Let’s pray for the reading of God’s word. This prayer will flow out of some Psalm 119, the section called Sade. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we recognize that you are righteous. Oh, Lord, right are your rules, and you have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness. Lord, we desire that our zeal would consume us. Lord, that there would be a great difference between us and our foes who regularly forget your words. Lord, your promise is well-tried. Cultivate in us, your servants, a love for your word. And there are times in which we feel small and despised. Yet do not let us forget your precepts. Remind us that your righteousness is righteous forever and your law is true. Lord, when we are overwhelmed by trouble and anguish, when they have found us out, again, give us your commands that are our delight. That your testimonies we would know are righteous forever, that you would give us understanding, that even in the wilderness we may live. We ask that you would use this time in your word for your glory and for our benefit. In Jesus name, Amen. This morning, we’re continuing our discipleship series.
I’ll read Mark 6: 30-44. This is God’s holy and inerrant word. The Apostles returned to Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. ‘ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in a boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of him. When he went ashore, that is Jesus, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But he answered them, You give them something to eat. ‘ And they said to him, Shall we go and buy 200 denari worth of bread and give it to them to eat?
‘ And he said to them, How many loaves do you have? Go and see. ‘ And when they found out, they said, Five and two fish. ‘ And he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. And so they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of fish. Pray now for the preaching of God’s word. Father, as my words are true to your word, may they be taken to heart. But if my words should stray from your word, may they be quickly forgotten. I pray this in the name and in the power of Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, when I get an opportunity to preach on a classic text, I’m always a bit nervous that I might, in some sense, ruin a favorite passage, a cherished story, a dear friend.
And this passage before us clearly fits that criteria. Who among us, if we had the good blessing of growing up in Sunday School, won’t remember the remarkable story, the incredible miracle of our Lord Jesus when he fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes. It, as a miracle, is truly legendary. It is, in fact, the only miracle which is recorded in all four of the Gospels. And more than simply being recorded, the text in each of the Gospels used to tell this story is almost identical. That is, almost every detail of the story is repeated by at least three, if not all four of the gospel writers. There’s an amazing remembrance and recollection of this. And this morning, as we have the privilege of looking into God’s word and hearing once again of this remarkable feat, we may be, and I hope that we will be, a little surprised to discover that perhaps the particular miracle of feeding the crowds might not be the highlight of the story. In fact, you’ll see, I hope that it was only one of several things that the disciples discovered in this pericopy, this section of scripture. It all starts in verse 30, picking up where we left off last week with Pastor Lloyd preaching that sermon in which Jesus had sent the 12 apostles off in pairs to teach and to heal.
Now they have returned, and they are full of stories, perhaps exhausted with the expenditure of emotional energy and the physical challenges of the journey and that mission. We read in verse 30 that the Apostles have returned, and they tell Jesus all about their trip, the lessons taught, the people healed, demons cast out. And upon hearing all of these reports, notice that Jesus in verse 31 responds with an invitation to come and find rest. Reminds me of Matthew 11: 28, Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. There are echoes of that invitation here. Come away by yourself to a desolate place and rest a while. It’s a beautiful invitation from our Lord to his weary disciples, and we can almost hear their size of relief and of joy. If they were exhausted, if they were desirous of rest, they had deserved it. The verse 31 continues, For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. This is the second time that Mark comments that ministry was packed so full of activity, so full of caring for people, that there was not even time eat.
You may have remembered the similar observation in Chapter 3: 20, where it concerned the immediate family of Jesus. They remarked that he wasn’t eating. And Mary and the brothers, they were so affected by that reality that they even tried to seize Jesus by force. Jesus here takes a gentler approach and invites the disciples to a much deserved treat of rest. I think seeing this, we ought to make our first observation that rest is a needed and necessary thing. In reading through the Gospels, you will regularly see passages in which Jesus heads to the mountain, either in the evening or early in the morning to pray. His time of prayer in the garden of Gethsemani, it wasn’t a one-time deal. It was a pattern that he had put into his life. He regularly took time to rest and to pray for his ministry and for those around him, and we are invited to rest as well. In fact, the Lord has given us one day in seven to do especially that. But we would be wise to work it into our lives. And after this missionary journey, the Apostles were ready for rest. I appreciate New Testament scholar James Edwards, who notes, the greater the demands on people, in this case, the disciples, the greater their need to be with Jesus.
The greater the demands on our lives, the greater our need to be with Jesus. We might be wise to ask ourselves if we have honestly made that similar discovery. You, like me, maybe have heard of great evangelists or great ministers history leaders in the past who may have said something like, I pray an hour each morning for the things of my day, except when I’m really busy. Then I pray two hours. And you might be impressed when you hear that, or you might be discouraged when you hear that. But I would suggest that both of those reactions miss the mark. The real question we ought to ask ourselves is, do you believe that the greater the demand is on you, the greater your need is to be with Jesus? That’s the critical question. For if you don’t believe you need Jesus to find rest in his company, then you will not be able to say no to good things so that you can say yes to the better thing, yes to his invitation to come away and to find rest in him. Furthermore, you may find that you actually can’t get out of your stressful situation.
You may, in fact be, and even placed by God, into a stressful situation that you are stuck in, a desert, a wilderness, a time that is dry, a desert season in your life. I think it’s helpful, at least for me, to hear fellow scholar William Lane. He remarks this, that Jesus’s directive to withdraw to a wilderness place signifies more than well-deserved rest after strenuous labor. What is in view, he says, is the concept of rest within wilderness. Rest within wilderness, it’s a repeated theme throughout the scriptures, finding and resting in God, even in the midst of desert journeys and wilderness wanderings. You can see it in Abraham, in Moses, in Job, in David. Even in our Lord Jesus himself, in his time of temptation, He drew rest from his relationship with his Father. The disciples knew they needed rest, and away they went with Jesus. And yet, seeking to find rest in the wilderness, they found something else. First, they found a restless crowd. How did this happen? It seems, and it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, that when the six teams of two traveled to all the nearby local towns, they were healing the sick, they were casting out demons, they were teaching with great power and authority, they caused a great stir.
And apparently, as they came back to Jesus to check in and to report back, the townspeople noticed. Verse 33 tells us, Many saw them going, and they recognized them, and they ran on foot from all the towns and got ahead of them. Lane calls this crowd running from all the towns to where Jesus would be, a type of mini exodus, hearkening back to another exodus. Invited to a desolate place. Instead, they found crowds lining the shores and waiting for them. But some have wondered, how could people get there quicker than the boat? And the answer is rather simple if you’re a sailor. It’s called a headwind. All it would take would be a headwind, and the boat would have to tack back and forth, back and forth, making slow forward progress, multiplying extraordinarily the distance the boat would have to sail and easily enabling the running crowds to outpace them. Now, no mention is made here in our biblical text, but many of the commentators mentioned that at least here in the slow sailing of the boat, the disciples were beginning to gain rest in the company of Jesus. And yet, surely they must have felt a sense of disappointment or discouragement when they saw all the crowds and realize their retreat was ruined.
At least honestly, that is how I would have felt. Seeing that desired plan delayed or perhaps even destroyed. You’ll notice that the biblical text doesn’t give us their reaction, but it does give us Jesus’ reaction. And in verse 34, we are told that when he saw the crowd, he had compassion on them. And his compassion stemmed from his observation that the crowds were like sheep without a shepherd. They heard of something good and they ran to it. This is biblical imagery that flows throughout the scriptures of both the Older and the Newer Testaments. A couple examples among many would be Numbers 27: 16-18. In that section, Moses is nearing the end of his life, and he prays to the Lord that the congregation of the Lord might not be as sheep which have no shepherd. The Psalm 23 is another beloved passage that shows the beauty and the necessity of having a good shepherd. I think one of the things you could do if you want to have a little fun with this text is to take Psalm 23 and take our text in Mark 6: 30. To 44. You might want to do this with a family, especially if you have little kids or just in your own study, and put them side by side and see how many similar pictures and images and language there is.
I’ll give you two quick hints, Green grass and the type of banquet. It’s a beautiful passage that Mark is likely alluding to, but he’s certainly alluding to the imagery of the shepherd. Ezequiel 34 is a chapter that largely deals with the failings of shepherds over God’s people, his sheep. It points out some of the grave dangers of people without a shepherd, they become food for wild priests. Without a good shepherd, that’s verse 5, and verse 23 gives the promise that there will be a shepherd of David who will feed his sheep and lead them in the better way. And like a good shepherd, Jesus jumps right out and begins to teach them many things. Another phrase that Mark repeats multiple times. No doubt that even at this point, the disciples were still enjoying a partial break. Jesus was doing the teaching here. But the verse 35 tells us that when it began to become late, the disciples began to be concerned. Concerned. And so they came to Jesus to explain what they felt was a problem and to offer a few suggestions. I think we should actually appreciate the disciples’ practicality here. It’s likely they were actually concerned with the crowds.
They knew it was late, and it’s likely that they had guessed, based on the fact that the crowds had run to Jesus, that they were traveling light and didn’t have lots of provisions. They likely knew that they themselves were lightly provisioned, and so they recommended to Jesus that he send them away so that the people would have time to scatter to the various towns to find something to eat on their way home. But Jesus responds in a way that shocks them. You give them something to eat, he says in verse 37. They had seen a problem and brought it to Jesus, and all he did was intensify it. You give them something to eat. Incredible. It would seem impossible. I enjoy James Edwards’ reflection on this, though. He says, As in the case of all the Lord’s commands, however, they will in the end do exactly as he says, although they cannot now imagine how. That they are surprised by Jesus’ response is evident in their reply. They ask the question, Shall we go and buy 200 denari worth of bread to feed them? We’re not told exactly why they picked this number, but if we remember that a denari is a day’s wage for a laborer, then what we’re saying is, ought we to spend a good part of an annual wage to buy bread for these over 5,000 here.
Most scholars, when they look at the numbers, the cost of bread, it’s a reasonable guess as to what a meal for 5,000 plus might cost. I really appreciate New Testament scholar Alan Cole. He regards the disciples’ questions and comments in verses 35 to 37, and he declares that, All their calculations were correct, but they had forgotten Christ. The incalculable factor. I ask in the question section as to whether we may likewise have too small a view of our savior, where perhaps our careful, accurate, and correct calculations, and in that we may have forgotten Christ. Dare I talk about our desire to build an education wing for the church. I hope you read the recent letter from the building committee. They have advised and wisely advised us to proceed with caution, to consider perhaps the economic timing for our future fundraising. What’s the best way to do this moving forward? To build this classroom wing, which our children, which are growing in number, praise the Lord, dearly need. They’re Their wise counsel, and it was, is based on the fact that money’s pledged and raised last year didn’t amount to what we needed. Their wise counsel was also based on the fact that only 30% of the family units within the church actually participated and responded to that drive in any fashion.
Now, among the leadership of the church, the elders, the deacons, those on the Finance Committee, and in the building committee, 90% responded, but only 30% of the rest of the congregation did. Why is that? Is it perhaps we are locked into our careful Calculations, our accurate calculations based on what we think we can do. And have we forgotten what Christ could actually do through us? It’s something to think about with respect to that, but it’s something that we ought to think about with respect to lots of questions, ministry opportunities, risks that we might take for the Lord in our own lives. Perhaps we are regularly too careful in our own calculations. Perhaps we regularly forget what Christ can do through us. Jesus begins to show him exactly what he can do. And in verse 38, he them the important question, How many loaves do you have? Go and see. Sent into action, they quickly return with what they likely think is discouraging news. Five loaves and two fishes. Directing the disciples to organize the crowd into easily manageable groups for distribution and even for counting, they watch as Jesus like Moses in the wilderness, provides bread for the people.
Mark tells us in verse 41, that taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looks up to heaven and he says a blessing, and he breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples. There is so much to speak about in that one little verse. I was driving myself crazy. How How can I preach three sermons in one? First, the idea of giving a blessing is a natural part of the Jewish tradition over a meal. But scholars say that what’s different here is they typically look down over the food as they give a blessing, whereas Jesus looks up to heaven. He looks to the Father for extraordinary power as this was to be no ordinary meal, one states. I think there’s a lesson for us here as well. Taking whatever meager gifts we have or resources we have, we ought to hold them. We ought to look to heaven and ask a blessing and then give them in service of others. Now, this gift of Jesus was more like the widow offering her last penny than the rich man giving out of his abundance. God will multiply our gifts for his glory and for the blessings of his church.
This gift giving brings about a contagious sharing of others. This is not a miracle of sharing, as some churches seem to suggest that as Jesus began to give out bread, people reached into their bags and began to share as well. This is all the food there was. Five loaves and two fishes. But Jesus multiplied that meager offering for the glory of the Lord. Additionally, if you were looking at me as I held up my hands, you were looking at me over the communion table. You were looking at me over the bread which we will be breaking in a few minutes. Most scholars agree that Jesus was clearly giving his disciples a picture of foreshadowing of both the Lord of the last supper, as well as a future meal in glory, in addition to looking back towards Moses as well. Again, a New Testament scholar, William Lane and many others show a connection between Jesus here and Moses in the wilderness. Elaine writes, The God who gave manna in the wilderness now gives to his people their daily bread, visibly and yet in a hidden manner. I paused at that because I realized a point I had never admittedly thought about until I was preparing this sermon.
There is no hint, no indication in the text that anyone in the crowd knew that Jesus was performing a miracle. There’s no reference to the crowd’s marveling, nothing to them responding in awe or amazement. We simply see that they received the bread and they ate the fish and they were all satisfied. We just don’t know. That’s not an important part of the story, but the disciples knew. Seeking rest in the wilderness, they found that they had found the bread of life. Again, with these 5,000 seated in their orderly groups, they also found that they had been called again into service. For in receiving this broken bread from Jesus, they were now able to obey that original charge. You give them something to eat. After Jesus had broken the bread and divided the fish, we realized that the disciples set them before the people, and they all ate, and they were all satisfied. I started this sermon by saying that or mentioning that I picked up where Lloyd left off in the reading or in the sending out of the 12 Apostles. But if you have your Bible open, you hopefully notice that we’ve skipped the story.
Now, once again, Mark has sandwiched the story in between a story, in between the sending out of the twelve and of their return. In that story, that sandwich story is that of the feast of Herod and the beheading of John the Baptist. Several scholars think that Mark put it here to show the dramatic contrast between these two feasts. One was all that natural man could want, lavish attire, incredible dishes of food, excessive amounts of wine, extravagant entertainment. A one scholar called Herod’s Feast a Drunken debauchery ending in death. What a contrast, as Lane notes, Jesus satisfies the multitude with the staples of a peasant’s diet. The glory of God, one says, unveiled through the abundant provision of bread in the wilderness where Jesus is Israel’s faithful shepherd. What a beautiful contrast between the lavish, simple, and abundant provision from the Lord. This was an astounding miracle. It’s seen in several facts. One, all ate and were satisfied. Two, twelve baskets of leftovers were collected, no doubt more than they started, all from five loaves and two fishes. Three, the crowd included at least 5,000 men. Matthew tells us this is beside the women and the children that were there.
And so we see that truly God had provided exactly what the crowds needed. And for the disciples who came seeking rest, they first found a restless crowd, but they also found the good shepherd. They found the bread of life. They found rest within their wilderness, and they found themselves called back into service for the one in whom they could truly rest. Let’s pray. Father, thank you again for that rest that you give to all those who trust in you. Lord, in you, we rest from our struggles. Lord, you free us from the power and the penalty and the bondage and the burden of the sin in our life. We find rest from needing others approval for you have your love for us. We find rest in that we can endure difficult and dry times because you have the words of life. You are the bread of life in the living waters, and you can sustain us. Father, we praise you that you find us rest, and yet even in that rest, you call us and commission us right back into service, that we can be serving others by your strength and in your power. Father, you are Jehovah Jireah.
You provide. You who brought all creation into existence out of nothing could easily feed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes. And you have done that. And we praise you this day in Jesus name. Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.