What the Feeding of the 5,000 Reveals | Mark 6:35–44
35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him
and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go
into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to
eat.” 37 But he
answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall
we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them,
“How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they
said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then
he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in
groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And
taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a
blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the
people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up
twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand
men.
Ministry work had grown long for Jesus and the disciples, so
they sought out a desolate place for resort.
As they stepped out of the boat, however, the crowd gathered again. In v. 34, we read that Jesus, the Great
Shepherd, was moved with compassion for these lost sheep. Nothing is said of the disciples’ feeling,
however, and after Christ’s extended teaching, they want to send the crowd away. Amid their physical needs of food and rest, Jesus
reveals three truths about Himself.
He’s the provider. This is implicit with Him being the Good
Shepherd. The thousands are in the
wilderness have little provision, and the disciples saw sending them away before
it got any later as the only feasible solution.
If the Lord chose not to provide, it would have been, for no one could
cover roughly eight months’ worth of a day-laborer’s salary to feed the crowd. Yet, as Jesus said in Mt 6:33, “But seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added to you.”
He’s better than Moses. The parallels between Jesus and Moses is
undeniable. Moses appointed elders who similarly
divided the people (Ex 18:21, 25) and announced the provision of manna in the
wilderness (Ex 16). It was the Father
providing the bread, though, with Jesus being the true bread that “comes down
from heaven and gives life to the world (Jn 6:32–35). The feeding of the 5,000, then, becomes a
living illustration that Jesus ushers in the New Covenant, replacing the Old.
He’s the Lord of all
creation. Both Mark 6:41 and Luke
9:16 give a tense of the verb “gave” that means He “kept on giving” them food. The miracle took place in His hands as He
handed out enough to feed perhaps 20,000 people (counting women and
children). This will become clearer in when
He walks on water and calms the wind (vv. 47–52).
What incredible truths about our Lord!
