What is known as the miracle of the “Feeding of the Five Thousand” occurs in Mark’s Gospel in chapter 6. As with other gospel writers, Mark has a few different points to make as he moves through this story (included in all four gospel accounts) and its surrounding material.
Three of the gospels include the account of Jesus’ walk on the water following the feeding of the five thousand. Surely, Matthew has an extremely interesting piece to add by telling of Peter’s similar, yet much more tentative, watery pacing (Matt. 14:28-31)—something not included by any other gospel writer. Even with Peter’s near drowning, the story still ends with a note of peace as Jesus rescues the fearful, sinking disciple whose eyes were distracted by the wind. Matthew says this leads to the disciples’ worship of Jesus along with their declaration, “Truly, you are the Son of God” (Matt.14:33). Clearly, Matthew has a positive ending to his account of the miraculous event.
It is John who, unlike the other two, states that the disciples were “glad” (ESV; ethelon, “willing”) to take him into the boat having realized it was Jesus. John also includes that as soon as Jesus entered the boat, it was immediately “at the land to which they were going” (John 6:21). It seems that Jesus’ joining with the disciples did as much to boost the progress of the vessel across the sea as it did to strengthen the worried hearts of the young rowers. John ends the pericope on this pleasant note.
Unlike Matthew and John, however, Mark neither ends the story of Jesus’ water-walking miracle with the disciples’ prostration (worship) nor with their willing reception followed by immediate landfall. Instead, the author of the second gospel tells the reader that the disciples “were utterly astounded” (a phrase not used anywhere else in the New Testament). Mark then follows this with the enigmatic reason for their astonishment: “for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened” (Mark 6:52).
Certainly, Mark has been noted as pulling fewer punches in his description of the disciples’ obtuseness than other gospel authors. Between the disciples’ lack of faith (4:40), their continuing misunderstanding (4:13; 7:15; 8:17), and their hardened hearts (6:52; 8:17), the reader may have reason to be amazed they even made it out of the starting gate following the resurrection—a question Mark leaves noticeably hanging in 16:8. The ending of the gospel has caused no small amount of angst among believers and yet it may well be that the author has given his readers more than they may have before realized by way of literary genius.
The Gospel of Mark leaves a key for the curious reader to decipher the vague allusions in the simple phrase, “for they did not understand about the loaves” (6:52). This is odd, indeed, for it begs the question, what could be gained for understanding this water-walk had the miracle of the loaves been properly grasped? In what way could the feeding of the five thousand shed light on what is happening in Jesus’ early-morning stroll across a stormy sea and his encounter with astonished disciples who are terrified, at first thinking him to be a “ghost” (6:49)?
First, we should note the chiastic makeup of this section of Mark. The author has done nothing haphazardly in his writing process. The particular section in question is found in 6:30-56 and is made up of five specific parts, as shown below:
A. Jesus takes disciples by boat to a quieter place but is “recognized” (ἐπιγινώσκω) and ministers to crowds (6:30-34).
B. Jesus feeds 5000 men with five “loaves” (ἄρτος) and two fish though disciples fail to understand the initial suggestion (6:35-44).
C. Jesus sends the disciples ahead of him, dismisses the crowd, and prays on a mountainside alone (6:45-47)
B’. Disciples frightened and do not understand Jesus’ action because they did not understand about the “loaves” (ἄρτος; 6:48-52; by adding his extremely enigmatic statement about the loaves as a crescendo to the account, Mark inextricably links B’ to B).
A’. Jesus and disciples get out of the boat at Gennesaret (in Galilee) and Jesus is “recognized” (ἐπιγινώσκω) and ministers to great crowds (6:53-56).
By framing the passage with the ministering work of Jesus among the crowds, Mark shows the overall desire of people to be near the Savior and seek out his teaching and his healing touch. That this happens on either side of the structure is telling for understanding Mark’s overall goal in relating this sequence of events. Even the fact that Jesus’ interaction with the crowds in A (6:30-34) is focused upon “teaching” in juxtaposition to the obvious and great amount of “healing” in A’ (6:53-56) forms a significant piece for understanding the scope of the section. A’ includes allusions to other great miracles already accomplished and shows the far spread of Jesus’ fame in this regard (“bring the sick people on their beds,” [v.55; cp. 2:3-4]; “might touch even the fringe of his garment” to be “made well,” [v.56; cp. 5:28]).
Yet before jumping into the explanation of how the incident with the loaves (B) interprets the incident in the boat (B’), let us first take a closer look at the center of the structure. In C (6:45-47), Jesus “made” (anagkazo-“compelled” or “constrained”) his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him, presumably to the region of Galilee where they are eventually moored (6:53). He intentionally sends them ahead without him. He then dismisses the crowds and prays on a mountainside alone.
The reader will soon know of a time when the disciples will be separated from Jesus and told to meet him in Galilee (14:28; 16:7). After telling the disciples of his intentions to meet them following his resurrection, Jesus finds himself alone (disciples having fled; 14:28, 50). He is then seen on a mountain where he prays to the father (15:22, 34). Is it possible that this centerpiece of our section (6:45-47) is really not just about Jesus getting some alone-time with the Father (as warranted and true as that was)? Is it possible that this second gospel author—who fails(?) to include a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus as opposed to every other gospel author—has a very strategic way of including the post-resurrection story of the risen Lord after all?
Keeping this possibility in mind and moving forward in our literary structure to B’ (6:48-52), we are struck by how well such a resurrection-based writing technique fits the current passage. Jesus, now finished with his time on the mountain, sees his disciples having great difficulty in crossing through the sea against strong winds. It is at the “fourth watch” (extremely early morning) that Jesus comes across them, walking in the most dramatic and divine fashion on the sea, itself (cp. Ps. 77:19)! He displays his true nature in stark relief. But upon seeing him, the disciples are far from pleased. In fact, they are terrified (v.50; cp. the women’s reaction to the news of his resurrection, 16:8). They do not think they are seeing Jesus—at least not corporeally. They think he must be a ghost (v.49). Luke tells us this fright and the assumption that Jesus is not flesh but a spirit is the same reaction the disciples have upon first seeing Jesus in the upper room after his resurrection (Luke 24:37).
Jesus’ being about to “pass by them” (6:48) is no longer a mystery, even on a very basic level of events taking place in the moment. The wonders of connection to Exodus 33:17-34:7 and Job 9:8,11 (“pass by”1) notwithstanding, the current context is also about the fact that Jesus will say to them he will meet them in Galilee. He is going ahead of them to meet them there, “just as he told you” (16:7). But here, Jesus is not unmoved by the difficulty he sees in his disciples. Rather than force a meeting in Galilee, he meets them where they are as they make headway “painfully” with the “wind” against them (6:48). “Painful” (i.e., torturous) is a term that was already associated by Matthew and Mark with physical torment and demonic confrontation leading to Jesus’ miraculous healing/exorcisms (Matt. 8:6; 8:29; Mark 5:7). The “wind” that is against them brings to mind the very “wind” (same word) that was against them in an earlier sea story in which Jesus “rebukes” the wind with the same “Be still!” he uses to command a demon in Mark 1:25. Could it also be that the same basic scenario of demonic torment and Jesus’ calming of it is taking place in 6:48-51, with connection to the disciples’ experience of fear and utter astonishment following Jesus’ time on the mountain (Golgotha) alone and his coming to them afterward?
Turning our attentions again to 6:52, we are now ready to address what Mark means by “not understanding about the loaves.” As shown in the literary structure above, this is the connecting point between B and B’. It is the author’s necessary link, forcing the reader to consider more than what is on the surface of the text if he is to make sense of the greater story being told through the thin surface veneer. This is in concert with William L. Lane who states that verse 52 “indicates that some events in Jesus’ ministry are ‘parabolic’ in that they provide the key to other events.”2
Returning then to 6:35-44, the reader has a new understanding growing in his mind, thanks to Mark’s use of words and his pointed, yet now not-so-mysterious, depiction of the disciples’ fright at Jesus’ very-early-morning divine walk and his ghost-like appearance. The first divine feeding of a multitude in Mark is clarified.
This feeding, unlike that of the four thousand (8:1-9), is preceded by Jesus’ recognition of the people as sheep without a shepherd—clear Old Testament language used to describe the abandoned flock of God’s people, Israel (6:34; Num. 27:17; Ezek. 34:1-16). Unlike the later feeding, the feeding of the five-thousand takes place with food within walking distance for the people, indicating the Jews’ closer connection to spiritual sustenance than Gentile seekers (6:36; cp. 8:3). But Jesus insists in both here and in the feeding of the four thousand that the people need not leave for food; the disciples should be able to feed them (6:37). It is Jesus who says a blessing, breaks the bread, and distributes it to the disciples (6:41; cp. 14:22). It is they who, in turn, distribute it to the hungry masses, all of whom are satisfied by it (6:41-42). This bread is not like other bread, however, because the more people who eat of it, the more there is left to be distributed (6:43). Emphasizing the mission to Israel through a final point, Mark states that twelve baskets of pieces are taken up (6:43). The implication is that there is enough for the twelve tribes of Israel to be fed with the broken body of this Messiah, if they will only come. Obviously, this is in contrast to the seven basketfuls taken up after the feeding of the four-thousand, seven being the perfect or complete amount needed to feed the entire world after the three-day period which left all famished (8:2,8).
Thus, what the reader has is not simply a description of a wonderful miracle pointing to God’s great power at work in Jesus to feed the needy who come to him. Even greater than this is the spiritual crux of the story which is an encapsulation of all that Jesus has come to do. He has seen his people’s plight as sheep without a shepherd and come into their midst. Ultimately, his wish is to feed them all by willingingly having his body broken (breaking it himself[?], cp. John 10:18) and having that body/bread/story (Lord’s Supper!) taken by the disciples among his people to feed others, leading to more and more “leftovers” to be distributed among even more hungry masses. As Vern Poythress has stated, there are “ways in which each of the miracles functions as a small picture of Christ’s glory and of his mission of salvation.”3
“But the disciples did not understand about the loaves because their hearts were hardened” (6:52).
If the disciples had understood through the loaves what it was that would happen in the future—that Jesus’ body would be broken and that it would be them who fed the masses with that broken body—they would not have been scared when he was killed after having sent them to meet him in Galilee (“making headway painfully, for the wind was against them”). They would not have been frightened by his reappearance in the early morning, thinking they must be seeing a ghost.
If we are understanding another layer of the depth that the Holy Spirit, via Mark, has given us through the feeding of the five thousand and the water-walking miracles, our literary structure might also be rewritten in the following way:
A. Jesus calls disciples to rest with him; he is recognized (ἐπιγινώσκω) by many who come to hear his teaching (6:30-34).
B. Jesus feeds the hungry masses of Israel with miraculously multiplying bread (his body; ἄρτος) through the distribution of the disciples, (6:35-44).
C. Jesus sends the disciples on ahead of him (to meet him in Galilee) while he is martyred alone (6:45-47).
B’. The disciples do not understand the miracle of the bread (ἄρτος) and so are unprepared for a difficult trial when sent ahead of Jesus where they are oppressed by demons and frightened by Jesus’ early morning appearance, thinking he is a ghost (6:48-52).
A’. Jesus has “crossed over” and his disciples are with him; he is recognized (ἐπιγινώσκω) and many come to him, receiving healing through faith (6:53-56).
Mark’s enigmatic statement has now become transparent. The cliffhanger of Mark 16:8 is not a brick wall, barring the path to understanding, but a catapult, already stretched taut, waiting to shoot us back into the text from which we have just emerged. Jesus is to be seen alive again after the resurrection. We do have the story of the disciples cowering in fear after being sent ahead by Jesus. We do have the post-resurrection account of them seeing him and thinking he was a ghost rather than a fully-physical, resurrected person. We do have the story of the disciples’ brave advancement into the midst of the spiritually hungry masses, equipped with the food distributed to them by him—his own broken body.
Perhaps the sentence in Mark 6:52 is not here to chide the disciples so much as to chide us. It is not that we do not understand our Messiah’s desire to feed the masses with His broken body. It is, in fact, much worse than that. It is because we do understand it and fail to do it that we hear the rebuke of our Lord in our hearts. We, like the first disciples, are called to recognize our roles in distributing his body—the only spiritual food—to the world. We know what he had come to do and we know that he accomplished his mission perfectly. Jesus now looks to us just as he did to the disciples in 6:37, saying: “You give them something to eat.”
It is one thing to have hardened hearts that keep one from seeing the meaning behind the loaves. It is quite another to have hardened hearts even though knowing that meaning full well.
Eric Robinson lives in Lubbock, Texas, and is the author of Over Our Heads: Meeting Jesus in the Layers of Scripture.