Mark 8:1-10 (NRSV)

In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.  If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way and some of them have come from a great distance."  His disciples replied, "How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?"  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"  They said, "Seven."  Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd.  They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed.  They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.  Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.  And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

The forefront of the passage for me is “They ate and were filled.”  Just last Thursday we experienced the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5000+ with five loaves and 2 fish at the end of the 6th chapter of Mark.   And now, in Chapter 8, Jesus has done it again…  feeding over 4000+ with just seven loaves and 3 fish.  The fact that everyone ate and was filled stands out.

Large crowds continue to follow Jesus everywhere he goes.  They have been with him for 3 days and have nothing to eat.  It seems that they would have remembered the previous account, and not wondered how it is possible that Jesus is able to feed them.  Again, Jesus takes what is available, 7 loaves and 3 fish, blesses, breaks, and distributes the food to the crowd.  Everyone ate and was filled.  7 baskets of left overs were taken up.

The feeding stories have layers of meaning to include Jesus’ ability to provide what you need from what you bring him.  In both cases, everything they had was given to Jesus.  In this case, a mere seven loaves of bread.  These were most likely small barley loaves (simple bread of those that are not wealthy), which makes the miracle that much more miraculous.  The other thing that means something in the context of the story is the location.  The desert and the wilderness is a place of demons and evil.  The wildness of the woods was outside the safety of the city and not a place people went.  One only went into the wilderness for necessary reasons.  The fact that Jesus retreated there and people followed tells us what kind of magnet draw he had on them.

I understand the call today as “be filled.”  We should be filled with what God provides for us.  We trust and give and love and share and provide to one another.  In that, God fills us, physically, mentally, and spiritually, as we seek to serve God.  In the wildernesses of our lives, God is there with us, helping us and directing us, feeding us, and getting us through.

Mark 6:30-46 (NRSV)

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.  He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while."  For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.  And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.  Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.  As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.  When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat."  But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?”  And he said to them, "How many loaves have you? Go and see." When they had found out, they said, "Five, and two fish."  Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass.  So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.  And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.  Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.  Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.  After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

Jesus told the disciples, “You give them something to eat.”  This phrase and extension of hospitality stands out to me today, as Jesus offers to feed the multitude that has gathered to learn from him.  They are out in the middle of nowhere and have very little, but out of very little, in a generous display of hospitality, Jesus provides enough and then some.

Marks story takes an interesting turn in the narrative.  After the back story of John the Baptist, Mark returns to focusing on Jesus who is again on the move.  He is trying to get away from the crowds to rest and goes to a deserted place by boat with the twelve.  However, when he gets there, Jesus is greeted by a great crowd.  Jesus has compassion for them and teaches them.

The disciples want to let the people go to the nearby towns in order to get something for themselves to eat.  This is when Jesus tells the disciples, “You give them something to eat.”  However, the disciples don’t understand and think Jesus wants them to go and buy food for everyone.  Jesus asks them what they have and asks everyone to sit on the grass in large groups.  Jesus then distributes the five loaves and two fish to the five thousand plus (most scholars agree that women and children were not in the count).  After all were fed, twelve baskets of scraps were collected.  Jesus then sends the disciples away in the boat to go ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd.

The call that I hear today is rely on God’s provision.  It has been often said that God equips the called, he doesn’t always call the equipped.  Like the disciples sent out two by two on Tuesday, we are to trust that God will equip us with what we need if we give to God what we have.  Jesus uses the miracle feeding of the 5000 to show that God has the ability to provide abundance out of scarcity.  This is Good News to those who are afraid that they do not have enough.  If we give it to God, then God will multiply with great abundance.  With God, there is always enough.