The King-Making Episode 

One of Jesus’ most well-known miracles was feeding five thousand followers gathered in a park in March of 29 CE. These people had been camped around the Master for three days, and most had nothing left to eat. Jesus was moved to feed them, and when they had finished eating, they wanted to enthrone him and make him their king.

It was a huge disappointment to his apostles and admirers when Jesus refused. His mission was to create a spiritual kingdom, not a political one. A great many followers abandoned him after the refusal. The apostles did not leave him, but it was a hard lesson for them and his remaining disciples to realize that miracles seldom bring people closer to God, only expectations of more miracles.

After Jesus miraculously fed five thousand of his followers, they unanimously wanted him to become their king. Many had long expected a miracle worker, a Messiah, to sit on King David’s throne, and this feast seemed to fit their expectations. This happened on Wednesday evening, March 30, 29 CE, at an isolated campsite in northern Galilee, just south of Bethsaida-Julius.

For three days, it had been falsely rumored around the camp that Jesus had chosen this quiet spot outside the jurisdiction of all his enemies as the proper place to be crowned king. The reaction of the multitude to being fed “manna from heaven” was profound and overwhelming. When they had finished feasting, they rose as one and shouted, “Make him king!”

This mighty shout of the crowd had hardly died down when Jesus stepped upon a huge stone and, lifting up his right hand to command their attention, said: “My children, you mean well, but you are shortsighted and material-minded. You would make me king, not because your souls have been lighted with a great truth, but because your stomachs have been filled with bread. How many times have I told you that my kingdom is not of this world? This kingdom of heaven which we proclaim is a spiritual brotherhood, and no man rules over it seated upon a material throne. My Father in heaven is the all-wise and the all-powerful Ruler over this spiritual brotherhood of the sons of God on earth. Have I so failed in revealing to you the Father of spirits that you would make a king of his Son in the flesh! Now all of you go to your own homes. If you must have a king, let the Father of lights be enthroned in the heart of each of you as the spirit Ruler of all things.”

These words of Jesus sent the multitude away, stunned and disheartened. Many who had believed in him followed him no more. The apostles were speechless; they stood in silence. Only the chore boy, John Mark, spoke, “And he refused to be our king.” Before going off to be alone in the hills, Jesus turned to Andrew and said: “Take your brethren back to Zebedee’s house and pray with them, especially for your brother, Simon Peter.” He then sent the twelve back to the Galilee headquarters, the Zebedee home on the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee, where he rejoined them the next day.

When he had dismissed the multitude and sent his apostles to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus went into the nearby hills to be alone. He stayed in the hills until midnight, then walked to the eastern seashore where his apostles were sleeping in their boat. The apostle Andrew awoke first and went looking for the Master. He found him sitting at the shore. Jesus instructed Andrew to gather the apostles and their associates, including the women evangelists who had been awaiting their return at the Zebedee headquarters. To the group, he said, among other things:

“And now do you all see that the working of miracles and the performance of material wonders will not win souls for the spiritual kingdom? We fed the multitude, but it did not lead them to hunger for the bread of life neither to thirst for the waters of spiritual righteousness. When their hunger was satisfied, they sought not entrance into the kingdom of heaven but rather sought to proclaim the Son of Man king after the manner of the kings of this world, only that they might continue to eat bread without having to work for it. And all this, in which many of you did more or less participate, does nothing to reveal the heavenly Father or to advance his kingdom on earth. Have we not sufficient enemies among the religious leaders of the land without doing that which is likely to estrange also the civil rulers? I pray that the Father will anoint your eyes that you may see and open your ears that you may hear, to the end that you may have full faith in the gospel which I have taught you.”

A few days later, speaking to his apostles, the Master said the following about human emotions aroused by miracles: “You see, my children, the appeal to human feelings is transitory and utterly disappointing; the exclusive appeal to the intellect of man is likewise empty and barren; it is only by making your appeal to the spirit which lives within the human mind that you can hope to achieve lasting success and accomplish those marvelous transformations of human character that are presently shown in the abundant yielding of the genuine fruits of the spirit in the daily lives of all who are thus delivered from the darkness of doubt by the birth of the spirit into the light of faith – the kingdom of heaven.”

But he did not rule out emotions for spiritual purposes if properly employed. At this same meeting, he told them that an appeal to emotions can be a technique of arresting and focusing intellectual attention. He said the mind, once aroused, is the gateway to the soul, where the spiritual nature of man resides, which recognizes truth and responds to the spiritual appeal of the gospel. And this can result in permanent and true character transformations.

Finally, Jesus instructed them regarding the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, telling them he felt sympathy for their need. And he assured them that he did not yield to his sympathy for the multitude until he had ascertained that it was “according to the Father’s will.”

Jesus held informal conferences with the apostles every afternoon of the week following the feeding of the five thousand. The twelve were a serious, sober, and chastened group of disillusioned men. But even after Jesus’ refusal to be made king, they were not yet fully delivered from their long-cherished notions about the coming of the Jewish Messiah.

The news of the feeding of the five thousand and the attempt to make Jesus king aroused widespread curiosity and stirred up the fears of both the religious leaders and the civil rulers throughout all Galilee and Judea. This great miracle did nothing to further the gospel of the kingdom in the souls of material-minded and halfhearted believers. But it did cause the miracle-seeking and king-craving tendencies of Jesus’ immediate family of apostles and close disciples to abandon at least some of their unrealistic expectations. Despite their inclination to cling to old ideas, they were beginning to see that Jesus was not going to sit on David’s throne and that spiritual truth is not advanced by material wonders.

This spectacular episode marked the end of the early era of teaching, training, and healing. It was followed by the inauguration of his last year, in which he proclaimed the higher and more spiritual phases of the new gospel of the kingdom – divine sonship, spiritual liberty, and eternal salvation. The feast of the five thousand and the popular movement to make Jesus king marked the height of his acclaim by the populace. Ninety percent of his followers abandoned him after this event.

Now, the apostles vaguely discerned and dimly foresaw the approaching times of spiritual sifting and cruel adversity. These twelve men were slowly awakening to the real nature of their task as ambassadors of the kingdom. From this day, they began preparing themselves for the trying and testing ordeal ahead, little knowing Jesus would die in a little over twelve months.