The Revised Version correctly makes a very slight but a very significant change in the words of this verse. Instead of "fragments," it reads, "broken pieces." The general notion, I suppose, is that the fragments are the crumbs that fell from each man's hands as he ate, and the picture before the imagination of the ordinary reader is that of the Apostles carefully collecting the debrisof the meal from the grass where it had dropped. But the true notion is, that the "broken pieces which remain over" are the unused portions into which our Lord's miracle-working hands had broken the bread, and the true picture is that of the Apostles carefully putting away in store for future use the abundant provision which their Lord had made, beyond the needs of the hungry thousands. And that conception of the command, teaches far more beautiful and deeper lessons than the other.
I. We gather first that thought to which I have already referred as more strikingly brought out by the slight alteration of translation. We are taught to think of the large surplus in Christ's gifts over and above our need. Whom He feeds He feasts. His gifts answer our need, and over answer it, for He is able to do exceeding abundantly above that which we ask or think; and neither our conceptions, nor our petitions, nor our present powers of receiving, are the real limits of the illimitable grace that is laid up for us in Christ, and which, potentially, we have each of us in our hands whenever we lay our hands on Him.
II. This command suggests for us Christ's thrift (if I may use the word) in the employment of this miraculous power. A law which characterises all the miraculous in both the Old and the New Testaments, and which broadly distinguishes Christ's miracles from all the false miracles of false religions, is this, that the miraculous is pared down to the smallest possible amount, that not one hairsbreadth beyond the necessity shall be done by miracle.
III. Not only does the injunction show us Christ's thrift in the employment of the supernatural, but it teaches us our duty of thrift and care in the use of the spiritual grace bestowed upon us. You have to use wisely, and not waste, the Bread of God that came down from heaven, or that Bread of God will not feed you.
IV. Finally, a solemn warning is implied in this command, and its reason that nothing be lost. Then, there is a possibility of losing the gift that is freely given to us. We may waste the bread, and so, some time or other when we are hungry, awake to the consciousness that it has dropped out of our slack hands.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth,Dec. 24th, 1885.
References: John 6:12. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xi., p. 336; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 116; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 318; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 32; J. M. Neale, Sermons to Children,p. 234; E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation,vol. i., p. 401; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. ii., p. 215; R. Heber, Parish Sermons,vol. i., p. 274; G. Dawson, The Authentic Gospel,p. 219; H. Plummer, Church of England Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 1. Joh 6:12, John 6:13. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 195.