Mark
6:30-56
Key
Verse 41 Taking 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
distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.
1. [31-34]
On the disciples’ returning from the mission trip, what was the situation
(31a)? Then, what did Jesus said to them (31b)? Why might Jesus’ purpose be in
taking time with them in a quiet place? When they got to a remote place, what
did they find out (32-34aa)? Then what did Jesus begin to do (34b)? Why (34ab)?
Mark connects the reports of the
disciples’ journey with a gathering of so many people. The implication seems that the mission works
through the disciples brought great attention to Jesus from the entire region
all-around Galilee and beyond (Luke 9:10). The first thing Jesus wanted was to
serve the disciples with spiritual and physical needs. For this purpose, Jesus
said, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”. Though
there were many people, Jesus put the first priority on his disciples. Through
the journey, they did and heard many things. This could be new and totally
unchartered territory in their lives, not only in the empowerment that they
received but also the understanding and knowledge of Jesus got far deeper and
higher than before. All these experiences must be put in the right perspective
of their Lord, Jesus, and find rest in peace of mind.
This leads to the next thing that
Jesus wanted to do for them. What was in Jesus’ mind? The author Luke connected
this event with Peter’s confession of Jesus’ Lordship (9:18-20), while Mark
interposed a few other events (7:1-8:30) before Peter’s confession (8:31). It is
likely that the purpose of having a private time with his disciples was to ask
and confirm the faith of his disciples for the question on who Jesus was came
up as the result of the disciple’s mission journey (6:14-15). Eventually, Jesus did ask this question to his
disciples as he was on his way to Caesarea Philippi, about 25 miles north of
Bethsaida (Julia), following upstream of Jordan river. It was remote and lonely
place because it was non-Jewish area and there was a sanctuary of a pagan god,
‘Pan’, where Jews would unlikely to follow, and actually Jesus and his
disciples had never come to this region before.
Jesus and his disciples got on a
boat and went the other side of Galilee (John 6:1). There he went up on the
mountain (John 6:3). But surprisingly, a large crowd came before them and were
waiting for Jesus’ arrival. This tells us how they were eager to see Jesus for
they needed him. It might be the truth of life, or his healing, or the hope of
the kingdom of God that Jesus embodied.
This crowd was much different from the crowd before because this crowd
had a fervent desire to see and hear from Jesus and they expressed their zeal
following him a long way. Simply they were a homogenous crowd who were filled
with one thing, to follow Jesus. There were not Pharisees or no teachers of the
Law or no skeptics, doubters, or inquisitive minds! Because Jesus had a
great compassion for them. Jesus wanted to fill the thirstiness of their hearts
with the truth of God. So, Jesus spoke the word of God for hours.
2. [35-38]
After some time, what did the disciples said to Jesus (35-36)? What was Jesus’
answer (37a)? Why was his answer
unreasonable to them (37b)? What did Jesus tell them to do (38a)? What did they
find(38b)?
Hours went by and it was late afternoon. The
disciples were getting hungry and they had empathy for the crowd as well for
the crowd did not eat since that morning. They waited for Jesus to stop
teaching. But they could not wait any longer and opened their mouth and
suggested this to Jesus. "The place is desolate and it is already quite
late; 36 send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside
and villages and buy themselves something to eat."(35b-36) This was a sound and reasonable solution in
that remote place. Actually, that was the only solution available. But Jesus
told them something that they could not understand. "You give them
something to eat!" If this was accepted as it was said, then they were
to find food for such a large crowd. They had to find a large sum of money and
they must go to a village and buy the food and bring it to this place. Was this
what Jesus was asking them to do? So they asked him again: "Shall we go
and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?" Two hundred denarii were about the wage of one
year for an ordinary man. If we speak in our term, it is about 50-60 thousand
dollars. Simply it was an impossible task to carry out. They doubted that this was
what Jesus meant and yet did not know what actually he wanted them to do. To
that question, Jesus told them to go to find what they had. The starting point
of listening to Jesus’ command was to find what they had. They knew it was all
too small for the crowd and did not feel worthy to count what they had. But Jesus told them to go and find what they
had. They found five loaves of bread and two fishes. When they brought them to
Jesus, Jesus did something remarkable.
3. [39-44]
What did Jesus do with them (41-42)? To do so, how were the crowd prepared
(39-40)? What was the result (42-44)?
On receiving five loaves of bread
and two fishes, Jesus commanded them to sit in companies of hundreds and of
fifties. Here the word ‘sit (ἀνακλίνω)’ is better translated ‘recline (NAS)’.
It is taking a posture of eating a meal as they did at their homes. The
implication was very clear: Jesus wanted their hearts to be prepared to eat a meal
in this remote and mountainous area. Also, by grouping them together in
hundreds or fifties, they were not just an unorganized crowd but a community
with organization and purpose that was centered on Jesus as their leader. Many of them did not know each other for they
were from many different villages. But when they
were seated in groups, they immediately became one with all others, forming a
large ‘company’. Here came a clear sense of belonging under their Lord, Jesus,
the Prophet, or a man of God.
When they were organized and seated,
Jesus blessed the bread and fishes and gave it
to his disciples. Then the
disciples took the bread and fishes to each group, one group after another
group. When only men were counted to be five thousand, then total numbers might
be well into ten thousand or even more. One hundred groups of a hundred make
ten thousand. The disciples must be busy catering to such a large amount of food
for each group. Each disciple had to serve at least 8 groups of hundred and on
each group, they had to make at least several trips to give them enough. After
each trip to a group, they found more food piling up in front of Jesus. They
were happy to make more trips to each group of a hundred again and again. How
could this possible? After taking so much food, there still more food waiting
for them to cater to them to groups. It looked that food was multiplied without
limit. The end result was enormous: 42 They all ate and were satisfied,
43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread
and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
This speaks of an enormous amount of food in which the mighty power of God was
revealed.
Second, all ate and satisfied.
Whoever they were, and whatever they were, whether they were ceremonially clean
or not, they came hungry and was in need. But in the end, all were well fed and
satisfied, including women and children. Jesus fed them all by His grace
regardless of their condition. His grace
overflew in the bounty.
Jesus’ disciples did what Jesus told
them to do. “You give them something to eat,” said Jesus. That was exactly his
disciples did. While doing it, the disciples thought over what Jesus said. When
Jesus said that, he was not separating himself from the disciples. When he said
that, Jesus included himself with his disciples as one body. Or, the disciples
were to think and understand as if they were one with Jesus. They were to
accept Jesus as their Lord, and what Jesus was thinking, they were to think.
What Jesus felt they were to feel. But did the disciples’ understanding get to
this far?
“Who is this Jesus?” They were to
think or instead they were to believe him as the Lord and the Messiah. But no
one said or questioned on this. Only all felt something remarkable about this
event and about Jesus who put all these together with the power of God. Mark,
the author, was silent on the responses of the crowd. But the apostle John was
very perceptive. He noted this: John 6: 14 After the people saw the
sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to
come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and
make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. Their understanding of who Jesus was right.
But they were totally wrong in how Jesus could become king of the nation. Jesus
could not be the king of the Jews in terms of populistic ideals. He must be the
king according to the will of the Father. God’s blessing suddenly turned into a crisis. What did
Jesus do?
4. [45-47]
Immediately after the feeding, what did Jesus do (45-47)? Discuss why Jesus did
this (Ref. John 6:14-15; Cf. Luke 9:18, 21-22).
Jesus made his disciples get into
the boat. In other words, the disciples were reluctant to leave all by
themselves. But Jesus forced them to leave to Bethsaida. Jesus did not want
them affected by or to be part of this attempt to make Jesus king by force.
This was the best that Jesus could expect from a man. But this could make the
worst trap for Jesus’ work to save sinners. In order for his followers to be
his disciples, they must not follow the way of man. In this regard, it was a
crisis for Jesus and immediately he forced them to get on a boat and sent them
to Bethsaida. And he was left alone he prayed to the Father seeking His will.
5. [47-52]
When and what did Jesus come to see (47-48a)? When did Jesus come to see the
disciple (48b)? the disciples see someone walking on the sea to pass by them
(48)? Why were the disciples terrified at the man (49-50a)? Then what did the
man say to the disciples (50b)? As Jesus got on the boat, why remained the
disciples astonished (51-52)? Discuss
what verse 52 means.
Later that night, the disciples were
in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on this side. At this time, he
saw the disciples were straining at oars because the wind was against them.
Mark described facts exactly what was happening and did not give any
explanation. By examining the facts that he gave, the readers are to know and
understand what was happening. Jesus remained on this side until the fourth
watch of the night (3-6 am). If the
disciples left before the sunset, it would be around 6 pm (near the Passover). The sunrise would be around 6:30 am. Jesus
left to go to the disciple near the sunrise, just before the dawn. The
disciples were struggling in the middle of the lake for at least 10 hours,
which normally takes about 6-8 hours. The word straining (βασανίζω basanizo) is
‘tormented’. In other words, the disciples were struggling to the extent of
being ‘tormented’ by the wind. At the same time, Jesus was praying alone to
receive or to conform to the Father’s will.
There was great tension between the crisis that the disciples were
facing and the crisis that Jesus was facing because the disciples were
desperately in need of Jesus help, while
Jesus helped up in prayer to seek the LORD’s will. In these tight and very tenuous hours, Jesus
prayed and prayed till near the time of dawn. The first one must be first. That
was seeking Father’s will and entrust all in His provision. Certainly, at the
same time, it is more than possible that Jesus’ intension or God’s will was to
delay his coming to help his disciples as a part of his training of his
disciples.
Jesus fed five thousand men and
demonstrated that he was truly the Prophet after Moses. Such understanding or
belief of such a large crown was hoped and that hope was being fulfilled. And
yet such belief invoked a desire to uphold Jesus as the king of populist. This was
totally opposite to the will of God for it would only serve human desires
instead of God’s. So this was the time
concocted by the Father for the denial of that desires, one for the disciples
and the other for Jesus, His son. This situation mimics the time of Jesus’
prayer in Gethsemane or the time of Jesus' crucifixion and death in a tomb,
during which the disciples were left alone struggling hard to get to the
desired destination. This struggle, a torment, did not end until Jesus rose
from the dead and appeared to them.
So, from this point, the theme of
Jesus’ ministry was that Jesus was or earned the status of the Prophet or the
populist king, and yet he must suffer and die.
As the time that the Father
appointed came, Jesus walked on the water toward his disciples. When he was
getting near to them, the disciples saw him as a man walking on water, like a
ghost. At this time, what he was about to do was described, “He was about to
pass by them.” It is difficult to capture the exact meaning of Jesus’ purpose
unless it is read in view of what God did when He met Moses and Elijah. Moses wanted to see the LORD and the LORD
answered
20 But,” he
said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” 21 Then
the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.
22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock
and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will
remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”(Exo 33)
After this, the LORD did pass by
Moses in this way:
Exo
34:6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD,
the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness,
rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the
children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth
generation.
Here came two things together; His
grace and his will not leave the guilty unpunished. His grace and holiness
in punishing the guilty came to pass before Moses. Likewise, Jesus was
about to pass by. If he did, then he was implementing the same will of the
Father who said this to Moses. Did the LORD pass by His people hoping that men
might know what the LORD was offering? Job expressed his finite nature under
the power of sin that made him unable to see and perceive the LORD’s passing.
10 He performs
wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. 11 When he passes me, I cannot see him; when he goes by, I
cannot perceive him. 12 If he
snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, 'What are you doing?'
(Job 9:10 NIV)
But, when the disciples were
captured in fear for life, they thought Jesus was a ghost. They did not see him
and did not perceive him as their Lord Jesus. They were terrified and shouted.
But Jesus, in his grace, answered them, “Take
courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” They were overloaded with fear of
death. But that fear was lifted up and taken away for it was I, their Lord,
Jesus. It was the LORD in him who was willing to take away all the threats of
death by riding along with them. Jesus did not pass by them. Instead, he got on
the boat and the wind became calm and all became so peaceful.
Here we see a small and yet
remarkable change; Jesus, the Son of God, did not pass them by. Instead, he got
on the boat along with his disciples and carried the boat safely to the shore.
The disciples were in torment by the stormy and windy water. Even after hours
of struggling, they could not reach the desired destination, Bethsaida
(house of fish). If were there not the help of Jesus, then even by the dawn of
the new day, they could not reach their destination. But Jesus got on their boat and carried them easily not to
Bethsaida, but to Gennesaret, a garden of riches. Here we see
that Jesus had the will to ride along with his disciples as they were
struggling to the extent of the torment of their lives, and to carry them to a
different place, like a garden of Eden. When and how could Jesus make this
decision? As noted above, there was a tension between the disciples’ struggle
and Jesus’ struggle to conform to the will of the Father. The Father God
delayed Jesus until near dawn and then sent His son Jesus to rescue the
disciples from the dire circumstance. To do
so, Jesus had to ride on the boat along with his disciples. This signifies what Jesus had to do in forthcoming days. He had to suffer and die along with his disciples so that they
might be carried not to the house of fishes but the place like Garden of
Eden.
As Jesus got on board, the disciples
were “utterly astonished” by
what they saw; it was Jesus and he calmed down the waging water. Mark pointed
out the weakness of these disciples.
52 for they had not understood about the loaves;
their hearts were hardened.
The LORD passes by and men of sin
were oblivious to His passing (Job 9:9). But His son Jesus came as their friend
and lord though they were totally ignorant. It was His will to give His love
and His salvation to His people. He came on board with his people and revealed
himself by identifying who he is, the big ’I’ but also showing his mighty hand
to rescue them from a life-threatening storm. This was the most powerful and the
most heart-warming expression of His will to save men.
6. [53-56]
Where did the boat land (53; Cf. v45)?
Why (Cf. 48)? As they got out of the boat, what did they see (54-55)?
How did Jesus serve those people (56)?
Discuss how this crowd was different from the people of Nazareth (33,
54-55; Cf. 6:5) or Capernaum (5:21-43) and find its significance on Jesus’
compassion (34, 56b).
Soon after Jesus got on
board, the boat reached Gennesaret, a city like the Garden of Eden. As soon
as Jesus got out of the boat, they ran throughout the region and carried all
the sick. They were all healed. Also wherever he went, he healed the sick. This
was the picture of coming of the Messiah (the Savior) under whom, there shall
be no one unhealed or unrestored to His blessings.
By combining the name of
the place, Gennesaret, a garden of riches, and healing of so many, Jesus
brought his disciples to the time and place that signified the full restoration
to the Kingdom of God.
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