Lent 2026 Day 30: Tue 24 Mar
Mark 6:38-44
38 “Go and see how many loaves you have,” He told them. And after checking, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
39 Then Jesus directed them to have the people sit 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, Jesus spoke a blessing and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to His disciples to set before the people. And He 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 And there were five thousand men who had eaten the loaves.
So, what have we got for starters? Five loaves, two fish. That’s one loaf to every thousand people and one fish for each half of the crowd. Did that stop Jesus? No. Do you think that he even needed a starter batch at all? However, using what minimal resources that were already there does at least give the crowd and us something to latch on to.
Did Jesus provide food for five thousand men and all the women and children who were there? Some might argue that the people were given a little bit of food as a token, and perhaps what happened represented some sort of proto-Eucharist celebration. To me that is missing the point. Mark is telling us that Jesus fed five thousand plus. Jesus started the process. He broke the bread, but he involved the disciples in distributing it. They were faithful enough to take broken bread and fish and distribute it. Here’s some maths. Five thousand people being handed just 200 grams each would require a tonne. Jesus did not hand 80 kilograms of bread to each disciple. They couldn’t hold that much, let alone carry it. It must have been in the distribution to the people that it was transformed. That requires faith from the disciples!
There is no point in trying to calculate the point at which the transformation took place. It’s clear that Jesus did not create a mountain of food as he broke it and the disciples didn’t cart food around in wheelbarrows. I doubt, if I were there, I’d have received anything less than a filling meal. Logic, mathematics, or science will not explain miracles! That’s why we call them miracles.
They all ate and were satisfied. I still need Sunday lunch after a Communion service, and the people needed more than a crumb of bread and a fish-scale to eat. And there was more than enough! I’m not sure where the baskets came from, but they may have come from the boat on the lake. Twelve were needed to carry the leftovers.
Let’s deal with the story as Mark (and other Gospel-writers) tells it and struggle with its challenges rather than plump for a watered-down interpretation.
When does it take more than one person to perform a miracle?
Would Jesus have fed the crowd with fewer resources? None?
What miracle(s) could you be persuading others to join you to seek that would make your church fellowship more like the Body of Christ?
Father God, you gave us all the power of thinking and reasoning, and curiosity to explore. I pray, too, for faith that transcends my human understanding and wisdom and looks out and up to you. Amen
This was a just-in-time miracle. Sometimes we may be called to express love for the hungry, the poor, the needy in long-term ways.
Paul