Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare
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Sermon Notes for Mark 6:30-44 Key Verse: Mark 6:37a: “ ‘But Jesus said, “You feed them.’ ‘With what?’ they asked. ‘We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!’ ”
This story of a miraculous feeding is repeated in all four Gospel accounts (Matt. 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:5-13). Mark (8:2-9) and Matthew (15:32-39) include a story of another miraculous feeding of a multitude, with some differences from this version and several connections. John’s version of the story connects it with ancient Jewish faith, in God’s provision of manna to the wilderness wonderers in the Exodus from Egypt. John also powerfully connects this story with the Passover, and what Christians have come to call “the Lord’s Supper”.
The story in Mark 6 and parallels echoes an ancient story found in 1 Kings 4:41-44, in which the prophet Elisha instructs one of his servants to distribute twenty loaves of barley bread that he has brought to satisfy the hunger of a hundred prophets who had gathered with Elisha at Gilgal during a famine in that region. The servant questions Elisha’s order to serve such a crowd with insufficient resources, but Elisha assures him that the Lord says “They will eat and have some left over.” Such was indeed the case, according to verse 44.
Besides the obvious connections between Mark 6 and 1 Kings 4, including a meager quantity of bread brought to the master by a servant who questions the master, and the proof of the miracle in the quantity of leftovers remaining after the crowd ate, there is yet another connection. 1 Kings 4:38 reports a famine in the region. Mark sets up his story in 6:31 by reporting that the crowds did not give Jesus or his disciples time to eat before the miraculous feeding (a detail echoed in Mark 3:20). And in the second feeding story in Mark 8, the crowd has not eaten for perhaps three days prior to the miraculous feeding and Jesus worries that they will collapse on their journey home without food.
All of these scriptural details and parallels add a richness to the layers of meaning found in this story. Yet another level of appreciation emerges from a detailed comparison of the Gospel accounts (assuming Mark’s version was the first). Luke and Mark call the disciples the “apostles” here (Mark for the first and only time), and include Jesus’ invitation to them to come away by themselves to rest awhile. In Matthew and John, Jesus withdraws alone. Jesus notices the crowd in all four versions. In Matthew and Luke, Jesus heals the sick. In Mark, he teaches the crowd. John narrates the feeding following Jesus’ notice of the crowd.
Here are the elements common to all four versions: Jesus withdraws across the Sea of Galilee; a large crowd follows him; Jesus invites his disciples to feed the crowd; they protest that their provisions (five loaves of bread and two fish) are impossibly inadequate; Jesus orders the crowd to be seated; Jesus takes the five loaves, blesses them, and distributes them to the crowd; the broken pieces of collected leftovers filled 12 baskets.
Questions for Reflection
1. This
is a story about how God in Jesus heals our hunger and hopelessness with an
invitation to take part in an abundant banquet. What do you hunger most for
today? As you identify with the crowd, what does Jesus’ command to be seated
mean in your own situation of hunger?
2. Now
identify with the disciples. How do you hear and interpret Jesus’ command to the
disciples to “give [the crowd] something to eat” as a member of the church in
our world today? What does the crowd in Pike Creek, Newark, and Hockessin need?
What do you have to give?
3. Think
for a moment about the leftovers. What does their presence in this story tell
you about God’s provision for our needs, and about resources for ministry in
Jesus’ name? What specifically do they say to you as a member or friend of
Skyline United Methodist Church? 4. How did the Holy spirit speak to you in worship today?
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