Jesus fed the 12 and more than 5000 benefited

Often referred to as Jesus feeds the 5000, this story actually gives a peek into the nature and care that Jesus had for His disciples and how he spent so much of His time teaching and training them. As we look at this familiar story we will begin to see how it is tied to so many other stories in the Bible and how it is one of the few stories that is depicted by all four of the gospels. Obviously it is very important and we should look at it closely.

Mark 6:33-44

vs. 33 The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.

Jesus had pulled His disciples aside and told them to come to a lonely place to get some rest for several reasons.  First, He had just sent them out by twos.  They had gone to the surrounding area preaching that people should repent. Jesus had given them special powers to cast out demons and to heal the sick. Their journey had been cut short when Herod had beheaded John the Baptist and the disciples had buried John and went to tell Jesus. Secondly, they were surrounded by people, so much so, that they did not even have time to eat. So Jesus had told them to get into a boat with Him and to cross the Sea of Galilee. Unfortunately the only quiet time they had was while they were on the boat. Only a few hours at the most.

vs. 34 When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.

 Jesus and His disciples are tired and grieving for John the Baptist and felt like they needed some down time. But the world will not let them. Have you ever felt that way? Jesus has compassion on the large crowd because they are lost, confused, looking for guidance.   They are like sheep without a shepherd having no idea where to go and what to do. So He begins teaching them. Apparently a good deal of time has passed and it starts to get late. They are a long way from town and the disciples get worried about the large crowd and come to tell Jesus. Notice the people are not complaining.  Often when we are fed spiritually we do not hunger physically and apparently this is the case here.

vs. 35 When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, "This place is desolate and it is already quite late;

vs. 36 send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat."

This next verse is actually the most important verse, I think, in the entire story. Jesus gives them a command not a suggestion. This is where Jesus turns his attention from the crowd and zeros in on His disciples. Let the teaching begin.

vs. 37 But He answered them, "You give them something to eat!" And they said to Him, "Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?"

Obviously the disciples missed what Jesus was commanding them to do. Jesus has just sent them out by twos where they have healed the sick, casted out demons and performed miracles in His name. He tells them to give the crowd something to eat and their immediate response is rooted in the flesh. They ask Him if they should go to town and spend two thirds of a year's salary (which is very unlikely that they even have it).  Also even if they did have the money it is very unlikely that the small towns would have enough bread to support such a large crowd.  And even if they did, how would they transport it. The disciples look at the physical rather than what God can do. So much like us. God tells us to do something and our first response is how are we supposed to do that. God never tells us to do something that is impossible to do. If the disciples would have had the faith, they could have fed the masses. Their response tells us that the possibility of them actually doing what God told them to do never even crossed their mind. 

I am going to introduce something here that we will look at more in the next few weeks. If we look at all four of the gospel accounts of this story we see that three; Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell the exact same thing. John, however, tells a different account. In fact, so different that some theologians have speculated that maybe a similar feeding of five thousand occurred at a different time and that John is referring to that account. I personally don't think that is the case at all. Actually there was another feeding of a large group of four thousand that occurred later and Matthew and Mark do tell us about it. We will look at it in a minute but I believe wholeheartedly that John in his account is referring to this exact same account for many reasons. The similarities in the stories are too close to be coincidence and the order of events, before and after this story, line up with the other Gospels. In John's account he says that Jesus asked Peter how they were going to pay for the food to feed the 5000, not the disciples asking Jesus. John also says that Jesus did so because He wanted to test Peter because He already knew what He intended to do. So how do we explain this very different account? Well there are a lot of different ways that people have tried to explain these differences, and quite frankly I don't necessarily agree with any I have read. I think the key is understanding the relationship of Peter and also, James and John with Jesus. We see on several occasions that these three are singled out and we will see in the next couple of weeks is that it may be possible that these three needed some special attention from Jesus. John here is looking at the account from the same perspective that we have. He is focusing on the miracle of feeding more than five thousand people. Matthew, Mark and Luke are focusing on the teaching that Jesus is directing at them, the disciples. I will show you why later but I believe that Peter, James and John really struggled in their faith and possibly may not have been truly saved yet. They knew what to say but it may not have been a personal faith yet. Similar to the youth pastor who suddenly realizes one day that he has been living a lie and has never made his relationship personal with Christ. Of course, this is speculation on my part. At the very least their faith was much weaker than the other disciples even though they were often very out spoken about their faith. When we look at other accounts of Jesus:  Jesus walking on the water, or Jesus raising the dead child back to life, the Transfiguration, the garden of Gethsemane, and even when Jesus reappeared to some of the disciples on the lake after His resurrection, we will see how all of these events point back to the feeding of the five thousand and how Jesus was using all of these to strengthen the disciples' faith, but especially that of Peter, James and John. 

vs. 38 And He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go look!" And when they found out, they said, "Five, and two fish."

John tells us that Andrew is the one who found a young boy who had five loaves of bread and two fish. There is the real miracle. A boy who had food and had not eaten it. 

vs. 39 And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass.

vs. 40 They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.

The accounts of the story are all very similar in that the people sat down on the grass in groups of fifty to a hundred. Why is this important? Some say so it would be easier to hand out the food, to be more organized. But honestly groups of fifty to a hundred would still be difficult to feed. It would take more than one basket to feed a group this size. I think the reason for the grouping is for an accurate counting of all the people present. All four gospels tell us that 5000 men where fed and Matthew tells us that number did not include women and children. So the feeding was easily 10,000 on a conservative number. This miracle became well known throughout the land but arguably it is not Jesus' greatest. They are all impossible from a human stand point, outside of God.

vs. 41 And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all.

I have often wondered how the disciples delivered the food to the groups. Did they collect it in their hands at first and then when it kept coming gather it up their robes? Did they have baskets? If they did, where did the baskets come from? For that matter where did the baskets come from at the end of the story? Did the disciples or someone else bring them empty or did the disciples eat all of their food and then say to Jesus to send the others away? I guess we may never know these answers. I tend to think the later may have been the case but the scriptures are quiet on this because it really is not important.

vs. 42 They all ate and were satisfied,

This was not just a snack. It was enough to completely satisfy everyone's hunger. God is completely capable of handling all that we desire. 

vs. 43 and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish.


vs. 44 There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.



Twelve baskets full, one for each disciple. One for each disciple to hold and wonder at their own disbelief. What if I had believed, could God have done this through me?  Jesus was teaching the 12 to have faith in Him and what He can do through them if they would only allow Him to work through them. I think all of the disciples understood what Jesus was trying to teach them, eventually. But none of them understood it at the time. However, it took much longer before Peter, James and John understood it. In fact it was not until much later, after Jesus rose from the dead. We will look at that soon. But first we must look quickly at the very next story after the feeding of the 5000 to see the proof that they did not understand what Jesus was trying to teach them. 

 In Mark we read that immediately following the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus put the disciples in the boat to head back across the sea. A wind comes up and they struggle at the oars for quite a while. Jesus comes walking on the water, intending on passing them by. Why, because almost immediately they have no faith, he has only left them for a few short hours and already they have no faith. Jesus is going to leave them to figure it out on their own, just like He does us if we do not ask for His help. It was not until they cried out to Him did He stop and still the waters. And then we read the verse that explains the feeding of the 5000.


vs. 51-52 And He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped and they were greatly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

They had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves? They did not understand what God was teaching them but instead their hearts were hardened. They became entrenched in their lack of faith just as Pharaoh had become entrenched in his unbelief and would not let the Jews leave Egypt. Even though they had healed others in Jesus' name, cast out demons and seen the miracles He had performed they still wrestled with their faith.

To get a full understanding of the feeding of the 5000 we have to look also at the almost identical story of the feeding of the 4000. The two stories are so similar that the second one seems to be unimportant because it sounds just like the first one with less people. As we look at it quickly we will see from the comments Jesus makes after the event, the two stories are closely tied together and is important. In fact, Jesus tells the disciples the two are tied together. So let's look at it quickly.

Mark 8:1-21

¹In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, ²"I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat.
 ³"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."


Notice it says "again" because the stories are so similar Mark wanted us to be sure to realize that this was a separate story.


 ⁴And His disciples answered Him, "Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?"


Sound familiar?


 ⁵And He was asking them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven."
 ⁶And He directed the people to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the people.
 ⁷They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well.
 ⁸And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces.


Sound familiar?


 ⁹About four thousand were there; and He sent them away.
 ¹⁰And immediately He entered the boat with His disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha.
 ¹¹ The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him.
 ¹² Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, "Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."
 ¹³ Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side.
 ¹⁴ And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them.
 ¹⁵ And He was giving orders to them, saying, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
 ¹⁶ They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.
 ¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread?Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart?


Jesus plainly asks the disciples, "Do you not yet understand? Don't you get it yet? Even after two times of feeding large crowds do you still refuse to understand who I am?


 ¹⁸"HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember,
 ¹⁹ when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They said to Him, "Twelve."
 ²⁰"When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they said to Him, "Seven."
 ²¹And He was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?" 


How much like the disciples are we? We seem to think that because the disciples walked with Him on a daily basis that their faith was unbelievable. Actually as we look at Jesus' teachings we learn that right up to His ascension into heaven He was teaching them how to have faith in Him. He never gives up on them, regardless of how it seems they struggle to "get it" and He never gives up on us no matter how much we struggle to "get it" either. He loves us and has compassion on us like sheep without a shepherd. He wants to be that shepherd if only we have the faith to let Him.