“Others said, ‘He is the Messiah.’ Still others said, ‘But he can’t be! Will the Messiah come from Galilee?’” (John 7:41 NLT)

The Jewish Festival of Shelters, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, was a weeklong celebration of God’s faithfulness to the Israelites during their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. As part of the celebration, Jewish families traveled to Jerusalem in Judea, where they stayed in temporary shelters made of branches and leaves.

Jesus didn’t want to draw attention to Himself in Judea because He knew the religious leaders there were plotting to kill Him. He wasn’t afraid of them. He was simply following God’s timeline. It wasn’t time for Him to die yet.

His brothers, the children of Joseph and Mary, thought that was a mistake. One of the reasons the “important” Jewish leaders rejected Jesus is that He did most of His miracles and teaching in Galilee, a region they considered unsophisticated. His brothers wanted Him to show what He could do on the big stage of Jerusalem.

His brothers saw that He could work miracles, but they didn’t believe He was the Messiah. Maybe their sibling rivalry was too strong. It wasn’t until after Jesus’ resurrection that His brothers became His disciples.

Jesus traveled to the festival alone to avoid making a big entrance. But He didn’t avoid making His message known. He went to the temple and began to preach—boldly and with authority.

When the Jewish leaders heard Him, they were amazed and confused. He taught like a highly educated rabbi, but He had no formal training. They were more concerned about His credentials than His message. Jesus explained, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me” (verse 16 NLT). In other words, “If you reject it, you reject God.”

Jesus questioned why the religious leaders, who were guilty of sin, wanted to kill Him, who was sinless. He pointed out their hypocrisy. They performed circumcisions on the Sabbath, but they condemned Him for healing people on the Sabbath.

Jesus’ bold confrontation left many people confused. If the religious leaders wanted Him dead, why didn’t they arrest Him? He was challenging them to their faces. Did that mean they believed He was the Messiah?

On the other hand, many of these people knew who Jesus was. They knew His family. They knew where He’d come from and what He’d done for the first three decades of His life. He was one of them. They were waiting for a Messiah who was mysterious and heroic—not a local guy. And especially not a local guy from an insignificant place like Galilee.

The people wanted a Messiah who checked off very specific boxes of their own making. Since Jesus didn’t check off all those boxes, they refused to believe in Him. They chose to overlook the miracles He performed and the powerful truth of His teaching. And they continued their fruitless search for their type of Messiah—one that God never promised.

If we want to understand the truth about Jesus—who He is, what He did, and what He wants from and for us—we have to go straight to the source, God’s Word. We can’t rely on our own ideas or the educated guesses of others.

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“But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.” (John 6:27 NLT)

The people who followed Jesus across the Sea of Galilee woke up the next morning to find that He and His disciples were gone. So they rowed back across the water to Capernaum, hoping to see more miracles. They wanted Jesus to keep feeding them miraculous food. They wanted Him to be their miracle-working, Roman Empire-fighting king. They wanted Him to fulfill their expectations.

They found Him in the synagogue. Religious leaders from Jerusalem were also there to interview Him. Jesus took the opportunity to set them all straight. He made them see that they were seeking temporary fixes, miracles that momentarily satisfied their hunger and stirred their imagination. They were focused on the small picture of the miracles themselves. They missed the big picture of what the miracle worker could do for them eternally.

The physical food Jesus gave them lasted a few hours. The spiritual food He offered would last a lifetime—and then forever. He said, “God the Father has given me the seal of his approval” (verse 27 NLT). They could have confidence in Jesus because God Himself guaranteed the truth of His words.

The people realized that Jesus wasn’t going to bend to their wishes. So they tried a different approach. “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” they asked in verse 28. Their goal was still the same: to get Jesus to be who they wanted Him to be. What they wanted to know is how they could please God with their works to make that happen.

“Jesus told them, ‘This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent’” (verse 29 NLT). Some translations use the word trust instead of believe. Trusting may seem easier than performing works, but it’s not. Trusting in Jesus means giving up our own agenda and embracing God’s plan. It means letting go of what we want and sincerely asking for what God wants.

The religious leaders from Jerusalem, who had heard about the miraculous feeding of more than 5,000 people, wanted to see Jesus’ power for themselves. And the people who had eaten the loaves and fish wanted to eat again. So they tried to manipulate Jesus using the Old Testament story of God providing manna for the Israelites in the wilderness. They wanted Jesus to provide them daily bread to eat.

In verse 35, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” (NLT) the One who had come down from Heaven to give spiritual nourishment—the Word of God and eternal life, things that were much more important than food.

And that’s when the crowd started to murmur. Come down from Heaven? He was the son of Joseph and Mary, local people! The idea of a miracle-working king appealed to them. The idea of trusting in someone for eternal life didn’t. So many followers deserted Jesus.

When Jesus asked His 12 disciples if they wanted to desert too, Peter answered for the group. “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God” (verses 68–69 NLT).

Wise people don’t try to alter the truth to fit their thinking; they alter their thinking to fit the truth.

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“Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.” (John 6:11 NLT)

Crowds followed Jesus wherever He went. People couldn’t get enough of His healing miracles. When He crossed the Sea of Galilee and headed for a remote hillside for some alone time, 5,000 men (along with an untold number of women and children) joined Him. But only one of them packed food for the journey. A young boy carried five barley loaves and two small fish.

The hilly location was miles and miles away from anyplace that sold food. And even if such a place could be found, the disciples couldn’t pick up the tab for a party of five-thousand-plus.

So one of them, Andrew, did the only thing he could think of. He brought the boy with the loaves and fish to Jesus. Notice the first thing Jesus did after He accepted the boy’s food: He gave thanks. No matter how meager the resources might have seemed, they were a gift from God, and He treated them like one.

Then He broke off piece after piece of the five loaves and two fish and handed them to His disciples to distribute. And He didn’t stop until 5,000 men, along with the women and children, had been fed.

What little the boy had to offer was more than enough to impact thousands of people. Jesus helped His followers see that it’s not how much you have that matters, but rather who’s distributing it. What seems inadequate to us may be just enough to accomplish something incredible.

After witnessing Jesus’ miracle, the crowd got overly excited and tried to make Him their king. They imagined Him using His powers against the Roman Empire. But Jesus had a much greater role to fulfill, so He quietly slipped away into the hills for some much-needed alone time. He had met the people’s needs, but He had no interest in meeting their expectations.

That night, when His disciples couldn’t find Him, they got in their boat and rowed back across the Sea of Galilee without Him. They didn’t get far. The Sea of Galilee was known for its sudden, violent storms. It sits 600 feet below sea level. When the sun sets and the air cools, the wind rushes in from the west and churns the waves. The disciples were headed west, toward Capernaum, so they were heading directly into the storm. After several hours of rowing, they had made it only halfway across.

The physical conditions that held back the disciples had no effect on Jesus. He walked across the water toward His disciples. In the darkness, they couldn’t see that their salvation was coming. They thought the figure approaching them across the water was a ghost, until Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid. I am here!” (verse 20 NLT).

Jesus’ followers invited Him into their boat—and into their struggles. And they immediately and miraculously arrived at their destination. Jesus’ way may seem scary at times, but when we invite Him into our struggles, He will make sure we get where we need to be.

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