<p>6:10 <i>Jesus said: Make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand</i>- The command to recline at banquet &quot;sit down&quot; was to set up the similarity with the Messianic banquet, to which the Lord provided an open invitation to whoever wished to hear His word. Who could &quot;sit down&quot; at a feast was a major issue with the Jews; only those from whom there would be no guilt by association were invited to recline together. But the Lord operated no screening process, and goes on to compare this feast with the breaking of bread and the final Messianic banquet. From our side of things, we are not to screen, the invitation to the Lord's feast in this life and that to come is to be offered by us without screening. &quot;Whoseoever will&quot; is to be welcome. The only other time John uses the verb &quot;sit down / recline&quot; is in describing the scene at the last supper (13:12).</p><p>The mention of grass is to highlight the fact that Passover was about to begin, for grass is mowed in Palestine in April. Or it could be that the grass refers to hay from the recent mowing. The point is that this feast was the Lord's equivalent of the Passover feast, and later in this chapter He predicates salvation upon participating in it.</p>