Thursday, March 27, 2014

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Mark 6:30-46

In this passage, Mark gives us a fast-paced account of Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand.  Many people hear of Jesus’ retreat with his disciples and rush there, ready to take in His teachings.  Unprepared for dinner, Jesus is able to feed the whole group from the five loaves and two fish. 

Is this though a story for the disciples?  Tired and hungry from recent travels filled with teaching, Jesus suggests a retreat to which the disciples obey.  When the crowds join, Jesus welcomes them as “sheep without a shepherd”; the disciples, however, appear less than enthused, hoping that Jesus will agree to send them off to find their own food.  When Jesus instead instructs them to gather all the food they can find, breaks the bread and feeds the group, it is the disciples that are ultimately left with ‘twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish”.

What, then, can we (the disciples) learn from this apparent miracle?  

This passage so eloquently shows that Jesus is the source of our food and our rest.  The disciples want nothing more than to spend time in rest, and to eat.  Only through spending more time than they wanted teaching and serving is this provided, and when it is, it is bountiful.  

We can also see ourselves represented through the disciples in this passage through their ignorant yet faithful responses to Jesus’ leadership.  That we need to listen and act in trust before we receive our food, our rest.  We don’t have much to offer, but Jesus can use it if we place ourselves in that position of dependence and risk that the disciples share in this story.

- John, Matt, Eric and Julia