Do you remember when the Israelites followed Moses into the desert, finding themselves with nothing to eat? It wasn't easy following Moses, but God provided bread from heaven (see Exodus 16).
We find something similar going on in the gospel of Mark. Jesus has been traveling through the wilderness ("desert" or "remote places", i.e. 1:12, 1:35, 1:45, etc). The crowds have been following him. In chapter six they find themselves in need of something to eat:
Mark 6:30 ...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 (or wilderness, same Greek word!) and get some rest.”
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place (wilderness). 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (compare Numbers 27:15-17!!!). So he began teaching them many things.
35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place (wilderness),” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five - and two fish.” (compare 1 Samuel 21:2-4)
39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties (compare 1 Kings 18:4). 41 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 distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
The people in this miraculous feeding are Jewish men (6:44), in Jewish territory (6:1); the story carries clues, some in symbolic form:
They are described as being "sheep without a shepherd."
There are 5 loaves (there are 5 books in the Torah).
The people sit by 50s and 100s, modeling Israel (see Exodus 18:21, Deuteronomy 1:15, and 1 Kings 18:4).
There are 12 baskets left over (There are 12 tribes of Israel).
The Greek word Mark uses for "basket" is a type of basket used by Jews.
There are 5 thousand men (again, 5 books in the Torah).
As Jesus travels further, he encounters a gentile woman:
Mark 7:24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Many interpreters believe that the children in the story represent Jews, and the dogs represent gentiles. I would argue that this unnamed woman is a type of hero in Mark's gospel: Because of her faith, she has opened the door for both men and women, both Jew and Gentile, to partake in the God of Israel (the bread of heaven), as in the next miraculous feeding story:
Mark 8:1 During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 2 “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”
4 His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”
5 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied.
6 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. 7 They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. 8 The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven baskets full of broken pieces that were left over. 9 About four thousand were present.
The people in this miraculous feeding are Gentile men and women, in Gentile territory (7:31); this story also includes symbolic clues:
There are 7 loaves (number seven was significant in Greek culture).
There are 7 baskets left over.
The people sit (groups not specified here!)
The Greek work Mark used for baskets is the type more commonly used by Gentiles.
There are 4 thousand people (gender not specified. Gentiles and women are included! The number four would represent the four winds or four corners of the earth).
The story continues:
11 The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. 12 He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.” 13 Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.
14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15 “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”
16 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”
17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
“Twelve,” they replied.
20 “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
They answered, “Seven.”
21 He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
The disciples do not understand - there is bread in the boat - "one loaf" that is: Jesus! And there are enough pieces and crumbs to feed everyone, Jew AND Gentile, men AND women!
Now let's look at the last supper...
Mark 14:22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
Jesus knows he will soon die:
24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Does all of this give more meaning to a parable that Jesus told way back in chapter two?
Mark 2:19 “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast."
Jesus will go to the cross. The bridegroom will be taken from them, but he will rise again on the third day. There will be a three day fast (compare Mark 8:2, above). Then (in 16:7) Mark points YOU, the reader, back to Galilee, back to where the story began, back to the wilderness...
where Jesus
is waiting
to be found.
"How many loaves do YOU have?"
-Mark 8:5
Mark's message:
It's not easy following Jesus, but God will provide.
1 Samuel 21:1 David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”
2 David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”
4 But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here - provided the men have kept themselves from women.”
5 David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” 6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.
Thanks for reading!
Comments are welcome!
Special thanks to author Julie M. Smith for her insight on the miraculous feeding stories. Read her article by clicking the button below!
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