Mark 6:30-44, Understanding the Loaves (1)

Here is a chart that shows the two stories of the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on the water in the four Gospels. 

	Feeding 5000	Walking on Water	Followed by …
Matt.	14:13-21	14:22-33 (Peter)	Update
Mark	6:30-44	6:45-52	Update
Luke	9:10-17		Peter’s confession
John	6:1-14	6:15-21	Bread of Life

Observe that all the gospels include the story of the feeding, while Luke does not include the walking on the water.  We also see how John’s Spirit-led purpose places the two stories together as do Matthew and Mark, but he does not include the story of Peter’s confession and so forth.  Yet John does see what follows, the Bread of Life Sermon, as occurring the day following the feeding.  Refer to our earlier post on why the writers included and omitted different events in Jesus’ life.

Now, in terms of the Feeding of the 5000, let me ask a question: can a person be right, standing and for the truth, but still fall short of the glory of God?  In our previous posts we focused on “unbreakable truth.”  For me, the key to the last half of Mark 6 is in v52: they had not understood about the loaves.  There was a lesson in the feeding, and the storm on the Sea of Galilee had revealed that the Twelve had not learned that lesson.

Allow me to make a few observations concerning the “Feeding of the 5000.”

·       6:30: This is important contextual information.  This happened after the Twelve returned from travelling around the Galilee area and preaching, as Jesus had sent them to do.  Undoubtedly, since they were “authorized” by Christ to perform miracles, they may have been amazing at the response to what they did and said.

·       6:34: Jesus’ plan had been to get the Twelve off alone so they could rest and talk about ministry.  But He was located by the multitudes and they came, as always.  Jesus response was not frustration but compassion.  There was something about our Lord, and I’m not referring to His deity, by which He loved these people that others might have considered pests.  Another things about this: He was motivated by compassion and not His “greatness.”  Being sought out by the crowds did not pad His pride.  He received them because He cared about them.

·       6:37: Jesus purposefully put the Twelve in a place where they had to admit their lack of ability.  They needed to say it out loud: there is no way we can do this without a trip to Costco and Sam’s Club.  Jesus did this often.  He did this with the rich ruler who was sure he had kept the law with perfection.  So Jesus called him to give all to the poor!  That brought the man to the end of himself.  Jesus did this in the Sermon on the Mount.  It was not just “thou shalt not kill;” it raised the bar to, “thou shalt not hate people in your heart.”