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In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar." Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?" He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven." So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them, and they set them before the multitude. They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them. So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Now those who had eaten were about four thousand. And He sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
- Mark 8:1-10
Yesterday we read that Jesus went to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs." Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter." And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed. Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "be opened." Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar." We are now in Gentile territory, in the Decapolis (as reported in yesterday's reading). This is a place of mixed populations, a sort of mosaic, with a history of Greek and Roman culture. In the Greek, "Decapolis" means "Ten Cities" and it's a region -- a kind of ring -- of ten cities to the southeast of the Sea of Galilee. What we first notice in this reading is the fact that these people are so desirous of the word that Jesus is offering that they have continued with Him for three days. They have nothing to eat: but their hunger has been for the life He offers through His word. His compassion goes out to them; He is a caring Teacher.
Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?" This is an echo of the Psalms: "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? . . . Can He give bread also?" (Psalm 78:19, 20).
He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven." So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them, and they set them before the multitude. They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them. So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Now those who had eaten were about four thousand. And He sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha. We see an echo of the earlier feeding of the five thousand men in the action that happens here. The actions of Jesus and His disciples very much echo the Eucharist. The difference here is that now those fed include many Gentiles. "Seven" (as in the seven loaves and the seven leftover baskets) is a number of fullness, completion. Jesus' mission isn't complete until the whole of the world, both Jew and Gentile, are included. My study bible points out that feeding the multitude in the wilderness is a messianic sign, fulfilling the prophesy of the psalms, quoted above. It adds, "This miracle has special significance: seldom does Jesus refer back to a miracle He has performed, but to the feeding of the four and five thousand He does (8:19-21)."
It's interesting to think of these two feeding miracles. Certainly their importance can't be minimized as they are so central to the Gospels. Jesus' word is food, His gift to us is life. He said to His tempter in the wilderness: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." (See Deuteronomy 8:3 as the source of His quotation.) Here we are in yet another wilderness place, as in the first feeding of the five thousand men. But the difference here is that it is a mixed population; many who are following Him now come from different cultures. So it is a kind of wilderness where even the same spiritual tradition may not be available to people, and it once again tells us about this ministry. Jesus' teaching is to make due with what we have, and to allow Him to multiply our resources, to shape them into ministry with His help. As always, He provides the example by giving thanks first: all things come from the Father. In this way, we, too, may use our resources at all times and wherever we find ourselves. It's not right that we find ourselves in places where we think God is far away; it may seem so, but it is not the truth about our lives. At all times, prayer can reach to God. This is a very tough lesson to learn. Indeed, after the previous feeding, we were told in Mark's Gospel that the disciples' hearts were hardened, and they hadn't understood about the loaves. We will be reminded of this again in a reading from next week, when Jesus Himself will take up this issue of their hardened hearts which do not yet understand Him. And there again, we have another form of wilderness: our own failure to comprehend and know all the things of God. It's another emphasis, hidden as a kind of parable, a gem hidden in the Gospel, that no matter where we are, we start with what we have, and God multiplies. The same is true of the disciples: Jesus chooses those at hand; it is God that multiplies the ministry, their faith and understanding, and all things that unfold. In yesterday's reading, we spoke of the mystery of the holy, of the Spirit at work. And here it's contained, too. Not only is God at work in the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, but in the struggle within the apostles to come to know what they and Jesus are about, in the bringing of the multitudes who are hungry for what Jesus has, and in the ministry of Jesus that spreads itself in regions far beyond Jewish territory, which is so powerful that He cannot be hidden. It's that element of the holy, that mysterious, elusive, wind of the Spirit, that flows through everything, that we can't control nor predict, that moves and takes shape in this ministry. And it moves and takes its shape in our lives, too. We can't predict what it will do; we can't guide and control it. But we can take comfort in prayer, we can make our connection in faith and ask for our hearts to be illumined and opened to its message and its truth. And we, too, can take this lesson from now two feedings in the wilderness: wherever we are, and whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, there is ministry there to be present to and to attend. There is God's word, even in prayer, in isolation, in solitude. Far away from resources there is what we have at hand and God's help. There is the Holy Spirit, which (to quote a prayer that begins all Eastern Orthodox worship) "is everywhere present and fills all things." This is what we recall ourselves to; and its remembrance is what makes us truly mindful of the things that are present to us, and aware of the greater dimension of life that is there whether we "know" it or not. True mindfulness adds this understanding to all our situations. In that sense, there must always be "bread in the wilderness."
