The Book of Mark
The Creator Provides
Mark 6:30-44
Tonight we come to a story with which anyone who’s ever attended Sunday School will be familiar. It is known as the feeding of the five thousand. And because it is so well-known, I’ve dreaded teaching about it. Sometimes you can lose the crowd before you ever begin and I think with these more familiar stories there is a tendency to not listen as well. So what I hope to help you see are some of the more unfamiliar aspects of it.
Mark 6:30-44
Once again we see the power of Jesus on display. This is another testimony to the power and ministry of the Son of God as He is introduced in chapter 1, verse 1.
Jesus has been ministering through Galilee now for over a year and there are only a few months left in His ministry there. He’s about to finalize His ministry there and this miracle is kind of the public conclusion of His ministry there.
After this miracle, He will go toward Tyre and Sidon, then come back across Galilee, journey down through Decapolis then spend the last months of His life in Judea and ultimately in Jerusalem.
So with this miracle we’re nearing the end of His Galilean ministry and by now, everyone is aware of Jesus. If they haven’t seen Him personally, they’ve probably been in contact with His apostles.
So by now the crowds are massive. And it’s interesting to me that the size and capacity of the miracles grows in relation to the crowd size. That is a reminder Jesus is not overwhelmed with the crowd. There is plenty of power to go around as we see in the feeding of this crowd of people.
According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, the crowd included 5,000 men but Matthew also tells us there were women and children in attendance also. So how many were there total? We don’t know. I think it safe to add at least 4 to 5 thousand women and perhaps as many as 15,000 children. It’s very possible this crowd was in excess of 25,000 and maybe beyond that. It is a huge crowd.
And to create food from virtually nothing is a massive miracle that could only be done by the Creator Himself. So this is a very significant moment in the life of our Lord Jesus. This is the biggest, most public and most people-impacting miracle He has done yet. .
By the way, this is one of only two miracles that are recorded by all four gospel writers. Anyone want to guess what the other one is? It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So in importance, this miracle ranks second only to the resurrection.
The miracle is so monumental that in John 6 we are told that the people tried to make Jesus the King. They would have liked nothing better than to have the ultimate welfare state where somebody creates your food for you. Talk about entitlement! Wouldn’t you like to live in a kingdom where the king can heal all your diseases, free you from demons, raise your dead loved ones and provide free food?
Sounds like what the Democratic party in America! So there’s little wonder that after He did this, they tried to make Him a King.
Now, as I said, everyone is fairly familiar with this miracle. So instead of look at the story and re-familiarizing ourselves with the details and people involved, what I want to focus on is the picture this story allows us to see of God the provider.
Jehovah-Jireh is the Old Testament name for the Lord who provides and in this story, perhaps better than anywhere else in the New Testament we see that Jesus is, in fact, the incarnation of Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides.
There are four things in the story we see the Lord provides. Three are in the background; one is in the forefront. We’ll look at three of them tonight and save the main story line for next week.
The first thing we see Him providing is
1. Rest
verses 30-33
We touched on this last time. The 12 have been out on this short term-mission trip and they come back to Jesus and give their report. We have no record of what they did but we can assume they did what they were told to do. They did miracles and they preached repentance.
They return worn out because the crowds had overwhelmed them, so much so that Jesus tells them to take some time to rest.
The first provision He makes is a provision for rest. We read in the book of Hebrews that He is a High Priest who understands our infirmities, who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He understands well that we need rest.
Back in chapter 4, verse 38, the Lord Himself was so physically weary that He fell asleep in a boat with His head on a piece of wood in the middle of a storm. He knew what it was to be worn out, spent, exhausted and wearied. He, better than anyone, knew how physically exhausting the ministry was so He said, “Let’s go to a secluded place and rest a while.”
And notice, they went away in THE boat. It’s always THE boat, definite article. It may have belonged to one of the fishermen and we know there were at least four and maybe as many as seven who were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. And it seems there was one boat sort of designated for their use. They went into the boat and headed to a secluded place by themselves.
Now as it turns out, the only rest they got was in the boat. The crowds have become extremely aggressive. They watch them leave, make an educated guess at where they will arrive and run to meet them, and verse 33 tells us they actually arrived before Jesus and the Apostle and are waiting for them when they arrive on the other side. And the crowd that is waiting is massive
Their reputation precedes them and everyone is interested in what Jesus is doing. If they don’t need healing themselves, it’s still the best show in town.
In fact, John 6:2 many came just to see the miracles He was performing on those who were sick. So they ran to beat the boat.
You would think this would irritate our Lord, right? He’s looking for rest and seclusion for His apostles. That is the express intent of this journey and when they arrive, this crowd is already there.
You would think Jesus would be irritated by their materialism and selfishness and superficiality and yet Luke says, “He was welcoming them.” It is the heart of God to welcome people. And it is there we see the second thing the Lord provides and that is the provision of
2. Truth
verse 34
Immediately He begins to speak to them. At the end of verse 34 it says, “He began to teach them many things.” So this is a long lesson. He literally begins Kingdom instruction.
What would that be? He would explain the Kingdom of God and that it’s entered by the meek and the humble. He might have repeated the Beatitudes which He gave earlier or called them to repent and believe in Him as the Son of God, the Messiah.
And what is His motivation? Verse 34 says, “Because when He went ashore and saw a large crowd, He felt compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”
That is a very, very dramatic picture because sheep without a shepherd will die. They can’t feed themselves. They can’t protect themselves. If they get on their backs, they can’t even put themselves back on their feet. Somebody has to clean them. Somebody has to feed them. Somebody has to rid them of the bugs and thorns that get down in the wool.
In fact, one of the most graphic Old Testament pictures that God paints of Israel is in Numbers 27:17 where they are pictured like sheep without a shepherd.
In 1 Kings 22:17 they’re like sheep without a shepherd. Second Chronicles 18:16, they’re like sheep without a shepherd. Ezekiel 34:5, “They’re like sheep without a shepherd.”
And when Jesus views this crowd that’s what He sees. He realized they had no teacher. They had no one to feed them, no one to lead them to water, no one to clean them up, no one to protect them and shelter them, no one to care for them.
So He, as the Great Shepherd, the only true Shepherd, began to teach them many things, teaching that would cleanse them, teaching that would feed them, teaching that would protect them, teaching that would lead them to eternal safety in the fold that He Himself cared for.
So, you here is our Lord’s provision for rest on a physical level, His provision for truth on a spiritual level.
The third thing that happened on that day was a provision for
3. Healing
Now we don’t see the healing in Mark, but you do in Matthew. Matthew 14:14 says, “He went ashore and saw great multitude, felt compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And then it says He healed their sick.
Human suffering hurt Him. People’s suffering made Him suffer. People’s sorrow made Him sad. He is merciful because God is merciful. In fact, when Matthew says He felt compassion, it uses a verb that describes your internal organs. He felt it in his gut. He felt the pain where you feel pain and anxiety.
And the message of that is He has compassion on your pain and your soul. He understands the need for rest, and He can teach to meet your deepest needs. No wonder the crowds were massive when they heard the Jesus was near!
And the invitation still stands to come to Him and find rest for your soul.
Let’s pray.
