22 On the next day the people who remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.
Verse 22 begins with John telling us that what transpires here is on the day following two particular events. First is the feeding of the five thousand and second is Jesus walking on the water, in the first case he is being presented as a New Moses and in the second case it involves one of Jesus’ “I am” statements, although this one is slept on by most people. Jesus walks on the water and when his disciples see him they take him for a spirit, he says “Do not be afraid, I am” but many translations render it as “It is I” despite it being the same phrase he uses for his divine “I am” statements, there is only one entity who crosses the surface of the waters in the Old Testament and it is not coincidence he will later reveal his name to be “I am” to Moses, spoiler: its God in Genesis. So Jesus is presented as both Moses and God.
The day after these events those were present notice that something weird has happened with Jesus’ disappearance because he did not get in the boat with disciples when they left but he also isn’t still there, so they’re left to come to their own conclusion on what happened, obviously Jesus’ disciples see that Jesus just walked across the water but the outer ring of followers are kept in the dark.
23 However, boats from Tiberi-as came near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.
24 So when the people saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
There is a constant back and forth between the towns and villages on the different shores of the Sea of Galilee, very prosperous fishing hubs like Capernaum were not isolated cases, it’s just the only one Jesus makes his base of operations so it can seem like its the only one. Those who were present during Jesus’ multiplication of loaves miracle presume Jesus is back in Capernaum they presumably asked or paid to get into one of these vessels that go back and forth in order to get to Capernaum.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
Upon arriving at Capernaum the travelling fanfare of Jesus find him and are obviously still mystified at how he got there without a boat so they ask him “Rabbi, when did you come here?”. We typically read past these conversations because they aren’t very tantalising but I think we should put more weight on what miracles are public and what ones are not. Jesus had no issue displaying himself as a New Moses and New Elisha by supernaturally multiplying bread but he only displayed his much more undeniable act of divinity to his apostles. There is always an element of hidden and unhidden with Jesus that pertains to the Messianic secret. Outside of the twelve, only certain acts are done.
Although we have a habit of highlighting the disciples inability to understand, we should also acknowledge their rightful authority, even when they do not intellectually understand what Jesus means by something, by right of being apostles Jesus is open with them. This is not extended to the outer followers. Peter can fail to comprehend what Jesus means about the bread of life discourse, which comes very soon by the way, but it doesn’t negate Jesus’ openness with him. The other followers of Jesus however who have not been given any authority by Jesus, when they fail to comprehend something i.e. the divine signs that the multiplication of loaves pointed toward, Jesus lightly shuns them. He admits they seek him but only because of a material fascination with his miracle, they’re blind to what it meant as an action and he says this in response to their question about how he cross the water. They are being excluded from that divine miracle because they seek with the same desire as a person who wants to see a magic trick. So Jesus is essentially answering with why they can’t know how he did it by referring to something else they failed to comprehend. He gives away zero secrets of the crossing of the water.
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal.”
Jesus as he always does, never lets a teaching opportunity to go to waste. These people have gone through some large effort to cross the sea after witnessing Jesus’ ability to multiply bread, this is not a end goal to be motivated by. That is not what Jesus has come here to do. They need to set their goals quite a bit higher.
There is actually a lot of things going on in this verse so I will try my best to highlight it all.
This all relates to the bread Jesus gave at the feeding of the five thousand, it is perceived (correctly) as a Mosaic sign, Moses gave the manna to the Israelites in the wilderness, originally coming from God obviously. This manna was the bread of angels but it was temporary, it ceased when the Israelites entered the promised land. A lot of Second Temple Literature like 2 Baruch points to the return of this Manna in the Messianic age, God’s final traveling food for the true promised land. The physical geography of Israel is obviously not eternal, see the fall of the Kingdom after David. There must be a true homeland and a special provision for that journey. This is Apocalyptic Judaism talking, not Christianity, obviously we as Catholics see a continuity because there is one but its important to understand these ideas are being spoken about before Jesus’ ministry. Jesus in a few verses after this will present himself as the that provisional food for the journey to the true promised land: Heaven.
The Wisdom of Solomon talks of the Manna as being Divine Wisdom itself, the Jewish philosopher Philo (born around 20 BC) speaks of the Manna as being the Logos of God. Now turn to the Apostle John’s Gospel,
1 In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God.
14 And the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.
John isn’t contradicting the Jewish perception at all and neither is Jesus, they’re making it clear that some of them actually got it nearly right. Modern Judaism unfortunately has nothing to do with the Yahwehist cult of the Second Temple, it was largely built up in spite in the second century in opposition to Christianity and further on the fictions of forged books in the medieval period. Jesus is positioning himself as the answer and provisional food of the final Exodus but also as the Son of Man figure from Daniel. The Messiah they were all waiting for who would bring back the Manna in a Messianic Banquet (See Isa 25:6; 1 Enoch 62:14). Jesus has been marked with a “seal”. In Jewish thought, prophets/messianic figures were often “marked” by God (e.g., Ezek 9:4; T. Levi 18:6). In apocalyptic Jewish thought, the new Manna would be a restoration of the Tree of life, the food of immortality that our first parents lost in the Garden of Eden. Jesus would be killed by being “hung on a tree” and be our eternal food in the Eucharist.
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