Mark 6:36

Earlier in this chapter Jesus sent the twelve out two by two with power over unclean spirits, and they preached that men should repent, cast out devils, and anointed and healed the sick (Mark 6:7–13). Now they return, and Mark calls them apostles. The word apóstolos means a delegate or ambassador, one sent out with a commission from Christ, and the title suits men coming back from the errand he gave them. In Jewish custom a man’s emissary, in Hebrew a shaliach, acted with the full authority of the one who sent him and gave him an account when the errand was done.

They “gathered themselves together unto Jesus”. The verb synágō means to gather or bring together, and here it is the twelve coming together again around him. Then they “told him all things”. The verb apangéllō is the ordinary word for reporting or telling news, and “all things” means the whole of it, the hard parts with the glad ones.

The report has two parts, “both what they had done, and what they had taught”: the works of power, and the call to repentance they had preached. The same pairing marks Jesus’ own ministry, for Luke sums it up as “all that Jesus began both to do and teach” (Acts 1:1), and the apostles’ report shows them sharing in his work. Luke tells of the seventy coming back to Jesus with their report in the same way (Luke 10:17–20).

This return is a picture of all service done for Christ. The power the apostles used came from him, as a branch draws its life from the vine (John 15:5), and what is required of stewards of God’s mysteries is that they be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:1–2). After the resurrection he would send them out again, to teach all nations to observe all things he had commanded, with the promise “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:19–20), and he would give them power by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). In the end all of us will stand before him and give account of what we have done (2 Corinthians 5:10).

“Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while.” Jesus’ first word, deûte, means “come here”, a call that draws the apostles to himself. The verb anapaúō means to make someone cease from labour and so refresh them, and the rest is for “a while”, a short pause. Mark gives the reason with gár, “for”: so many were coming and going that “they had no leisure so much as to eat”. The word behind “leisure”, eukairéō, means to have a good time or opportunity for something, and the crowds had left them none, even for a meal.

Jesus cares for the whole of his servants, body as well as soul. He knows tiredness from the inside, because the Word was made flesh (John 1:14), and our high priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15–16). He kept the same pattern himself, going out to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35) and withdrawing into the wilderness to pray even while great crowds pressed to hear him (Luke 5:15–16). Rest has belonged to God’s order since he rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2) and gave Israel the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8–11), and the shepherd of the psalm makes his sheep lie down in green pastures and restores the soul (Psalm 23:2–3). So the call to rest a while is a command given in love, and it stands for every servant of Christ.

“And they departed into a desert place by ship privately.” The verb apérchomai means to go away from a place. They crossed the Sea of Galilee by boat, a common way to travel there and quicker than walking around the shore. “Privately” translates kat’ idian, from ídios, “one’s own”: they went by themselves. A desert place, érēmos, is a desolate, lonely or solitary place, a desert or wilderness. In Galilee that meant open country away from the towns, uninhabited and uncultivated and often used to pasture sheep. In Scripture the wilderness is where God met Moses at Sinai and Elijah in his flight, where Israel was led and fed, and where Jesus was tempted, and here it is where he gives his disciples quiet with himself.

The rest Jesus offered that afternoon points to the rest he gives to all who come to him: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28–30). There remains a rest for the people of God, and it is found in him (Hebrews 4:9–11). Mark also lets us see a quiet irony in the scene. Men too busy to eat are a few hours away from handing out bread to thousands.

“And the people saw them departing, and many knew him.” The people, óchlos, are a throng or multitude. To know, epiginṓskō, here means to recognise: many recognised Jesus as the boat pulled away and worked out where it was heading. They “ran afoot thither out of all cities”, on foot from the towns around the lake, and “outwent them”. The verb proérchomai means to go before, and the crowd reached the landing place ahead of the boat and “came together unto him”. “All cities” gives the sense of a whole region on the move, so far had word of him spread.

They came because they needed him. Many were sick or troubled by unclean spirits, and many longed for his teaching. Mark closes the chapter with the same eagerness at Gennesaret, where people brought him their sick wherever he went (Mark 6:53–56), and John tells of the crowd seeking him again for bread after this very miracle (John 6:24–27). Their running is a living picture of the psalmist’s soul thirsting for God (Psalm 42:1–2).

This verse is the heart of the passage. Jesus stepped out of the boat, his plan for rest overturned, and “saw much people”. The verb eídō is the ordinary word for seeing. What he felt when he saw them is the striking thing: he “was moved with compassion toward them”. The word splanchnízomai comes from splagchnon, the inward parts, which were thought of as the seat of feeling, and it describes a pity felt deep within that moves a person to act. Mark uses it when Jesus heals a leper (Mark 1:41), and Matthew uses the same picture of the shepherdless crowd when Jesus goes about all the cities teaching and healing (Matthew 9:35–36). In Jesus the heart of God is turned toward people in their need, and his compassion drives his teaching, his healing and his feeding all through the Gospels.

Mark gives the reason for that compassion: “because they were as sheep not having a shepherd”. A shepherd, poimḗn, guides, protects and feeds the flock, and Scripture uses the word for those who lead God’s people. Sheep left alone wander, go hungry and fall prey to wild beasts. The words come from Israel’s own Scriptures. Moses prayed for a man to lead the congregation, so that the LORD’s people would have a shepherd (Numbers 27:17), and through Ezekiel the LORD mourned that his flock was scattered for want of a shepherd and became food for the beasts (Ezekiel 34:5).

Israel had leaders in Jesus’ day, priests, scribes and Pharisees, and still many of the common people were left untaught and uncared for, weighed down by rules and given little true guidance, while living under Roman rule as well. The LORD had long before condemned the shepherds of Israel for neglecting his flock (Ezekiel 34:1–10). Jesus sees the same crowd and takes the shepherd’s place himself.

“And he began to teach them many things.” The first thing the compassionate Shepherd gives is his word. Food comes later in the day, and both are his gifts, for “man doth not live by bread only” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

“And when the day was now far spent.” The Greek says that much of the hour had gone, using polýs, “much”, and the disciples repeat it: “now the time is far passed”. They were learners, mathētḗs, and they came to their teacher with a sensible plan. “This is a desert place” (érēmos again), far from markets and food. Luke places the scene near a city called Bethsaida (Luke 9:10), most likely on the eastern side of the lake. Once darkness fell, travel and trade stopped, and it would be too late to feed anyone.

“Send them away,” they said. The verb apolýō means to let a person or a crowd go, to dismiss them. They pictured the people scattering “into the country round about”, kýklōi, in a circle all around, through the fields and farms, and “into the villages” to “buy themselves bread”. Their reason is plain: “for they have nothing to eat”. In the Greek this is ou, “not”, with tís, “anything”, and phágō, “to eat”: they have not anything they may eat. The disciples cared about the crowd, and their plan was the one any of us would have made.

“He answered and said unto them” uses apokrínomai, to answer, joined with “said” in the common Hebrew way of introducing a reply. His answer was “Give ye them to eat.” The verb is dídōmi, to give, and the “ye” lays the task on the disciples themselves. They answered with a question of their own: “Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?” The dēnárion, translated “penny”, was a Roman silver coin and a labourer’s usual wage for a day, so two hundred of them came to about eight months’ wages, a sum far beyond anything the disciples carried. Their question shows how impossible the command looked to them.

“He saith unto them” uses légō, the everyday verb for speaking. His question, “How many loaves have ye?”, uses échō, to have or hold, and it turns the disciples to what is already in their hands. “Go and see” sends them to look for themselves. “And when they knew” uses ginṓskō, to know or come to know, and here it means when they had found out. Their answer is short: “Five, and two fishes.”

John adds that it was Andrew who found them with a lad, and that the loaves were barley (John 6:9). Bread and fish were the everyday food of Galilee’s common people, plain and cheap, and travellers carried such food with them. Jesus begins his miracle with this small, humble supply, the little that his disciples could find.

“And he commanded them to make all sit down.” The verb epitássō means to give an order, and Jesus takes charge of a crowd that could easily have turned into a crush. “Sit down” is anaklínō, to recline, the posture for eating a meal, so Jesus is seating guests at his table. “By companies” translates sympósion, a word for a drinking party or banquet, used here for a group of guests at a meal, and Mark doubles it in the Greek, “symposia symposia”, company by company.

They sat “upon the green grass”. Grass that is green speaks of spring, and John says the Passover was near (John 6:4). The disciples had called it a desert place, and Jesus seats his guests on green grass, like the shepherd who makes his flock lie down in green pastures (Psalm 23:2).

“And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.” To sit down here is anapíptō, to fall back or recline for a meal. “In ranks” translates prasiá, a garden bed or plot, so the groups lay on the hillside in neat blocks like beds in a garden. The number hekatón is simply “a hundred”, and groups of hundreds and of fifties made the crowd easy to serve and easy to count, so that everyone was reached and the size of the miracle was clear. Israel knew this kind of order from the days of Moses, who on Jethro’s counsel set rulers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens (Exodus 18:21–26). God is the author of peace and order among his people (1 Corinthians 14:33), and even his miracles are done with care for the dignity of those he serves.

Mark slows down for each thing Jesus does. He “had taken” (lambánō) the five loaves and two fishes, so the miracle begins with what the disciples brought. He “looked up to heaven”, the gesture of Jewish prayer that looks to God as the giver of all food. He “blessed”, eulogéō, a verb that means to praise or speak well of as well as to bless, and at a meal it is blessing God and giving thanks for the food. The Son of God gives thanks to his Father before he feeds the crowd.

He “brake the loaves”, using katakláō, to break in pieces, the ordinary act of sharing bread at a meal, and in his hands that ordinary act became the means of the miracle. He “gave them to his disciples to set before them”. The verb is dídōmi again, the same word he used when he told them “Give ye them to eat”, and now he gives them what they are to give. To set before, paratíthēmi, is to serve food at a table. The fishes he “divided” (merízō) among them all. The disciples who could find only five loaves become the hands through which he feeds thousands, and so they learn how he means to work through his servants.

God had fed his people in the wilderness before, with manna from heaven (Exodus 16), and through Elisha he fed a hundred men with twenty barley loaves (2 Kings 4:42–44). The same four actions, taking, blessing, breaking and giving, return at the Last Supper, when Jesus took bread, blessed and brake it, and gave it to his disciples as his body (Mark 14:22), and Paul hands that supper on to the church (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). The bread broken on the grass looks ahead to the body that would be broken for us.

“And they did all eat.” The word pâs, “all”, includes every person in that crowd. They ate, phágō, real bread and real fish. “And were filled” translates chortázō, which Strong’s gives as “to fodder”, to feed, fill and satisfy. The word was first used of animals fed full in a pasture, and it means that every hungry person was satisfied to the full. Christ gives the crowd far beyond the bare amount to keep them going.

“And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes.” To take up, aírō, is to lift and carry away. The baskets, kóphinos, were wicker baskets of the kind Jews carried their food in on a journey. At the feeding of the four thousand Mark uses a different word for basket, spuris, a larger one (Mark 8:8). The fragments, klásma, are broken pieces, from the verb for breaking, and they include fish as well as bread. The meal ends with far more food than it began with, like the cup that runs over in the shepherd’s psalm (Psalm 23:5).

This miracle is told by all four evangelists (Matthew 14:13–21, Luke 9:10–17, John 6:1–14), and each brings out his own part of it: the compassion of Jesus, his authority, the disciples’ share in the work, and Jesus as the bread of life. Matthew and Mark also tell of a second feeding, of four thousand (Matthew 15:32–39, Mark 8:1–10).

In Mark the passage stands between the account of John the Baptist’s death (Mark 6:14–29) and the night when Jesus walks on the sea to his disciples (Mark 6:45–52). Both the feeding and the walking on the water show his power over creation.

The day after this miracle Jesus taught the crowd at length about bread (John 6), and he told them, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). He is the living bread that came down from heaven, and the bread he gives is his flesh, given for the life of the world (John 6:48–51). Whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life (John 6:53–58). So the loaves that filled the crowd for an evening are a sign of the life he gives for ever, through the body broken on the cross.

The meal on the grass also looks forward to the feast God has promised. Isaiah speaks of the LORD making a feast for all people on his mountain and swallowing up death (Isaiah 25:6–9), and Revelation calls blessed those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9). The crowd that ran to Jesus from all the cities is a small picture of the people he redeems out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation (Revelation 5:9).

The compassion of verse 34 belongs to the Shepherd God promised through Ezekiel, who would seek his scattered sheep and feed them himself (Ezekiel 34). David sang of that care, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1), and Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11), and he came that his sheep “might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Hebrews calls him “that great shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20), and Peter tells believers that they have returned “unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25). The overflowing baskets fit what John says of him: “of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16).

This passage shows us a Lord who sees. He saw that his apostles were worn out and called them to rest, and he saw a restless crowd and was moved to the depths for them. His compassion was the first thing that met them when he stepped out of the boat, and he answered it with his word before he gave them bread.

It shows us a Lord who provides. Five loaves and two fishes were all his disciples could find, and he took them, gave thanks, broke them and filled a multitude, with more left over than he started with. Paul’s promise rests on the same Lord: God shall supply all your need by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

And it shows us a Lord who works through his people. He gave the bread to his disciples to set before the crowd, and he still feeds the hungry through those who serve him, counting what is done for the least of them as done for himself (Matthew 25:35). What we bring him is small. What he makes of it, in his hands, is enough for all and more.