Mark 6:30 – 33 Along the Sea

The twelve whom he sent out (6:6b-13) are now called “the apostles” (the sent ones). They return from “preaching and casting out and healing” (6:13) and report back to Jesus all the things they “did and taught” (6:30). This forms an inclusio (it brackets off) Herod’s execution of John.

In order to introduce the feeding story, we note the following: (a) We are on the Jewish side of the lake. The short boat trip (6:32) is along the side of the lake; the crowd can take a short cut and get there, on foot, first. (b) Jesus takes the twelve to a desolate (uninhabitable) place in search of privacy, rest and something to eat. (c) Jesus is recognized and preceded by a great crowd, as he had been earlier in the story and in contrast to the people of his hometown. We will note continuity with Jesus’ earlier ministry where crowds prevented him from eating and a contrast with Herod’s banquet.

Mark 6:34 – 44 Feeding the 5000

We remember that the parallel activity on the Gentile side of the lake also has its own feeding story where the counting of the crowd and the leftover food has a contrasting set of numbers. The significance of the numbers is intriguing but not clear: 5000 men, 5 loaves and 12 basketsful versus 4000 people, 7 loaves and 7 basketsful.

It is of the very nature of the Jesus of this story that he does extraordinary things: that is a given in this story, it is what divine men do. This is a vehicle of the story telling rather than the focus of the story.

Obviously this is a significant story for Mark tells it twice; clearly it contains much symbolic material and many echoes from stories past. These include:

• The wilderness feedings with manna (Ex.16:13-21; Num. 11:4-9)
• The sheep and shepherds metaphor from Ezek 34, where the kings are called ‘shepherds’ and are castigated for not teaching Torah.
• What seems to be an equating of ‘bread’ with ‘teaching’: “for they did not understand the bread” (6:52, 8:17-21).
• The miraculous feeding of 100 men, with 20 loaves, by Elisha (2 Kg. 4:42-44)
• The echoes of the promised, extravagant messianic banquet (Is 25:6-8), 49:10) and the satiation that awaits in the new land (Deut. 8:10). The extravagance here is shown in the vast quantity of leftovers.
• The contrast of this banquet with Herod’s execution feast: (a) The large number of peasant followers of Jesus v. the small number of rich and powerful (b) In the desolate place v. in the king’s palace (c) Jesus’ compassion for the people v. Herod’s killing of the Baptist to save face (d) An order to feed v. and order to execute
• The seating of the people by “groups” and by “plots” and “hundreds” and “fifties” is evocative of Moses’ divisions of the people (Ex. 18:25) and was replicated within the Essene community at Qumran.
• The Eucharistic patterns (took, blessed, broke, gave) with the bread are made very explicit by the time of the Fourth Gospel (Jn. 6) However, (i) there is no reference to a cup pattern and (ii) the sequence of actions with the bread is natural – what else could he do!

This is a grand story which, in time, will become overloaded with significance and associations in much the same way that a parable will often grow from an extended metaphor into an allegory as it is handled and admired and polished. It is too good not to tell it again on the Gentile side of the lake.

Mark 6:45 –52 Walking on the Water

On the level of the story’s plot, this incident allows the key players to get back over to the Gentile side of the lake: setting off towards the region of Bethsaida, they end up in Gennesaret. But it is much more that this: it is an epiphany of Jesus and a judgment on the disciples.

Jesus goes up onto a mountain to be in the presence of God, to pray. This also allows Jesus to be separated from the disciples and thus to come to them on the lake. His descent from the mountain and its startling effect has echoes of Moses’ transfiguration (“the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” Ex. 34:29-35).

The sea/waters evoke memories from the biblical tradition of chaos and the dwelling place of monsters. The spirit of God sweeps over the face of the deep in the first creation story (Gen 1:2) God sports with the sea monster Leviathan (Ps. 104:26; 74:12-14) and rescues sailors on the sea. Jesus comes to the disciples in the boat(s), striding over the face of the deep as a creator figure. The disciples are appropriately terrified at this god-like figure and he responds, “Be courageous, I am, be not afraid”, using the revelatory formula associated with Moses and the burning bush (Ex 3:14). There is no need to admonish the wind and the waves: that has already been done (Mk 4:39).

Here the narrator (6:52), later the character Jesus (8:17ff.), admonish the disciples for not understanding the loaves. This may be using loaves/bread as a metaphor for teaching, teaching about the Eucharist, as God’s extravagant meal given to both Jew and Gentile, satiating the needs of all members of the new family. The theme of the disciples’ misunder­stand­ing of the power of Jesus will come up again and again in chapters 8 – 10 and will be resolved in the figure of the cross-bearing Son of Man. The power wielding, miracle working of a Son of God will only make sense for Mark when Jesus hangs from the cross (15:39).