stealing the loaves, but he is taking them. The kid can’t hold on to the meal and still see this miracle happen. Jesus takes it so the miracle can follow, and that’s important to remember.

Whenever we see a miracle—like when Jesus turned water into wine—notice that he asked them to gather water. Here, we see him feeding five thousand people, but he asks this boy for a meal. Whenever Jesus does great things, he wants humans to participate. He wants us to do something. He’s not just a genie who poofs things out of nowhere. He could if he wanted to, but he wants us to participate in what he’s doing. He wants us to do something so he can magnify it and make it even greater. It’s really humbling the way he allows us to participate in the greatness of what he does. He takes the loaves, and more will come of them because of that. You have to imagine that even for the kid, this is a good deal: he gives up one lunch and he gets as much as he wants down the road.

Everyone benefits because this kid was willing to hand over his meal. After Jesus takes the loaves, he gives thanks. There’s a great quote I came across from Charles Spurgeon referencing Augustine. You’ve got the “Prince of Preachers” invoking the “Father of Orthodoxy.” He says, “For five little cates and two sprats, God gave thanks to the Father. Apparently a meager cause for praise. But Jesus knew what he could make of them, and therefore gave thanks for what they would presently accomplish. God loves us,” says Augustine, “for what we are becoming. Christ gave thanks for these trifles because he saw whereunto they would grow.”

Jesus gave thanks for these breads and fishes knowing that, in their current form, they weren’t enough to feed five thousand people. But in the hands of Jesus, they could. That’s good news for us because, in our current form, we can’t do a whole lot. We are limited and we make mistakes. We are certainly not capable of a lot of things, but in the hands of God, we are capable of incredible things. We’re capable of miracles, just like those loaves and fishes.

Then he hands out as much as people want. It says there were five thousand men, a number that does not necessarily involve the women or the children. So how big was the crowd when all was said and done? Was it seven thousand? Ten thousand? Fifteen thousand? It’s a massive crowd. Of those seven thousand people, how many might not have had many resources? How many might have been hungry or didn’t know where their next meal was coming from? Food insecurity is real today, but it was infinitely more so in this era.

Some of these people may never have had the opportunity to genuinely eat as much as they wanted with no concern about how it would impact them tomorrow. But Jesus does that. He makes this feast where people can eat as much as they want. This was something they likely had never seen; they didn’t have all-you-can-eat buffets. This was not necessarily fancy eating—it was still barley loaves and small fish—but they got enough. That’s the thing about the Christian life: sometimes we may not always get the fanciest stuff, but God will provide. He will give us what we need.

When they had all had enough to eat, Jesus said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over. Jesus doesn’t just provide enough; he provides more than enough.

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the prophet who came into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

The crowd gets to thinking: “Man, that guy can make loaves and fishes out of nothing. I bet he can use those powers to solve a lot of our other problems. The Romans are in charge and they’re pretty brutal. We’ve got economic problems; we’ve got tons of problems in Israel. Let’s get this guy to solve them all. Let’s make him our king.” Notice it doesn’t say they asked him if he wanted to be king; it says they wanted to make him king by force. They want to take God and get him to serve them. They don’t want to serve God.

They have just seen a man they are convinced is, at minimum, a prophet. They saw him multiply bread and fish with their own eyes. Instead of saying, “You must know something—how can I serve you and be a part of what you’re doing?” they say, “I’ve got some jobs for you.”

Jesus knows they do not get it, so he leaves. We will see more of this because that mentality doesn’t depart from them easily—the idea that God wants to give me “stuff,” that God can solve all my problems, and that he’s going to be the best employee I’ve ever seen by giving me money, a new house, and the perfect life. But Jesus is looking for people who want to look on a grander scale. He wants people who are hungry for the bread of life, not people who are just hungry for a life of bread.

We’ll see more of that next week as we see Jesus walk across the water. Amen.

Through the Eye of an ACTUAL Needle: The Fake Gate Theory

October 12, 2021April 28, 2026 ~ Vincent ~ 6 Comments

Matthew 19: 23-24 famously reads:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

There are two popular interpretations for the phrase “eye of a needle.” The first theory is that it is a reference to the tiny hole at the top of a sewing needle. Simple enough. The second theory is that it is a reference to a gate with the name “the eye of the needle” that was in first century Jerusalem. The gate was so small that anyone that hoped to get a camel through would have to take all of their baggage off the camel, get it down to its knees, and kind of shimmy the camel through the tiny opening.

You can see why this is important for Bible readers. Either Jesus is saying that it is impossible for a rich man to get into Heaven, or he’s saying that it’s really challenging for a rich man to get into heaven. There’s a big difference between impossible and barely possible. So which is it? Is it hard or impossible? What is the eye of the needle?

After a little research, I wasn’t able to find a trustworthy modern commentary that genuinely advocated for the gate theory. In varying detail, they all disproved it with archaeology, translations from the Greek, interpretive history, and the plain sense of the story. That being said, I didn’t find a single place that really poured out all of the evidence for the reader’s consideration (especially when it came to the history of interpretation). So here we go! This is my attempt to round up all of that evidence and hand it over to you.

The archaeological evidence for the gate theory is pretty poor. There’s no legitimate evidence of a gate known as the “eye of the needle” gate existing in Jesus’ lifetime. I would cite something, but you can’t cite evidence proving a lack of evidence! A quick google search reveals that even modern claims about eye of the needle gates in Jerusalem are dubious at best. There’s one small Orthodox church that claims that they have the actual gate that Jesus was referring to (which looks suspiciously like a hole in an old wall). There’s also a handful of travel blogs from people that claim they went to the eye of the needle gate. None of these claims are citation-worthy. Church websites often make dubious claims (see my article about fake quotes from famous saints for more church website sins) and the travel blogs pictures feature people smiling by a variety of totally different “eye of the needle” gates. Were there gates in different times and locations referred to as eye of the needle gates? Yes. There’s gates like that in German castles from the Middle Ages and obviously a handful in Jerusalem today that claim to be eye of the needle gates. That being said, there’s no record of a gate being referred to by that title until after the year 1000. In first century Jerusalem, there is absolutely no evidence that such a gate existed. Strike one.

The Greek manuscript makes the gate theory even less viable. If the “eye of a needle” was the name of a specific gate or a reference to a type of gate, that would make the language a title. You’d have to use the same words, “eye of the needle,” every time you talked about it because you’re not actually talking about eyes and needles; you’re talking about a type of gate known as an eye of the needle gate. The story comes up three times in the Gospels (Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 18) and each author uses slightly different words for this phrase. Matthew calls the eye of a needle the “trypēmatos rhaphidos” (τρυπήματος ‘ῥαφίδος), while Mark calls it the “trymalias tēs rhaphidos” (τρυμαλιᾶς τῆς ‘ῥαφίδος). Both are using the same word for needle (referring specifically to a tailor’s needle), but they’re using different language to talk about the eye of that needle. Luke not only adds a third option for the eye, but uses the word for a surgeon’s needle rather than the word for a tailor’s needle: trēmatos belonēs (τρήματος βελόνης ). If they’re trying to use a title for a specific kind of gate, they’re all over the map! Two of the three of them are using the wrong words to refer to that gate. If, on the other hand, they’re talking about needles and the tiny holes in them, the differences in their accounts present no problem. Strike two.

Now to the history of interpretation. Most commentaries I looked at claimed that the gate theory was a legend from the Middle Ages, but there wasn’t much detail provided beyond that. I saw a lot of people throw around dates like the 9th century (maybe), the 15th century (definitely wrong), and the 19th century (right out), but few provided direct quotes from their sources, much less cited sources at all.

The oldest reference I could find that’s absolutely airtight comes from Thomas Aquinas’ megacommentary, Catena Aurea. It packed great quotes from multiple noteworthy church fathers into one convenient commentary. In the section on Matthew 19, he provides the following commentary from Anselm of Canturbury:

It is explained otherwise; That at Jerusalem there was a certain gate, called, The needle’s eye, through which a camel could not pass, but on its bended knees, and after its burden had been taken off; and so the rich should not be able to pass along the narrow way that leads to life, till he had put off the burden of sin, and of riches, that is, ceasing to love them.
Anselm of Canterbury as cited in Catena Aurea, Thomas Aquinas, CCEL Edition.

I can’t find a primary source from Anselm on this one, nor can I find anyone else who was able to track one down, so we’ll just have to take Thomas’s word for it. Anselm wrote in the early 12th century, so there’s definitely an uncomfortable gap here. Sources legitimately interested in uncovering the source of the theory often quote this as the its first official appearance, and I have to agree. I can’t find an earlier source than Thomas quoting Anselm. Did Anselm say it? Probably. Did he get it from someone else? I have to imagine he did. Someone that spent most of his life in England seems an unlikely candidate to start spouting off about gates in Jerusalem.

There are some people that point to an eastern bishop from the 11th century named Theophylact as the actual originator of the gate theory. If he did, it’s bizarre that he didn’t write it down anywhere and actively contradicted himself in writing. Here’s what he says on the matter in his commentary on Matthew:

As long as a man is rich and he has in excess while others do not have even the necessities, he can in no way enter the kingdom of heaven. But when all riches have been shed, then he is not rich and so he can enter. For it is just as impossible for a man with wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. See how Christ first said it was difficult to enter, but here that it is completely impossible.
Theophylact’s Commentary on Matthew, Ch. 19, trans. Christopher Stade.

You can hear where he gets a little close: “when all riches has been shed, then he is not rich and so he can enter…” If there was a tiny gate where you had to get all of your gear off your camel and shimmy it through, the process might be something like that. But note that he still definitively says that it is impossible for a rich man to enter. Theophylact is describing the process of a rich person becoming poor, not talking about unpacking your camel for the sake of a narrow gate. Just to cover our bases, let’s see what he says about the same story in Mark 10:

Understand ‘hard’ here to mean ‘impossible’. For it is impossible for the rich man to be saved. This is clear from the example which the Lord gives, saying, ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’ For it is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Theophylact’s Commentary on Mark Ch. 10, trans. Christopher Stade.

Yeah, this guy is absolutely not the originator of the gate theory. Some people just misread his commentary on Matthew. This is why primary sources are so critical: because people don’t always say what others claim they did.

There are a number of proto-claims that come way closer to the gate theory than Theophylact did. For example, check out this commentary from Jerome (a Roman theologian from the 4th century):

By this saying it is shown to be not difficult but impossible. For if, in the same way that a camel cannot pass through the eye of a needle, so a rich man cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, then no rich man will be saved. But if we read Isaiah, how camels of Midian and Ephah come to Jerusalem with gifts and offerings, and those that were previously bent and distorted by the depravity of vices entered the gates of Jerusalem, we will see how even these camels to which the rich are compared, when they have laid aside their heavy burden of sins and the crookedness of their whole body, they can enter through the narrow and strait road that leads to life.
Jerome’s Commentary on Matthew, trans. Scheck, 220-221.

Like Theolphylact, Jerome EXPLICITLY says that it is impossible. Buuuut there is that passage in Isaiah (60:6) where camels with loads of fancy gifts and people who were bent and distorted get into Jerusalem. Sooo maybe rich people can get in too if they lay aside their riches and vices? A bit of a comforting stretch for a passage saying that something is impossible. In his commentary, John Broadus goes so far as to suggest that Anselm got the idea from a misreading of Jerome’s fanciful explanation. A bit of a stretch, I think, but the connection between proto-claims like this and the gate theory are definitely real.

There’s a definite instinct in the history of this passage to try to soften the blow. Whether the eye of the needle is made a gate, the camel is made a rope (a suggested mistranslation that’s just not viable, as you can tell from the simple fact that no reputable Bible translates it that way), or the reading of the story is followed up with long statements about how being rich is actually fine if you manage to resist the allure of your riches (Clement of Alexandria among others), there are a lot of people that want this to be a little easier to swallow. Which is surprising, because all of this evidence pales in comparison with the words of Jesus in the following verses (Matt 19: 25-26):

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Jesus literally says that the point of bringing up the whole camel and needle thing in the first place was to say that it is impossible. He’s intentionally using an absurd image to talk about something that can’t happen! If his words aren’t enough to put the final nail in the coffin of the gate theory, I don’t know what would be.

Tag: Theophylact

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