Mark 6:36, commentary and pictures

The disciples urged Jesus to send the hungry crowd away into the surrounding country and villages to buy bread for themselves, because in that desolate place they had nothing to eat. It was evening after a day spent teaching and healing a vast multitude of more than ten thousand people who had followed Him into a lonely desert place by the Sea of Galilee. Their request showed care for the people's physical need after hours of listening, yet also anxiety and a sense of impossibility at feeding so many. Jesus would not dismiss them hungry to faint on the way home, but seated them on the grass and answered with the command for the disciples themselves to feed them. His answer makes the verse a lasting call to depend wholly on God in strait places and, instead of turning the needy away, to share what is received from Him, for scanty means used unselfishly in His service are multiplied until all are filled.

Time Place and Crowd

The setting is a desert, lonely place at sunset when the day was far spent and evening drew on, after Jesus had spent all day teaching the people and healing the sick while large crowds followed Him from place to place. The disciples' proposal to send the people into the country round about and into the villages to buy bread for themselves arose because the place was deserted and the crowd had nothing to eat. Their concern was for the crowd's physical needs after hours of listening to Jesus.

The crowd numbered five thousand men besides women and children, thus more than ten thousand people. They had gathered near the Passover at the shore of Galilee. Christ had withdrawn with His disciples for quiet rest, but the multitude followed by land and by boat and waited for Him on the shore. From the hillside He saw the people still coming and was moved with compassion toward them because they were as sheep not having a shepherd, and He left His retreat to minister to them. They received no help from the priests and rulers, but from Him they received teaching of the way of salvation with healing and life.

The people had stood for hours absorbed in Christ's teaching and unaware of their hunger, and the crowd was so large that there was danger of trampling, so Jesus arranged for them to sit and rest before providing for their needs. They were far from home in the wilderness where food was not nigh at hand, and many had no means to buy food. The multitude came without invitation or command, and after listening so long to His instruction they grew hungry and faint. The crowd had exhausted its food after following Him away from the cities, and had become weary and in need of rest and bodily nourishment. That simple need for bodily nourishment was met to show that God continually supplies what sustains life, as ordinary food like the harvest from which bread is made depends on His power and care.

Request and Compassionate Answer

The disciples urged that the hungry multitude be sent away into the country round about and into the villages to buy bread for themselves, because they had nothing to eat in the desolate place and the day was far spent. Their urging came after hours of listening to teaching, and showed concern that the crowd find food for its physical needs. Yet their question whether they should go and buy also reflected anxiety and a sense of impossibility and lack of means for feeding so many.

Jesus would not send them away hungry to return home unrefreshed or to faint by the way. He knew they would be hungry and faint after listening, noticed their weariness, and was concerned that they not go home without food. Instead of dismissing them He did not send them away hungry but led them to be seated on a grassy plot and provided for them Himself until all were satisfied.

He answered the request with the command to feed the people themselves. That command carries the power to meet the need, and they served as the means through which He provided for the crowd. His question about how bread could be found for so many tested the disciples' faith, although He Himself already knew how He would provide food.

Miraculous Provision Described

All that was on hand was five barley loaves and two fishes, only a few small fishes, which by ordinary means could not satisfy so many. In that lonely place there was nothing else to feed five thousand men besides women and children.

He led them to a grassy plot to be seated and had the people sit down on the grass in groups and companies, on a grassy spot and on the ground. After a hymn was sung He gave blessing and thanks upon the bread as He broke it and divided the fishes and placed the pieces in the disciples' hands. The disciples carried what they received to the hungry ones and kept coming back for more, imparting and imparting, serving as the means through which He provided for the crowd. The food increased as they gave it out and the small supply was made sufficient until all ate and were filled and satisfied and had enough, with food left over and still remaining, and the disciples also ate.

He then commanded to gather up the fragments and the leftovers that nothing be lost. Twelve baskets were gathered on this occasion, when five thousand men besides women and children were fed with five loaves and two fish, with seven baskets on another like occasion.

Christ's Power and Care

The feeding of the five thousand to which the request to send the people away belongs shows God's creative power at work in providing food. The multiplication of the loaves illustrates the same power that continually multiplies seed and feeds people from the harvest. The simple food Christ provided met the real need for bodily nourishment and showed that God continually supplies what sustains life, so that ordinary food like the harvest from which bread is made depends on His power and care. Human work in growing grain and making bread can obscure this divine agency, and God's gifts can be misused for selfish ends.

Christ in human nature stood in the wilderness with five thousand men besides women and children where food was not nigh at hand and apparently He had no means at His command to feed them. The multitude had come without invitation or command and, after listening so long to His instruction far from home, grew hungry and faint, with many having no means to buy food. He was one with them in their need of food where the providence of God had placed Him as the Son of God to depend on His heavenly Father for means to relieve the necessity. He knew they would be hungry and faint and would not let them return home fasting, and the need was met through God's provision as Jesus depended on His Father. At sunset, after being all day with Jesus in a desert place, the proposal was to send them away into the country and villages to buy bread because they had nothing to eat.

Jesus would not send them away hungering to return to their homes unrefreshed or faint by the way. He asked about feeding them to test the faith of the disciples, though He Himself already knew how to provide food. He who would not work a miracle in the wilderness to satisfy His own hunger would not allow the multitude to suffer for lack of food, but fed them bounteously Himself. His provision shows that He understands physical needs and can provide for them, and His care is not limited by the available food or place. The miracle shows His love for people and was part of His mission. Rather than leaving the suffering people to seek help in vain, He healed them, taught them, met their needs, and fed their souls with the bread of life, and the day ended with the people dismissed to go home after the multitude had stayed to hear Him and had their need for food met by divine power.

Trust Sharing and Economy

The feeding stands as a lesson for all time to depend wholly on God in fullest confidence when, after exercising wisdom and judgment and following the best knowledge possessed, His followers are brought into strait places and compassed with difficulties. He who has infinite resources at His command will deliver them and keep every perplexed soul trying to keep the way of the Lord, so they are not to give up in discouragement. Humble faith and prayer accomplish more than worry and anxious thinking about impossibility and elaborate plans for buying food in the villages, and today He gives tact and skill and understanding to those who seek Him and work in harmony with Him. The meager supply of a few loaves and fishes in hand calls for more faith in what Christ can do to provide until all have enough with baskets left over.

His compassion calls His followers not to send the hungry away but to help those in need by sharing with the needy from what they receive from Him. As they received bread from Jesus and distributed it, the food increased as they gave it out until the tired multitude of five thousand men besides women and children ate and were filled, and the disciples also ate. Divine grace increases in its distribution, and a scanty provision used unselfishly in His service can be blessed and multiplied until it supplies many people and meets the needs of a large territory. Small offerings entrusted to God and given in faith can be made sufficient for His work, so that what seems meager becomes enough to satisfy and leaves something to share with others.

Believers are not to stop work and measure advance by the means at hand, for that shows very limited faith. Whether means are large or small they are to plan and work in faith, realizing responsibility as God's human agents to diffuse the gospel over the whole earth and going forward as God commanded. Those softened and subdued and sanctified by the Holy Spirit who dedicate themselves to the Lord God of heaven and work the works Christ worked will be given the Holy Spirit to communicate to those in necessity. Gifts for the Lord's work sent with thanksgiving and prayer will be multiplied and blessed in the same way as the bread for the crowd, and if the best use is made of the means available God will enable His people to feed the multitudes who are starving for the bread of life.

People seeking the way of salvation must not be neglected when they are weary or hungry. Their fellow believers should make every effort to provide for their needs and give them opportunity to hear the Word of life, for helping them and removing obstacles on the way to Christ are Christian duties. The bread shared with others also illustrates sharing spiritual truth and helping meet people's needs.

The command to gather up the fragments that nothing be lost means more than saving leftover food; it teaches order and economy and faithful stewardship even in simple matters. It is a lesson against extravagance in anything, against waste and against gambling away or wrongly taking what God gives, calling for what He gives to be imparted to the hungry and for close economy and frugality and thrift to be put into daily practice. Those in charge of institutions are to bear this in mind by acting wisely and refusing to spend what can be saved, sanitariums are to be built plain and simple with room to care for and impress people, and methods of practical food work are to be studied with food prepared economically without selfish private interests obstructing the work. Owing no man anything by laboring industriously, living within means, and placing the family above want belongs to the same thrift, and Christ's works of help are to be valued and preserved as a credit so that the impression of truth and of His miracles of healing is fixed firmly on human minds and never lost.