John Calvin Commentary John 6:15

"Jesus therefore perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him king, withdrew again into the mountain himself alone." — John 6:15 (ASV)

To make him a king. When those men intended to give Christ the title and honor of king, there was some basis for what they did. But they erred greatly in taking upon themselves the liberty of making a king, for Scripture ascribes this as unique to God alone, as it is said:

I have appointed my king on my holy hill of Zion
(Psalms 2:6).

Again, what sort of kingdom do they contrive for Him? An earthly one, which is utterly inconsistent with His person. From this, let us learn how dangerous it is in the things of God to neglect His word and to devise anything from our own opinion, for there is nothing that the foolish subtlety of our understanding does not corrupt. And what good is the pretense of zeal when, by our disorderly worship, we offer a greater insult to God than if a person were to expressly and deliberately attack His glory?

We know how furious the efforts of adversaries were to extinguish the glory of Christ. That violence, indeed, reached its extreme point when He was crucified. But through His crucifixion, salvation was obtained for the world, and Christ Himself obtained a splendid triumph over death and Satan. If He had permitted Himself to be made a king at that time, His spiritual kingdom would have been ruined, the Gospel would have been stamped with everlasting infamy, and the hope of salvation would have been utterly destroyed.

Modes of worship regulated according to our own whim, and honors rashly devised by men, have no other advantage than this: they rob God of His true honor and pour upon Him nothing but reproach.

And take him by force. We must also observe the phrase take by force. The Evangelist says they wished to take Christ by force; that is, with impetuous violence they wished to make Him a king, though against His will. If we desire, therefore, that He should approve of the honor which we bestow upon Him, we ought always to consider what He requires.

And, indeed, those who venture to offer God honors invented by themselves are chargeable with using some sort of force and violence towards Him, for obedience is the foundation of true worship. Let us also learn from this with what reverence we ought to abide by the pure and simple word of God. As soon as we turn aside in the smallest degree, the truth is poisoned by our leaven, so that it is no longer like itself. They learned from the word of God that He who was promised to be the Redeemer would be a king; but out of their own head, they devised an earthly kingdom and assigned to Him a kingdom contrary to the word of God. Thus, whenever we mix our own opinions with the word of God, faith degenerates into frivolous conjectures.

Let believers, therefore, cultivate habitual modesty, lest Satan hurry them into an ardor of inconsiderate and rash zeal, so that, like the Giants, they will rush violently against God, who is never worshipped rightly except when we receive Him as He presents Himself to us.

It is astonishing that five thousand men should have been seized with such daring presumption that they did not hesitate, by making a new king, to provoke against themselves Pilate’s army and the vast power of the Roman Empire. It is certain that they would never have gone so far if they had not, relying on the predictions of the Prophets, hoped that God would be on their side and, consequently, that they would overcome. But still, they went wrong in devising a kingdom of which the Prophets had never spoken. So far were they from having the hand of God favorable to their undertaking that, on the contrary, Christ withdrew.

That was also the reason why wretched people under Popery wandered for so long in gross darkness—while God was, as it were, absent—because they had dared to pollute the whole of His worship with their foolish inventions.