Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 4 Study # 7
January 11, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: The setting of the feeding of five thousand men was "green grass" (significant new growth having appeared) and "reclining in groups of hundreds and fifties" (martial array) so that we might see that Jesus was doing something that would be "seminal" in its meaning and impact.
Introduction: In our studies of Mark's record of Jesus' instruction to The Twelve to prepare the massive crowd to eat bread and fish, we have already seen that there is an extreme distinction between Jesus' attitude and purpose and that of the disciples. We have already mentioned several times the importance of Jesus' two feedings of large multitudes as a "key" to a very important aspect of turning "fishers of fish" into "fishers of men", and, more specifically, "self-centered disciples" into "compassion-driven apostles". Given that these two "feedings" are that critical for proper understanding and development, we need to be careful to "see" the details that are given to us in this divine "Word".
Last week we saw the link between the "bottom line" concept of "repentance" and Jesus' insistence that The Twelve Apostles be forced to see their task as "impossible with men". Being in a place where one is commanded to do something he/she is totally incapable of doing is the beginning of "repentance" in that the beginning is the humiliation of recognizing one's absolute need for God's presence and activity in "Life". It is no accident that Mark records that The Twelve had one message when they were sent out to preach and to cast out unclean spirits: "repent". It is also no accident that these twelve were confronted on the level of "eating" as a most necessary factor in living/Living.
Now, this evening we are going to look into the "preparatory" elements in the provision for the great crowd to "eat". Given the fact that "eating" only has one other absolute necessity attending it for "Life" ("drinking"), it is imperative that we "get the point". [It is interesting that Mark says far less about "drinking" than he does about "eating": theologically that is because one "drinks" by "repenting unto forgiveness" and, afterward, "eating" is the major issue because that is all about getting true doctrine established in mind and heart.]
So what are Mark's "hints" to which we must give our attention? For our study this evening, the "hints" are "the green grass" and "the order established by organizing hundreds and fifties".
- I. The Basic Preliminary: Insufficient Food.
- A. Jesus insisted that the disciples give up on their fixation on "resting" and "fixate" on "feeding the crowd".
- B. When He commanded them to "Give them something to eat", their response was much like that of the counsellors of Nebuchadnezzar ("You can't be serious").
- 1. This was our introduction to the seriously flawed attitude of the disciples.
- a. First, they lacked the "compassion" to be interested in the need of the shepherd-less sheep.
- b. Second, they lacked the "ability" to do the basic "shepherd" thing: feed the sheep.
- c. These two aspects of their attitude point to the particular "need" in them for "repentance" and the particular recognition of their own personal and absolute inability to meet that need.
- 2. Jesus met this "attitude" with the demand that the disciples face the realities of His demand that they "feed them".
- 3. The disciples responded with "You can't be serious".
- II. Jesus' Response.
- A. "Now He says to them...".
- 1. The "Now" points back to the "And they are saying to Him..." of 6:37.
- 2. The contrast is between what "they are saying" and what "He is saying" in response.
- B. "...How many loaves to you have? Go see."
- 1. Technically, this is a dead give-away that they neither have any loaves, nor do they need to "Go see" (8:14).
- 2. But, it is clear that Jesus wants them to investigate just what is available to them so that there will be no doubts about their "setting".
- a. "Having come to know, they are saying, "Five, and two fish(es)".
- b. The numbers are significant in that numerology in Israel makes "five" the number of "inability" and "two" the number of basic "helpful accessory" (to go along with the bread, there are two fish -- it is better to have two together than one alone since if there are two and some necessity arises, there is "help": Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
- c. But two cannot compensate for five (the twelve were sent out "two" by "two" but the absence of "compassion" was not "helped").
- 3. The point is made: the task is impossible (repentance will admit this).
- C. Then Jesus issues a "military directive" (epetaxen).
- 1. Mark uses this word only four times in his record: (in 1:27 and 9:25 he uses the word to establish Jesus' identity as "Elohim", Sovereign Executor of Power -- The Coming Mighty One of John's introduction; in 6:27 he uses the word to describe Herod's "kingly demand" that the executioner bring John's head on a platter; and in 6:39 he uses the word to tell us that Jesus gave a "military command" to seat the crowd upon the green grass in "hundreds and fifties").
- a. It is the reference by Mark to "hundreds" that give away the "military aspect" of the "kingly command -- think "Centurion" as Mark uses it in 15:39 where the centurion comes to the same conclusion as did Peter after the feeding of the four thousand.
- b. Mark is the only one who tells us that there were some groups of "hundreds" and his only other uses are in the parable of the sower, some of whose seed bears "hundred fold".
- 2. The point of the insertion of "military" is one Jesus made: it is not time for military action; it is the time of the delivery of the Word, the message that is the root of participation in the Kingdom that is at hand.
- a. There will be a time for the military action: at the end of the Great Tribulation to come.
- b. But, before the Kingdom is to be established a primary truth must be established: the kingdom-tasks will all be rooted in, and accomplished by, the Word believed.
- D. And then there is the "green grass".
- 1. Mark is the only one who tells us it is "green".
- 2. Mark's reference to the grass is to its "initial appearance": i.e., the "beginning of the harvest to come" (4:8 and 20 and 28).
- III. The "Point".
- A. It is the feeding of the five thousand men that is the beginning of the true understanding of the "Who?" of Jesus.
- B. It is also the feeding of the five thousand that is the beginning of the issue of "disciples' motivations".
