Proper 11: Gospel, Mark 6:30-44                                                    

Mark 6:30-44

There is not a single miracle from the hands of our Lord for which I would not have loved to have been present. Of course. We just don’t see that many these days. But our gospel points to the one miracle put on display in all four gospel accounts: the feeding of the five thousand. Now, most students of the Bible realize that five thousand would have been on the low end. The scripture points to a number of men, but with their companions, the number surely was much higher. The bill of fare? A few loaves and fishes. Not impressive to our tastes. And definitely not enough.

But I want to focus today on the “how” of the miracle, or at least a portion of the how. Having attempted to gain some rest and isolation, the respite was short-lived. The crowds found Jesus and the disciples and pursued them. Jesus saw the crowds as sheep without a shepherd. A situation simply unacceptable to Him. His compassion for them extended to the physical hunger he knew they would be experiencing and so he realized the need for a good lunch.

Now to the actual preparation. Jesus unloads on them with a pointed request: “You give them something to eat” (v. 17). Oh, I would have loved to have had my cell phone to catch their facial contortions on digi-film. One could only imagine. “Huh? Lord? You have no idea? There’s no way.” The truth is He does have an idea. He is the kind of Lord, isn’t He, who always knows the needs of His people? Our need never catches Him off guard even if we are not forthcoming with requests. No, Jesus knows exactly what they need, and then, as is often the case, He supplies them with more than enough.

Fear, thrill, and an excited kind of unbelief must have marked the disciples as they handed out the bread and the fish. Then more. Then more. Verse 42, “And they all ate and were satisfied.” Jesus was used to meeting needs miraculously. On this occasion He invited His men to help Him out. They never forgot that meal.