Mark 6: the Miraculous Meeting of Needs

February 3, 2008 

 

The Gospel of Mark’s presentation of the story of the feeding of the 5,000 with just a few loaves of bread and even fewer fish is unique. In our Leadership Contact classes on “Bible Study Methods” and on “The Gospels,” we stressed over and over again not to ignore an individual story’s bigger context because the gospel writers intended their audience to read their work in its entirety. Only then could their readers really come to know who Jesus was and is. Mark’s uniqueness is easy to miss if we forget to follow this rule.

 

Mark places the feeding of the 5,000 in the context of three events.  Mark 6 begins with Jesus being rejected in His hometown of Nazareth, a Galilean city. Jesus’ summary statement of His rejection is: “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” Mark then adds, “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith” (6:4-6).

 

Then Mark recounts how Jesus began to train his twelve chosen apostles for the ministry they would assume on the day of Pentecost. Jesus “sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits” and instructed them to "take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them" (6:7-11). Then Jesus sent His 12 back through the same rejoin that had already rejected Him. The mission of the twelve, however, was very successful and drew crowds because they “preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them” (6:12-13). After giving this summary account of their ministry, Mark details the death of John the Baptist following the dance of Herodias’ daughter at a party given by Herod.  The debauchery of this dinner and the ineffectual leadership of Herod provide dramatic contrasts to dinner Jesus will host and leadership Jesus will offer.

 

The particular account we want to focus on this morning begins as the twelve return from their Galilean ministry: “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest" (6:30-31). The twelve were tired and hungry from their work and Jesus wanted to give them the rest their bodies needed.

 

Knowing that people were still following after the twelve because of their effective ministry, Jesus led them away “in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” (6:32-34).

 

It is important to notice the word “them” in Mark’s Scripture. He takes pains to point out the crowds are following the twelve at this point and not Jesus.  The crowd gathered because of the ministry of Jesus’ chosen group. But Mark also tells us that Jesus assumes the role of teacher to those who have come following the twelve. Mark’s comment that Jesus had compassion on the crowd “because they were like sheep without a shepherd” is intended to contrast Jesus’ offered leadership and the leadership Herod was providing the nation.  The masses were lost and their “appointed” king was giving a drunken party and killing the last voice reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets. Instead of listening to God through John, Herod, the king of the Jews, was listening to a wife consumed with hatred.

 

The key to understanding the point of Mark’s account of this miracle comes next: “By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. ‘This is a remote place,’ they said, ‘and it's already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.’ But he answered, ‘You give them something to eat’" (6:35-37).

Remember the success of the ministry from which the twelve have just returned. Remember the miracles they performed.  Remember Jesus had instructed them to take “no bread, no bag, [and] no money” with them on their mission.  They were to rely on the Lord and the positive response of people to their message to meet their individual needs. Now Jesus was asking them to apply the lesson they had just learned to their immediate situation. If God had provided their needs while they were doing what Jesus had instructed them to do, Jesus expected them to once again rely on God to provide what was needed for them to do what Jesus was now instructing them to do. This was their crowd; now Jesus wants them to meet the need they realize their crowd has.

 

Instead of a faith-filled response in which they applied the lessons they had just learned to their present situation, the twelve said to Jesus, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?" (6:37). They thought only in the natural, not the spiritual.

 

Jesus refused to let them off the hook or to solve this problem for them.  He continued to train them by keeping them involved in every step of this miracle. "How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see." When they found out, they said, "Five—and two fish" (6:37-38). It is easy to overlook what Jesus is doing since we know the end of the story.  Do you realize this is a miracle that Jesus directs?  By that I mean, this miracle does not happen in response to anyone’s faith.  No one even asks for this miracle.  No one has even considered asking for a miracle. The twelve have merely brought a problem before Jesus and asked Him to dismiss the crowds. As they were tired and hungry when they got into the boat in the first place, they were more than likely even more tired and more hungry now. They were ready for the crowds to leave so they could get the rest and food they wanted.

 

But Jesus had another idea: “You give them something to eat.” As we read this next section, please notice how involved Jesus keeps the twelve in the process of this miracle. “Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand” (6:39-44). 

 

Mark is very careful not to say where the miracle actually takes place.  He does not say that Jesus kept breaking the bread over and over and over so that He performed the miracle in His own hands.  Mark also does not say that the bread multiplied as the disciples passed it out or that it happened as the people took their share.  Jesus is clearly the host of this banquet  and He directs everything that happens, but Jesus does not perform this miracle alone. He was teaching the twelve one thing and the showing Himself to everyone as the good shepherd the nation lacks. He is also demonstrating His ability to meet the needs of His sheep. Mark 6 shows that Jesus is the new Moses, their Messiah, who provides “manna” for His people in the wilderness and at the same time that He is the Son of David who makes His own sheep lie down on green pastures. 

 

More importantly for us sitting here in these pews today, this miracle provides a paradigm for our ministry.  We should see ourselves as the twelve, as those “given authority” and “instructed” by Jesus to take His message to a lost and dying world.  We should see ourselves as those who recognize the needs, the “hunger” of a lost and dying world long before they see their needs.  We should see ourselves taking their needs to Jesus in intercessory prayer. And we should also see ourselves as those who are invited by Jesus to join Him in a miraculous “feeding,” the meeting of the needs of a lost and dying world.  Since it is Jesus’ will, God’s will that none should perish, we should not be afraid to ask Him for whatever we need to bring rest and nourishment to those who are lost and dying. If we will even do that, I believe Jesus will invite us to join Him in a great work of faith, our own version of the feeding of the 5,000. If we will ask Him for something new and fresh and refuse to be content with listening and returning to our homes feeling great, I believe He will feed those who have followed us. Yes, it is good to be thankful for all God has done through our joint ministry. But we should not be afraid to ask Him to use the five loaves and two fish we have today to meet so many, many more needs. If we ask, I believe Jesus will take what we have, bless it, break it, and give it through us to a lost and dying world. Can you even imagine what our leftovers will be?