John 6:4

‘Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews, was at hand.’

This mention of the Passover connects with the line Jesus would take later (John 6:52-58), and was probably deliberately inserted here by John in order to connect Jesus’ present actions and teaching with the sacrifice of the Passover. He sees Jesus as the Passover lamb (compare John 1:29), Who is offering His life for our deliverance, a sacrifice of which we, and the crowd, are called upon to partake. We find later that this was very much in Jesus’ mind too, and should be borne in mind in interpreting the chapter. John constantly stresses the Passover. But this Passover was evidently not so close in time that Jesus felt it necessary to commence the journey to Jerusalem. That the incident was prior to the Passover is confirmed by the mention of ‘green grass’ (John 6:10 with Mark 6:39).