"Don't You Understand?" A Sermon on Mark 8:1-21 on World Communion Sunday

"Don't You Understand?"

Mark 8:1-21

         Does this story sound familiar?   Haven’t we heard this story before?

            Actually, we have.  In Mark chapter 6, we heard a story of a miraculous feeding of a multitude.  But this time some of the details are different.   A thousand fewer people.   Two more loaves of bread.  And five fewer baskets of left-overs.  

            Jesus looks around at the huge crowd that came to hear him and says to his disciples, “I’m really concerned for the people.  They’ve been with me for three days now, and they don’t have anything to eat.   If I send them home hungry, they’ll collapse on the way.  Some of them have come from miles away.”

            The disciples don’t sound like they’ve seen a crowd get fed miraculously as they answer:”” But Jesus, where could you get food for all these people, out here in the wilderness?” 

            The disciples have seen something like this before.  But everything that’s happening is so much bigger and so different from what they’d been expecting or hoping for that they apparently can’t take it all in. 

            Jesus tells the crowd to sit down.  He takes the seven loaves… gives thanks…breaks them…and gives them to the disciples to distribute.   The people in the crowd eat, and they’re satisfied.  Then they gather up seven baskets of left-overs before they send the people away. 

            Over the years, biblical scholars have tried to figure out why Mark tells this second feeding story, when the first one was more impressive, with 1,000 more people in the crowd?  Is he just telling us, “Jesus did it again”? 

            There are some interesting details in the two stories.  In the feeding story in chapter 6, Jesus told the 5,000 people to sit down, and they sat down on the green grass.  In the Galilee, grass grows quickly in the spring, but once the rains stop in May, it gets scorched by the fierce sun.  So, according to N.T. Wright, the earlier feeding took place around the time of the Jewish Passover.[1]   

            Some scholars have suggested that the twelve baskets of left-overs from the 5,000 people symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel, while the seven baskets of left-overs may represent his ministry to the wider Gentile world, with—in Jewish folklore—seventy nations.   The first feeding story took place on the predominately Jewish side of the lake, and today’s story, they’re on the predominately Gentile side.  

           According to William Placher, first-century readers, who were fascinated by number symbolism, would have read this passage and said, “This time Jesus is feeding Gentiles.[4]

            In the early church Mark was addressing, there was a major controversy about who was included and the relation of Jewish and Gentile Christians, so I think Mark is telling us in this story that Jesus came to feed Gentiles as well as Jews. 

            But there’s something else—a theme that becomes more pronounced in the next episode.  Even though the disciples had witnessed the feeding of 5,000 people, when Jesus told them they needed to feed the 4,000 people, it apparently didn’t occur to them to say, “You know, that thing you did to feed the crowd on the other side of the Sea of Galilee—could you do it again?”

            After they feed the 4,000 people and send them away, immediately Jesus gets into the boat with his disciples and they cross the lake, back to Jewish territory.  The Pharisees come and begin to argue with Jesus, asking him for a sign from heaven, because they want to test him. 

            So, Jesus and the disciples get back in the boat and cross to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread.  They had only one loaf with them in the boat, and they’re worried about the scarcity.

            Jesus cautions them, saying, “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”  The disciples say to one another, “It’s because we don’t have any bread.”

            Jesus hears them and says, “Why are you talking about having no bread?  Do you still not perceive or understand?  Are your hearts hardened?  Do you have ears, and fail to hear?  And do you not remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?”  They said to him, “Twelve.” 

            “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 

            Then Jesus said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

            For a lot of us, it is hard to understand.  We’re afraid we don’t have enough bread to share with those in need.    We worry we don’t have enough money.  We get confused by “the leaven of the Pharisees”—the message of those who want God to set up a kingdom that’s about observing the law with great strictness, rather than the kingdom of love and justice that includes all the people Jesus wants to include. 

            The kingdom of God is much wider and more gracious and inclusive than we might have imagined.

            Do we understand? 

            Listen to how Jan Richardson describes it in “And the Table Will Be Wide”:   

And the table will be wide.

And the welcome will be wide

And the arms will open wide to gather us in.

And our hearts will open wide to receive.

And we will come as children who trust there is enough.

And we will come unhindered and free.

And our aching will be met with bread.

And our sorrow will be met with wine.

And we will open our hands to the feast without shame.

And we will turn toward each other without fear.

And we will give up our appetite for despair.

And we will taste and know of delight.

And we will become bread for a hungering world.

And we will become drink for those who thirst.

And the blessed will become the blessing.

And everywhere will be the feast. [5]

May it be so!  Amen!

 

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

October 7, 2018

"Love and Life for the World." A Sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church.

"Love and Life for the World"

2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21

            Do you ever find yourself wondering what actually happened in these stories we just heard?  A man comes to Elisha bringing food from the first fruits: twenty barley loaves and some fresh ears of grain. Elisha says, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” But his servant can’t see how that will be enough.  Elisha had heard God’s promise: “Thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’

            Would you have believed Elisha?

            The Bible tells us that Elisha served the twenty barley loaves and the grain, and the hundred people ate, and there was more than enough.

            There are similar themes in the gospel lesson we just heard. 

            The gospel lesson we just heard is one of the few stories that John and the other gospel writers tell in common.  It’s the only miracle story that appears in all four gospels. So, it must have been important to the early church.

           

            After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  The verses leading up to today’s gospel lesson set the context. The crowds are following because they saw Jesus perform SIGNS. Jesus has healed the official’s son and a man by the pool. The amazing things Jesus has been doing create a sense of anticipation for what is to come.

            A large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down with his disciples.

            Jesus looked around at the large crowd and asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people can eat?

            John tells us that Jesus said this to test Philip, as he already knew what he would do.

            Philip answered Jesus, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to get a little.”

            Then Andrew said, “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish--but what are they for so many?”  Andrew sees the possibilities, but he’s still concerned that they don’t have enough.

            Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.”  John mentions that there was a lot of grass in the area, which made it a comfortable place to sit down and have a picnic.

            There are four gospel stories that tell about Jesus feeding 5,000, and Matthew’s and Mark each add a similar story about Jesus feeding 4,000. In all six stories, there are lots of left-overs!

            At the center of the story is a miracle.

            Now, if I were to tell you that it happened exactly the way the story says it did, some of you might get a little cranky.   Some folk have a hard time believing that sort of thing… or would tell us that nothing like that has ever happened to you.

            The way some people get more comfortable with this story is to explain that of course many of the five thousand people had a little food tucked away in their tunics—something they planned to sneak off and eat by themselves—but that Jesus got them to share what they had, so that there was plenty for everyone, with twelve baskets left over.  According to that kind of thinking, the MIRACLE is that Jesus got them to share.

            I think that interpretation has some merit, and it’s helpful to some folk who struggle with how to interpret the miracle stories in the Bible.

            But that’s not what the Bible says.  and that when the people saw it, they knew who he was.  They understood the feeding of the five thousand as God’s divine hand in human affairs—God’s supernatural interruption of the natural order.  There was bread where there hadn’t been any bread…fish where there hadn’t been any fish.  That proved who Jesus was to them…and established their faith in him.  The miracle made people believe.  It gave them faith where there had been no faith—the same as it gave them food where there had been no food.

            I’m not going to try to tell you how it happened that Jesus was able to feed thousands of people that day in the Galilee, because I can’t explain it in a pat, rational way that would satisfy everyone.  But I believe the gospel writers when they say that something amazing and extraordinary happened, and that many hungry people got fed-- when it looked like there wouldn’t be enough.   In the midst of what looked like scarcity, there was abundance!   

                         

            I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that a miracle is something that takes your freedom away along with your doubts… something that leaves you no choice but to believe.  You witness a miracle—or, as John the Evangelist would say, a "sign"-- and it makes you have faith.

            But I’m not so sure about that.  Without faith, there are always other explanations for even the best of miracles.  You say you heard the voice of God?  It sounded like ordinary thunder to me.  She was healed of her illness?  It was probably psychosomatic in the first place.

           

            Come to think of it, though, is there proof for anything that really matters in the world?   Are there homegrown, ordinary miracles you can think of—that there’s no evidence for… nothing that could prove them to anyone else…or to you—if you didn’t believe in them first.

            Could it be that we’ve gotten it all backwards somehow?  Maybe faith doesn’t come after miracles—but before them?   Perhaps what makes something holy--what makes it a glowing and life-giving wonder—isn’t something about it…but about us. 

            In today’s gospel lesson we hear echoes of the Passover-Exodus story. Chapter five ended with complaints about a shallow, superficial understanding of Moses. But chapter six intends to show a deeper, fuller understanding of Moses and the Passover, which is now revealed in Jesus.

            When Jesus miraculously feeds the multitude in the wilderness, the people remember the promise that God will raise up a prophet like Moses, and they confess that Jesus is that prophet. What they fail to realize what this sign actually reveals. Instead of seeing in Jesus the embodiment of God’s glory, love, and Word, they see a king…a political or military figure they hope will serve their desires. The crowds are missing the point of what’s happening. They see Jesus’ gracious gift--but they want him to manifest a glory that fits into their assumption and serves their goals.

            How often do we fail to see the depths of what God is doing, because we’re focused on what serves our desires? How often do we fail to realize how graciously God is acting among us, for our sake and for the sake of the whole world?  

            We only see partially and in distorted ways. We need the continuing word of Jesus and the gift of his presence, if we are to move more deeply into God’s glory.

            When the story moves to the next scene, we hear more echoes of Passover.

            Jesus, knowing that the people in the crowd wanted to make him king by force, had withdrawn again to a mountain by himself. Then, when evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake. A strong wind was blowing, and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water…and they were frightened.

            But Jesus said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.”  Or, more accurately, we could read Jesus’ response as “I am.” “I am” and “Don’t be afraid” are the language of theophany.[1]   I think Brian Peterson is right when he suggests that, in John’s language, it’s a “sign,” a window into the glory of God present in this world through Jesus.[2]

           

            Like the crowds in John 6, we have been fed by God’s grace and mercy and care and steadfast love. Like them, we often fail to see what God is doing among us. We look for a Messiah or king who will serve our desires or our agendas.

            But God is up to something far greater than anything we could imagine. Jesus comes to dwell among us, full of grace and truth, to reveal to us God’s love. Jesus comes across the fearful, lonely, empty, dangerous times and places and says, “Don’t be afraid.  I am.”

            He calls us to feed the hungry--to provide food and clean water to those who lack the basic things of life. But we look around and we’re afraid that our resources aren’t sufficient to meet all the needs.  We’re afraid there won’t be enough.

            Perhaps part of the miracle of our life of faith is that we creatures are able to make use of our freedom:  to believe in spite of our doubts…to have faith without proof…and that because of those capacities in us, miraculous things do happen from time to time.  Some of them are extraordinary.   But most of them as ordinary as the voices of our fellow human beings telling us that we are loved…that we are precious in their sight and God’s…that they want to link their lives with ours…that together we can, with God’s help, change the world.

            Together, we can practice trusting in God’s abundance and grace. Together, we can receive from Jesus’ hand what he gives and go out into the world with the gifts.

            All life and all good gifts come from God. Jesus keeps coming to us to open our hearts and our hands to those around us…to open our eyes to his presence. He keeps encouraging us: “I am. Don’t be afraid.”

            In the epistle lesson we heard, we hear Paul praying that the church, according to the riches of God’s glory,  “may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love… that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

            As Gentile readers of the twenty-first century, do we get it?  This message is for us, no less than to the ancient church in Ephesus.  God has a plan for us, for us to be strengthened in our inner being with power through God’s Spirit…for Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith…for us to be rooted and grounded in love…for us to be filled with the fullness of God.  We come together to be fed…filled…to open our lives to God in prayer…and to be transformed by God’s power. 

            Do we believe in that kind of miracle-- the kind of miracle in which we believe enough in God’s grace and power to risk giving our lives in prayer?   

            The GOOD NEWS is that—if we give our lives in prayer—we can begin to comprehend that God is within and around us.  We’ll begin to see ourselves and everyone else differently.  When we give ourselves in prayer, we begin to see the world in terms of God’s economy of abundance.  When we give ourselves in prayer, I believe the things that break God’s heart break our hearts too…and we begin to comprehend what Jesus meant when he said, “How blessed are those who mourn!  How blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness!  How blessed are the peacemakers!”

            When we’re weary from responsibilities with family, work, and church, the vision of God leads us back to the way of love and LIFE. 

            When we pray, God gives us the courage to risk.  We learn to trust not in ourselves, but in something far bigger than we are.  We live with what Brett Younger calls “a muffled but persistent sense of the holy.”  [3]

            What kind of a miracle might we experience if we pray for a bigger vision of God?  What kind of a miracle might we be a part of-- if we pray that we will see our life in the center of God’s goodness…that Christ might dwell in our hearts?    What kind of a miracle might it be if God overwhelms us with grace and it overflows in our lives and makes a difference in the world?      

            So… let us pray for faith in God’s power working in our world and in our leaders.  Let us pray for God’s power in us to do everything that we can do to stop terrible hatred and violence in our world.  Let there truly be peace on earth, and let it begin with you and me.

           

            Now, to the One who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

July 29, 2018 

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[1] Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 43:10, 25; 4`:12; Genesis 15:1; Exodus 14a;13.

[2] Brian Peterson, Commentary on John 6:1-21 at https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3749

[3] Lectionary Homiletics, July 30, 2006, p. 80.

 

 

"More Than Enough": A sermon on Matthew 14:13-21 from Littlefield Presbyterian Church.

This Byzantine mosaic is preserved in the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha, in Galilee, in the area which has traditionally been understood as the place where Jesus fed the 5,000.

"More Than Enough"

Matthew 14:13-21

         It had been a long day for Jesus and the disciples. After hearing that his cousin, John the Baptizer, has been beheaded by order of King Herod, Jesus is in distress and wants to be alone, so he goes off by boat to be alone to grieve in a deserted place.   But by the time he gets there, word has spread and a great crowd has hurried around the lake on foot and is gathered there.

            Jesus’ compassion for the needs of others overcomes his personal grief and weariness, and he responds to the people in compassion, curing those who were sick.

            It gets late, and people are hungry.  So, the disciples come to Jesus and say, “This is a deserted place, and it’s getting late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

            That sounds like a sensible, thoughtful suggestion. But Jesus has a different idea. He turns to the disciples and says, “We don’t need to send them away. You give them something to eat!” 

            Can you see those disciples, looking at each other, with the question on their faces?  “Are you kidding?  How could we feed all these people? Out here in this deserted place, with these scant resources—where are we supposed to find food for all these people?  There were 5,000 men, plus women and children! We don’t have anything here but five loaves and two fishes!”

            Jesus says, “Bring what you have to me.”  Then he commands the crowds to sit down on the grass.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looks up to heaven, and blesses, and breaks the loaves, and gives them to the disciples, and the disciples give them to the crowds.” 

            The gospel tells us that everybody ate and were filled.  But it doesn’t end there.  They gathered up what was left over of the broken pieces, and there were twelve baskets full of leftovers!   

           

            Imagine it!  As many as ten or twelve thousand people, and they all were fed and filled, and there were twelve baskets left over?   It seems impossible.  How can we explain it?  Can we explain it?

            Not surprisingly, modern thinkers have come up with all sorts of interpretations of this meal.   Those who are more literal in their reading of the Bible say we have to take the story at face value.  They argue that some kind of miracle happened, that Jesus created new food where there was almost none before, and that we don’t have to understand how he did it.  We just need to know that he did it—that somehow God’s power moved through Jesus to provide an abundant meal for everybody.

            Other folk, the ones who have trouble believing in miracles but are quite willing to believe in human goodness, offer another view.  They suggest that instead of the abundance of food resulting from Jesus performing a miracle, the people in the crowd were so inspired by his teaching and healing that their hearts were opened, and they reached into their pockets and travel sacks and pulled out the bits of food that they’d brought—but were planning to keep for themselves—and they shared the food with each other, so that everyone ended up with something to eat.  Some might go on to say that God’s power moved them so there was an abundant meal for all, and some might call that a kind of miracle.

            Some others interpret the feeding story sacramentally.  They say that the people there only received a tiny morsel of food, but because of Christ’s presence, they received the spiritual sustenance and strength that they needed from the meal. [1]

            So…what did Jesus really do that day?  What happened?  We can’t really know.  But I think the important thing in this story is not how it happened, but why it happened.   Somehow—whether we understand it or not—the God of love provided an abundant meal for all.  No matter how things may seem, no matter how scarce our resources seem, God is able to provide enough.

            The first disciples didn’t get it, at least initially.  And often we don’t get it.  We look around and we’re certain there isn’t enough.  Enough people…enough energy…enough creativity…enough resources…enough whatever—to meet some need, to do some task.  And yet when we go ahead and give it our best shot, we often find that there was enough after all—and maybe even a basketful or so left over.

                       

            Jesus came so that we may have life—abundant life.  Looking to heaven and blessing the bread, Jesus reveals abundance where we see scarcity.  What seems not enough is blessed, broken, and given back to the disciples for distribution.  They give the crowd something to eat, and it ends up being more than enough.       

            So, I think if we get hung up on the “how” of what happened, we risk what we disciples need to learn as we follow Jesus.

            Jesus didn’t lecture the thousands of hungry people gathered there on how they should have planned ahead before they hurried around the lake… how they should have packed food to take care of themselves and their family. He didn’t ask them if they were working or to prove what their income was.  He didn’t ask if they were from Galilee or if they were foreigners.   And isn’t that just like Jesus? He doesn’t seem to have any standards, except need.

            In the church, part of our life of discipleship is learning from Jesus how to trust in the abundance he promises, instead of the scarcity we fear.

            In our society, we work together as a community to do things we aren’t able to do as individuals. Our Congress is talking about the budget, which truly is an expression of our values as a society.

            Now, many members of Congress insist on standards. They want stricter work requirements for people who receive SNAP (Supplemental Nutritious Assistance Program) payments. As Barbara Lundblad points out, around 91% of the members of Congress describe themselves as Christians. Some of them like to quote scripture to back up their positions, and one favorite text in recent debates about the SNAP program is from 2 Thessalonians.  A congressional representative quotes the apostle: “‘we gave you this rule: if a man will not work, he shall not eat.’ So, I think it’s reasonable that we have work requirements.”[2]

            Now, Jesus hadn’t read the apostle Paul’s rule, because he hadn’t written it yet. I agree with Barbara Lundblad when she says Jesus must wonder why people like that one verse so much while they neglect most of the Bible, including Jesus’ own example and teachings….

            Almost 45% of those who receive SNAP benefits / food stamps are children. Another 30% are elderly or people with disabilities who may not be able to work. Many of the rest are working, even working full time, but don’t make enough to feed themselves or their families.

            In Jesus’ last teaching session in Matthew’s gospel, he tells how the Son of Man will divide everyone into two groups. To the blessed ones, Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave me food.” But the blessed ones asked, “When did we see you hungry and feed you?” Jesus replied, “As you did it to the least of these who are part of my family, you did it to me.”[3]

            From time to time, Christians have literally taken to heart Jesus’ command, “You give them something to eat.  When we come to the Lord’s Table, we commemorate that last Upper Room meal.  We also need to remember how Jesus fed the multitudes.  As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to remember what he says to his disciples: “You give them something to eat.”

            People in our own communities and in our nation are hungry or food insecure. 

            20 million people in four countries are facing starvation: South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, and Nigeria. The United Nations calls this the worst humanitarian crisis since it was founded in 1945. Yet we hear very little about this tragedy.

            Seeing these huge numbers, we might feel overwhelmed. We might think, “There’s nothing I can do that will make a difference.” But, like those first disciples, we do have something, and we can give through the Presbyterian Church’s huger program or Bread for the World. We can write letters to our elected leaders.

            Working to end hunger is both personal and political. Working to end hunger is holy work.

            Did you notice? Jesus prayed that God would bless the food in his hands so it would be enough for all the hungry people. But he didn’t pray until after he said to the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” Then, after praying, Jesus gave the broken bread and fish and gave it to the disciples, and they started passing them out. They may have been wondering how long the food would last, but they kept going until 5,000 men plus all the women and children were fed. When everyone had eaten, there were twelve baskets left over.

           

            God is still at work in and through us today. In the face of all our concerns about not having enough, Jesus takes and blesses and breaks and gives—and transforms everything and everyone.  Jesus spread a banquet for thousands of people gathered … that day long ago, and keeps spreading a banquet before each of us.  Like that crowd gathered that day, like his own doubtful followers, Jesus invites us to trust, to accept his invitation, to come and feast bountifully.

            Thanks be to God!

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

August 6, 2017

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[1] I am indebted to the Rev. Sharyl B. Peterson for her summary of some of the common interpretations of this feeding story, in her sermon “Feasting, Not Fasting,”  posted at 8/1/2008 in www.goodpreacher.com/backissues

[2] The Rev. Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad, at Day1. http://day1.org/7931-barbara_lundblad_who_will_feed_them_you

[3] Matthew 25

"Don't You Understand?" A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on Isaiah 56:1-7 and Mark 8:1-21, on World Communion Sunday.

"Don't You Understand?"

Mark 8:1-21

            Does this story sound familiar?   Haven’t we heard this story before?

            Actually, we have.  In Mark chapter 6, we heard a story of a miraculous feeding of a multitude.  But this time some of the details are different.   A thousand fewer people.   Two more loaves of bread.  And five fewer baskets of left-overs.  

            Jesus looks around at the huge crowd that came to hear him and says to his disciples, “I’m really concerned for the people.  They’ve been with me for three days now, and they don’t have anything to eat.   If I send them home hungry, they’ll collapse on the way.  Some of them have come from miles away.”

            The disciples don’t sound like they’ve seen a crowd get fed miraculously as they answer:  “”But Jesus, where could you get food for all these people, out here in the wilderness?” 

            The disciples have seen something like this before.  But everything that’s happening is so much bigger and so different from what they’d been expecting or hoping for that they apparently can’t take it all in. 

            Jesus tells the crowd to sit down.  He takes the seven loaves, gives thanks, breaks them and gives them to the disciples to distribute.   The people in the crowd eat, and they’re satisfied, and then they gather up seven baskets of left-overs before they send the people away. 

            Over the years, biblical scholars have tried to figure out why Mark tells this second feeding story, when the first one was more impressive, with 1,000 more people in the crowd?  Is he just telling us, “Jesus did it again”? 

            There are some interesting details in the two stories.  In the feeding story in chapter 6,  Jesus told the 5,000 people to sit down, and they sat down on the green grass.  In the Galilee, grass grows quickly in the spring, but once the rains stop in May it gets scorched by the fierce sun.  So, according to N.T. Wright, the earlier feeding took place around the time of the Jewish Passover.[1]   Some scholars have suggested that the 12 baskets of left-overs  from the 5,000 people symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel,  while the 7 baskets of left-overs may represent his ministry to the wider Gentile world, with—in Jewish folklore—70 nations.   The first feeding story took place on the predominately Jewish side of the lake, and today’s story, they’re on the predominately Gentile side.  

            Then there’s number symbolism in this story—the 7 loaves and 7 baskets of left-overs are significant.  In Genesis, God gives Noah seven laws, which would apply to Noah’s descendants—all of humankind-- in contrast to the five books of Jewish law. [2]    In Deuteronomy there’s a contrast between the Hebrew people with the seven nations of Canaan. [3]  According to William Placher, first-century readers, who were fascinated by number symbolism, would have read this passage and said, “This time Jesus is feeding Gentiles.[4]

            In the early church Mark was addressing, there was a major controversy about who was included and the relation of Jewish and Gentile Christians, so I think Mark is telling us in this story that Jesus came to feed Gentiles as well as Jews. 

            But there’s something else—a theme that becomes more pronounced in the next episode.  Even thought the disciples had witnessed the feeding of 5,000 people, when Jesus told them they needed to feed the 4,000 people, it apparently didn’t occur to them to say, “You know, that thing you did to feed the crowd on the other side of the Sea of Galilee—could you do it again?”

            After they feed the 4,000 people and send them away, immediately Jesus gets into the boat with his disciples and they cross the lake, back to Jewish territory.  The Pharisees come and begin to argue with Jesus, asking him for a sign from heaven, because they want to test him. 

            So Jesus and the disciples get back in the boat and cross to the other side.  Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread.  They had only one loaf with them in the boat, and they’re worried about the scarcity.

            Jesus cautions them, saying, “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”  The disciples say to one another, “It’s because we don’t have any bread.”

            Jesus hears them and says, “Why are you talking about having no bread?  Do you still not perceive or understand?  Are your hearts hardened?  Do you have ears, and fail to hear?  And do you not remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?”  They said to him, “Twelve.” 

            “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 

            Then Jesus said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

            For a lot of us, it is hard to understand.  We’re afraid we don’t have enough bread to share with those in need.    We worry we don’t have enough money.  We hear get confused by “the leaven of the Pharisees”—the message of those who want God to set up a kingdom that’s about observing the law with great strictness,  rather than the kingdom of love and justice that includes all the people Jesus wants to include. 

            The kingdom of God is much wider and more gracious and inclusive than we might have imagined.

            Do we understand?  Can we see it?   Can we hear it?  

            Listen to how Jan Richardson describes it in  “And The Table Will Be Wide”:   

           

And the table will be wide.

And the welcome will be wide

And the arms will open wide to gather us in.

And our hearts will open wide to receive.

And we will come as children who trust there is enough.

And we will come unhindered and free.

And our aching will be met with bread.

And our sorrow will be met with wine.

And we will open our hands to the feast without shame.

And we will turn toward each other without fear.

And we will give up our appetite for despair.

And we will taste and know of delight.

And we will become bread for a hungering world.

And we will become drink for those who thirst.

And the blessed will become the blessing.

And everywhere will be the feast. [5]

May it be so!  Amen!

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Thank you to Jan Richardson for permission to quote her work.  Please check out her blog at:  http://paintedprayerbook.com

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[1] N.T. Wright, Mark for Everyone. (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001/2004), p. 78.

[2] Genesis 9:4-7

[3] Deuteronomy 7:1

[4] William Placher, Mark: Belief, a Theological Commentary  (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010),

[5] Jan Richardson,  
And the Table Will Be Wide: A Blessing for World Communion Sunday.”  Quoted by permission.  Copyright Jan Richardson. Janrichardson.com