Mar 6:34-44 | KingComments | STEP | When the Lord goes out of the boat and sees the large crowd, He cannot help but be moved with compassion over them. He sees a great flock without a shepherd. Their religious leaders are not shepherds, but mercenaries, thieves, and robbers. They do not care for the flock at all, but want to profit from it ( ; ). The Lord, on the other hand, is the good Shepherd ( ). From His compassion He begins to teach the large crowd many things. People in need especially need sound education for their spirit, even more than healthy food for their body, although the Lord does not forget that need. The disciples are people of time and practice. They think they need to remind their Lord that the place is desolate and that it is already late. What they lack is the compassion He has. Their advice is to send the crowd away, because then the people could buy something edible. Surely that advice speaks of caring for the people, doesn’t it? That may seem so, but they do not share in the compassion that the Lord has for the crowd. What is more, they lack faith in a Lord Who can also provide for bodily needs. Could He send the crowd away after He has revived their spirits, without also reviving them physically? They do not yet resemble Him, but He will continue to teach them. That’s why He is going to use them. He is going to do a wonder without the crowd asking for it. He answers the need with “give” (cf. ). He is always the mild Giver. In this giving He involves His disciples. He teaches them to give with compassion. In this way He prepares them for service. Not only power is needed to speak the Word with power of attorney, love is also needed. His commission leads the disciples to count their money supply. That is the only thing of which they can think. They believe that they must satisfy the Lord’s demands out of and with their own means. But He never asks anything without providing us with what we need. The response of the disciples shows how little faith they have in the resources present in Him. Faith is most evident in knowing how to make use of what is in Christ to meet the needs that arise at any given time. Faith judges that the greater the difficulty, the more appropriate the opportunity for Christ to reveal Himself. When they have told Him how much they have, He does not fill the gap, so that there would be enough to buy food. He could have done the same. But He asks what food they have, for He wants His disciples to give them to eat. They have to ‘go’ and ‘look’. They need to see how many loaves of bread they have. When they have found out, they bring Him the results. They can even report that there are also two fish. He’s going to use those. The Lord likes to make use of things that we would despise in our human wisdom. The question is not what this means to so many people who have to eat of it, but what it means to Him. Similarly, Moses also learned that the Lord can use what he has ( ; cf. ; ). Bread and fish are food and as such speak of the Lord Jesus. The application is that it is about what we have learned from Him. Sometimes this is by casting out the net and catching the fish in it, such as listening to an address. That is simply collecting. It takes a whole process to prepare bread. It also takes a lot of work to learn from Him.

‏ Mark 6:34-44

You Give Them to Eat!

When the Lord goes out of the boat and sees the large crowd, He cannot help but be moved with compassion over them. He sees a great flock without a shepherd. Their religious leaders are not shepherds, but mercenaries, thieves, and robbers. They do not care for the flock at all, but want to profit from it (Jn 10:8 ; 12; Eze 34:2). The Lord, on the other hand, is the good Shepherd (Jn 10:11).

From His compassion He begins to teach the large crowd many things. People in need especially need sound education for their spirit, even more than healthy food for their body, although the Lord does not forget that need.

The disciples are people of time and practice. They think they need to remind their Lord that the place is desolate and that it is already late. What they lack is the compassion He has. Their advice is to send the crowd away, because then the people could buy something edible. Surely that advice speaks of caring for the people, doesn’t it?

That may seem so, but they do not share in the compassion that the Lord has for the crowd. What is more, they lack faith in a Lord Who can also provide for bodily needs. Could He send the crowd away after He has revived their spirits, without also reviving them physically? They do not yet resemble Him, but He will continue to teach them. That’s why He is going to use them. He is going to do a wonder without the crowd asking for it. He answers the need with “give” (cf. 2Kgs 4:42-44). He is always the mild Giver. In this giving He involves His disciples. He teaches them to give with compassion. In this way He prepares them for service. Not only power is needed to speak the Word with power of attorney, love is also needed.

His commission leads the disciples to count their money supply. That is the only thing of which they can think. They believe that they must satisfy the Lord’s demands out of and with their own means. But He never asks anything without providing us with what we need. The response of the disciples shows how little faith they have in the resources present in Him.

Faith is most evident in knowing how to make use of what is in Christ to meet the needs that arise at any given time. Faith judges that the greater the difficulty, the more appropriate the opportunity for Christ to reveal Himself.

When they have told Him how much they have, He does not fill the gap, so that there would be enough to buy food. He could have done the same. But He asks what food they have, for He wants His disciples to give them to eat. They have to ‘go’ and ‘look’. They need to see how many loaves of bread they have. When they have found out, they bring Him the results. They can even report that there are also two fish. He’s going to use those.

The Lord likes to make use of things that we would despise in our human wisdom. The question is not what this means to so many people who have to eat of it, but what it means to Him. Similarly, Moses also learned that the Lord can use what he has (Exo 4:2-3; cf. 1Kgs 17:10-16; 2Kgs 4:2-6). Bread and fish are food and as such speak of the Lord Jesus. The application is that it is about what we have learned from Him. Sometimes this is by casting out the net and catching the fish in it, such as listening to an address. That is simply collecting. It takes a whole process to prepare bread. It also takes a lot of work to learn from Him.

The Five Thousand Fed

The Lord commands – He is the Lord! – the disciples that they should divide the crowd into groups. There must be some order. Those groups must sit down on the green grass. That speaks of peace, freshness and abundance. It is reminiscent of Psalm 23 where the shepherd makes the sheep lie down in green pastures (Psa 23:2).

The size of these groups is sometimes taken as an indication of the size of a local church. When a church in a certain place becomes larger than a hundred people, it becomes difficult to have a good contact with all of them. The danger is then great that there is no equal care for all and that some are overlooked.

When the Lord has taken the loaves and the fish, He looks up to heaven. All His actions are connected with heaven, the dwelling place of His Father. That determines His words and His wonders. Here He connects the little with the fullness of heaven. Then He blesses, that is, He expresses a thanksgiving to God. He does not bless the loaves. He breaks the loaves and the fish which are multiplied in His blessing hands to a quantity sufficient for all.

He uses the disciples as intermediaries. In this way He turns their evil – the proposal to send the crowd away – for good. His purpose is to show them that His love takes pleasure in working through human channels. Only what speaks of Him and what comes from Him can become food. If we are constantly dependent on Him, we can be a blessing to others. Then we know that He can use the little we have to serve others.

The crowd has not just something, a little, to eat, but enough. They can eat to satiation. There are even twelve baskets full of pieces left. By this wonder, He is again proving that He is the Messiah (Psa 132:15).

Abundance never leads to waste with the Lord. Nothing of what He has given as a blessing is wasted. The crowd may have enough, but He also has a blessing for others who have nothing. Abundance serves for the want of others (cf. 2Cor 8:14). It is not by chance that there remain twelve baskets full. The number twelve has a symbolic meaning. It indicates the blessing the Lord has for the whole people of God at the end of time.

Of those few loaves of bread and those few fish, a crowd of five thousand men alone ate. The wonder is undeniable. He is Emmanuel, God with us (Mt 1:23), God Who visits His people for blessing. He brings the house of His Father, where there is bread in abundance (Lk 15:17), to the needy man.