The Feeding of the Five Thousand

Mark For Everyone

MARK 6.30–44
The Feeding of the Five Thousand...

...Some break. Just when we think Jesus is anticipating modern therapeutic ideals – taking a good rest after a combination of an exhausting piece of work and sudden bad news – it all goes horribly wrong. The short boat trip is the only time he and the disciples have to themselves. By the time they get to the shore everyone else has got there first.

We can guess the disciples’ reaction. But they couldn’t have guessed what Jesus would say, or what he would do next. In retrospect, they realized that his primary feeling when faced with this great crowd, so eager for something even though they didn’t know what, was deep human compassion. He was sorry for them. And – this is Mark’s comment, reflecting the growing post-Easter awareness of what had been in Jesus’ mind – he saw them as leaderless, kingless folk. ‘Sheep without a shepherd’ is a regular biblical way of describing the people of Israel when they have no leader, no king (Numbers 27.17; 1 Kings 22.17; Ezekiel 34.5; Zechariah 10.2)...

Taken from Mark for Everyone by Tom Wright