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.
