Where did the food come from?
Image: Martineric @ Flickr
Mark 6:30-44 Expand passage
30The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.31Then, 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 and get some rest."
32So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late. 36Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat."
37But he answered, "You give them something to eat."
They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man'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."
39Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.40So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41Taking 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 set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.42They all ate and were satisfied, 43and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
The account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in Mark is probably one of the most famous stories about him. There are thirty or so different miracles that the Bible records Jesus having performed but this must be one of the best known and most often told. It is an iconic image of Jesus in popular culture, right up there with walking on water (the miracle that immediately follows this one) and turning water into wine (his first public miracle). It is the only miracle story to appear in all four Gospels.
Like a number of the best-known Bible stories it is easy to think we know it, without reading as carefully as we might or thinking as deeply as we should. As well as being a wonderful story about Christ’s ministry is also refers us back to the Old Testament and forward to the crucifixion and beyond. It tells us something about Jesus’ character, something about the disciples’ journey and something about ourselves.
This story occurs after the disciples have been sent out (Mark 6 v.7) and are returning to Jesus to talk to him about what they had done (v. 30). Jesus found, as he often did, that people were following him and clamouring to get close and so he suggested they go away so the disciples could have time to rest. They were tired and hungry and he was demonstrating his concern for their physical well-being. Despite their efforts to find peace by travelling away by boat the crowds followed, walking around the lake, and Jesus now demonstrated his concern for their needs too (v.34).
The different Gospel accounts tell fairly similar versions of the story in general (although John sets his in context, with a greater level of detail) but it is interesting to see that they give slightly different explanations of what Jesus did when he was first with the crowds of people; teaching (Mark 6 v. 34), healing the sick (Matthew 14 v.14) and talking to them about the Kingdom of God (Luke 9 v.11). This is not just a story about a magic trick with some food. Jesus sees beyond the basic physical state and also ministers to deeper concerns.
The disciples, themselves hungry (v.31) and tired, suggest that Jesus should send the crowd away so that they can get food. Since Jesus had so clearly seen the crowd’s other needs, and sought to meet them, his response is something we should pay close attention to. Does he agree, and send the people away? Does he provide food for them to eat? No, he turns the point around and throws it right back at the disciples in that wonderful way that Jesus had of flipping things around completely.
“You yourselves give them something to eat,” he says (v. 37).
I love that. It is just so unexpected. Also, it is rich in meaning for those of us who already know what happens to the disciples for the rest of Jesus’ life, and beyond. The disciples’ reaction was reasonable enough in the circumstances – they baulked at the suggestion of finding enough food for feed many thousands of people in a lonely place, or paying for it. One might imagine they were a little fearful of how the crowd might react if word went round that there was no food. We know from our modern world that crowds of hungry people tend to be have the potential to be dangerous things. The amount of bread needed to satisfy the crowd would have cost 200 silver pieces or around eight months’ wages for a rural worker at the time. The disciples don’t have 200 pieces of silver. Jesus bypasses the question of money, asks them what they do have and they dutifully respond that they have five loaves and two fishes. In John it is explained that the bread and fish are actually from a boy, but the other accounts leave this detail out.
Jesus took what he was given, looked up to heaven, gave thanks and broke it (v 16)
The very next verse is basically the same in all four accounts – they all ate and were all satisfied. On one level that is what this story is about. Jesus performs a miracle which is at once amazing and yet eminently practical.
However, set in the greater context of the story of Jesus and his followers are there other, deeper, lessons to be learned from this account? It must have been a pivotal story for the disciples themselves for it to have been included in each Gospel account in turn as they were written. What importance did it have for them?
The story occurs at a transitional period for Jesus’ followers. He had called them and taught them and they had spent time with him, seen him perform miracles and healings, talk to people and answer questions from his critics. They were now at the stage in their learning where he had instructed them to go out and preach, drive out demons and heal. When the crowd needs feeding Jesus again prompts them to do something, rather than just rely on him for every answer. It is the classic relationship arc of the master and student. Jesus knew he would not be around for ever and the disciples would have to learn how to do things for themselves.
In all the great magic tricks there is a part where we do not get to see what is going on. There’s a hat or a screen or a box or something where the magical part of the trick happens and we only get to see the result. In a way this story appears to be similar – narratively speaking something appears hidden from us. One minute there is a meagre quantity of food and the next everyone is satisfied and there is an embarrassment of riches in terms of the leftovers. I don’t know about you but I instinctively re-read a few lines to see what I missed. It isn’t there. We are not told the mechanics. We are told the need and we are told the response. Since that is all that we are told that is obviously what we are meant to take from the story.
People come to Jesus hungry and he gives them food.
People come to Jesus with a problem and he says they themselves will solve it.
People give Jesus the very little that they have and he makes it enough.
Biblical scholars tell us that this story resonates with the feeding of the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 16) and of the band of 100 prophets by Elisha (2 Kings 4:42-44), with Jesus portrayed as a fulfilment of God’s saving accounts in these instances. It also points forward to Jesus sharing food with his friends at the last supper (Mark 14 v.22) which – like the feeding of the 5,000 – occurred at Passover and involved the characteristic breaking of bread and giving thanks that became so associated with him (Luke 24 v30-31). The breaking of the bread is symbolic of Jesus being broken on the cross and the ultimate fulfilment of our collective need, for forgiveness. The eating of the bread is symbolic of our acceptance of Jesus. “Whoever eats my flesh,” he said, “and drinks my blood has eternal life…Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (John 6 v54 & v56)
But, the pedantic five year old child in me still cries out, where did the food come from? Could it be that this is the part of the story that, while it appears to be about Jesus, is actually about us? Do you know the story of the old woman and the traveller? The traveller arrives at her door and, in exchange for a bed for the night, offers to cook her Stone Soup. He puts his supposedly magical stone in a large pot of boiling water and excitedly tastes it and continually says that it is nearly ready but needs a touch of this or a dash of that to finish it off, convincing the lady to add some salt, herbs and spices, vegetables and, in the end, a chicken before he removes the stone and they enjoy the soup together. She had all the ingredients of the soup all along.
Jesus doesn’t trick us into doing anything but he does call us to see the needs of others in the world and not simply respond to them by asking him to miraculously sort it out. Europe famously has mountains of food and lakes of drink that go to waste while people on the continent across the Mediterranean are dying for lack of both. In many instances we have the resources to provide for human need but human nature gets in the way. What we think we have earned or deserve we jealously cling to and need a huge amount of persuasion to give away.
Perhaps Jesus miraculously created enough food for thousands of people in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps he just empowered those thousands of people to share between themselves the food they already had. Which would have been the greater miracle?
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