Mark 8:5-10 5And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.” 6And he gave directions to the crowd to sit down on the ground. And after taking the seven loaves, after giving thanks, he broke and gave them to his disciples in order to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7And they had a few small fish. And after blessing them, he said to set these also. 8And they ate and were filled, and they took up the broken pieces into seven baskets full. 9And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10And immediately after getting into the boat with his disciples, they went to the district of Dalmanutha.
The large crowd that had gathered had not eaten for three days. In this story, Jesus simply has them sit on the crowd, and there is no mention of him organizing them into groups. The focus seems to be more on the bread that was found and how much of it was left over. The disciples had grown since the first feeding of the large crowd of 5,000, but they still could not see past the problem before them. They were still thinking from an earthly perspective and did not fully understand the creative power right in front of them in the person of Jesus. Jesus had to teach them another lesson about faith in him. Like them, we are all slow to trust in what seems like an impossible situation. We get a glimpse into the typical picnic diet of the time of bread and fish. In this case, it appears that the bread and fish come from the disciples’ own resources. Jesus drew from the available resources and worked a miracle through what the disciples had.
They found among them seven loaves. Seven is symbolic in the Bible for a perfect number that corresponds to God’s perfect creation in seven days. Each loaf resulted in a basket full of leftovers after everyone had eaten. The type of basket used in this feeding episode was different from the feeding of the 5,000. In the earlier story, the basket was a kophinos, which was used by the Jews and looked like a water pot. With the feeding of the 4000, the basket was a sphyris, which the Gentiles used and was the much larger type of hamper used to let Paul down from Damascus in Acts 9:25. The leftovers in this case were likely much more abundant than the first feeding.
This story further brings out the misunderstanding of the disciples. After all the time and experiences they had, they should have had more faith in Jesus. The geographical location of this miracle among the Gentiles is also significant. With the feeding of the 5000, the bread of God came to the Jews. With the feeding of the 4000, the bread of God came for the Gentiles. It is significant that this was the area where the demon-possessed man from 5:1-20 shared his story after Jesus freed him. Could the great crowd that day be part of the missionary effort of this one man who went back to share about his new faith in Jesus?
Jesus had compassion on all people and challenged his disciples through symbolic and genuine action to model him and look to heaven for solutions to their dilemmas. The kingdom is not about physical things but about spiritual things, but the physical can be the window to that needs to be open to bring spiritual change. The eyes of the disciples were fixed on earthly matters and problems. Jesus was dealing on a different level that they did not yet understand but would in time.
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