FILLING OUR EMPTINESS
Opening Prayer
Thank you, Gracious God, for providing all that I need for life, for faith, for service. Help me to use all that you give me to bring you glory, to show others who you are.
Read MARK 6:30–44
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
Footnotes
- Mark 6:37 Greek take two hundred denarii
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, / thou fount of life, thou light of men, / from the best bliss that earth imparts / we turn unfilled to thee again.’1
The disciples returned excitedly from their mission. Jesus knew they needed solitude to recuperate physically and spiritually, but,as must happen in Christian service, the needs of others came first. The crowd tracked the boat, hurrying around the lake on foot. They were hungry and weary but, more importantly, lost and confused. They were not searching for physical bread, but to satisfy their spiritual hunger. They needed guidance and direction. The dry legalism of their religious culture had left them unfulfilled, but now they have come to Christ who feeds them spiritually. That crowd stands for all mankind. We all have deep spiritual hunger. We long for more than the world can give. Our hearts reach out toward the infinite, the transcendent, and the divine, because God has made us in his image so that we can relate to God and each other.
The disciples reminded Jesus that it was late and the people were hungry. We are all familiar with what happened next. Later, at the last supper, Jesus would again break bread to symbolize his body. After he had given himself on the cross and risen again, the early church recognized the symbolism of the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus took the bread, thanked God for the bread, broke the bread and gave the bread. These were also the four verbs of the last supper – took, thanked, broke, gave. In my church, these words are said weekly, at every communion service. Our response, too, is a series of verbs – we take, eat, remember, feed. ‘Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your heart by faith with thanksgiving.’2 We take deeply into ourselves the spiritual bread which will sustain us in this life and lead us to the next.
Apply
We turn, unfilled, to Jesus again. We trust him to feed us with the bread of life, sustain us on our journey, and take us to himself.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for the ways you provide everything I need for abundant and everlasting life. Help me to respond with gratitude overflowing in ways that proclaim your goodness to others.
1 Bernard of Clairvaux, twelfth century, tr Ray Palmer, 1808–87 2 A Prayer Book for Australia, p142
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