Signs

This morning we read Gospel John’s account of Jesus Feeding the Five Thousand. This story is in all four canonical gospels, slightly different in each of the three synoptics, Mark, Matthew and Luke. But writing later, a full generation after Mark when things were changing for and within the church both sociopolitically and theologically, John has it quite different from the others. We’ve talked about this before and often, and it never gets old. 

For John — unlike the synoptics where Jesus is pictured responding compassionately to a crowd of hungry people — John sees Jesus giving the people a sign that he is indeed the prophet like Moses whom Moses prophesied centuries earlier — Moses who led them and fed them in the wilderness, where they are again on this isolated mountainside, led and fed in the wilderness. 

We’re going to look at this in Sunday School this morning, and among other things, we’ll compare John’s story of a sign to Mark’s story that has eucharistic overtones. 

Mary Stuart Poole Library, 9:15 to 10:15. Come early, come on time, come late, but come and enjoy!

TW+