Reflecting on Mark's Gospel - Mark 6:33-44

The feeding of the five thousand is amongst the best known of gospel stories. It is also amongst the most told, appearing in all four gospels. It therefore seems to have been an important part of the Jesus tradition from an early stage though, as Douglas Hare (Mark) points out – “modern readers are sometimes less receptive, because the multiplication of loaves and fishes is so incomprehensible.”

Jesus and the apostles have gone in search of peace and quiet. They took a boat in order to escape the crowds, but the tactic failed. Many of the people second guessed the plan, rushed round the lake, and were there, waiting, when they arrived in the retreat location. I wonder how we respond when our plans go awry.

Jesus responds with compassion. He wanted the space, but he cannot ignore the needs of the people. He opens up on a teaching session and then, with great generosity, looks to provide them with refreshments.

There are a couple of interesting points here. They are described as sheep without a shepherd. The shepherd image is a common Biblical indicator of the love of God. As the shepherd cares for the sheep, so God cares for the people. Here the implication is that shepherdless sheep are in trouble and that Jesus wants to put that right. It links to his claims about being the good shepherd (John 10:1-18), and the story that he told about a sheep that got lost (Luke 15:1-7). The other point is that the story appears to only concern men. Some translations have made it gender neutral by talking of the people sitting in groups on the grass, but the word used suggests that this was a male occasion. That is supported by the arrangement in groups being reminiscent of a military approach.

However, the biggest question is around what actually happened. Hare summaries a couple of the suggestions that have been made – “according to one proposal, the meal was symbolic only; each person received a small fragment of bread and was spiritually, not physically, satisfied. A second suggestion is that the crowd was so moved by the generosity of the boy who shared his lunch (John 6:9) that they produced their own hidden resources and shared with any who had none.” Despite these interesting suggestions, I am inclined to think that what is important here is to accept that something very special happened, and not to get caught up in trying to explain what that was. I am inclined to endorse Hare’s comment on the two explanations he suggests – “although these are both edifying interpretations, neither does justice to the story. It is better simply to acknowledge that we cannot understand the miracle.” I wonder how we cope with not understanding lots of what God does.

Essentially, this is a story of God’s abundant generosity, and that is seen not least in the substantial level of the leftovers, an amazing total of twelve baskets, appropriately, but perhaps not surprisingly, one per apostle. I wonder how we view God’s abundant generosity. I wonder how much we enjoy and share, and those are two different points, the fare (or food) provided for us by God.