Thursday, March 12, 2015

Thursday, week four: Feeding frenzy (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

It has been a full week. Jesus has been teaching and healing, pursued by crowds everywhere he goes. The disciples have just returned from a very successful healing tour.

Now John has been beheaded.

This small band of friends does what anybody would do in these circumstances. They carve out some time to rest, recuperate, process, and decompress. They climb into a boat and head across the lake to a deserted area. If there are no people, no one can disturb them.

The wind must have been still that day. The crowd watches them get into the boat, sees where they are headed, rushes around the edge of lake, and gets there faster than the boat can carry its passengers across the water.

That deserted place is suddenly populated. Rather than tell the crowd to get lost, Jesus has compassion for their desperation to be near him. He sympathizes with their frenetic desire to squeeze every ounce of teaching and power out of him, even when he has nothing left to give. He pushes the boat back out into the water, pushes his own needs aside, and begins to teach those gathered on the shore.

He teaches through the day and into early evening, until his disciples notice that people are hungry.  Jesus tells them to give the people something to eat. They say they don’t have enough money.

What follows defies any description. An abundance of food, enough to feed five thousand people with plenty to spare, appears from the humble supper of thirteen men. Two fish and five loaves of bread, and everyone present fed.

That’s the end of the story. Mark doesn’t give us any reaction. The story ends without response, almost as if what has just taken place is completely normal.

Text for the day:

Things to think about:
When Jesus asks the disciples to feed the people, they respond by talking about money. What relationship do money and ability have with one another?

Things to do:
Consider the difference Jesus can make with the resources you have at your disposal.


Jesus, use the things we have to feed your people.

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