A 40-DAY JOURNEY WITH THE KING: Lenten reflections from Mark’s Gospel (19)

 

“In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, [Jesus] called his disciples and said… “I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days… If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.” His disciples replied, “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?” (Mark 8.1-4)

     After their questionable performance during the episode of the feeding of the 5,000 (6.30-44), the twelve apostles are given another chance to exercise their faith in the face of a hungry crowd.  We can almost imagine Mark yawning as he introduces the scene: “…when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat…” (8.1).  This time, Jesus is the one who expresses concern for the crowd, which has been with him for three days (8.2-3).  Jesus even demonstrates the impracticability of the solution the apostles had suggested on the previous occasion (cf. 6.35-36).  Jesus has led the disciples to the same type of moment and has removed all “earthly” possibilities of solving the problem.  Things could not possibly be any clearer.  And yet…the apostles once again ask a question which demonstrates that they are still not ready to act in faith in difficult situations: “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?” (8.4; cf. Ex. 16.1-4).  Once again, Jesus disregards their question and asks, “How many loaves do you have?”  The answer comes back, “Seven” (8.5).  Jesus proceeds to multiply the loaves as well as a few small fish and “all ate and were filled” (8.8).  What is more, the apostles gather up seven baskets full of scraps (8.8).  Twelve apostles, seven baskets full of food.  Jesus gives the apostles what they were, once again, afraid to ask for (in faith).  The same pattern repeats itself: Jesus dismisses the crowd, and he and the disciples get back into the boat and sail to another shore (8.9-10).

     Mark has framed the Feeding of the 4,000 episode with two healing stories, the first of a deaf/mute man (7.31-37), the second of a blind man (8.22-26).  These two stories serve to illustrate the apostles’ inability to understand both what Jesus has been saying and what he has been doing, i.e., both who Jesus is and what is possible for them as his followers.  Both stories follow the same pattern.  In both cases, people bring the sick man to Jesus and beg him to touch him (7.32; 8.22).  In both cases, Jesus takes the sick person away from the crowd, and touches the diseased part of the man’s body with saliva (7.33; 8.23).  Jesus then proceeds to heal each of the two men (7.34-35; 8.24-25).  Upon being healed, the previously deaf man’s ears were opened and he spoke plainly (7.35) and the previously blind man saw everything clearly (8.25).  In both cases, Jesus attempts to keep the healing quiet (7.36; 8.26).  Deaf ears and blind eyes are opened, but the hearts of the apostles?  Alas, they remain “hard”, i.e., obdurate, stubborn, insensitive to the significance of what they’re experiencing on a daily basis (cf. 6.52; 4.11-12).

     Just in case things weren’t “clear”, Jesus spells it out during a dialogue with the disciples in the boat, as they make their way to Bethsaida.  If you can believe it, the disciples forgot to bring bread with them as they criss-cross the Sea of Galilee; well, they actually had a single loaf with them in the boat (8.14).  Jesus then warns them about “the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod” (8.15; cf. 3.6).  They presume this is a somewhat cryptic comment about the fact that they have no bread (8.16).  Once Jesus overhears their chatter, he again lets loose on his “deaf” disciples.

“Why are you talking about having no bread?  Do you still not perceive or understand?  Are your hearts hardened?  Do you have eyes, and fail to see?  Do you have ears, and fail to hear?  And do you not remember?” (8.17-18; cf. 4.11-12; 6.51-52).

Jesus then asks them how many baskets full of broken pieces they had collected during the feeding of the two crowds.  “Twelve” and “Seven”, they reply.  Jesus, exasperated, asks “Do you not yet understand?” (8.21).  “Feeding” has indeed been the theme since the multiplication of the 5 loaves and 2 fish (6.30-44).  The question is, Who feeds the people of God?  Ultimately, it is God who feeds his people; he had fed them with manna (=bread; cf. Jn. 6.30-35) during their wandering in the wilderness with Moses following the Exodus from Egypt.  The Pharisees are more concerned with questions of who eats with whom (cf. 2.15-17), when people eat (cf. 2.18-20, 23-28), or whether people wash their hands before eating (cf. 7.1-23).  Herod can perhaps control the cost of bread.  But Jesus is the one who is feeding the people, not only with bread, but with the Word and with healing (cf. 7.24-30, where the healing of the woman’s daughter is compared to someone throwing crumbs to the dogs lying under the table).  He who feeds the flock of Yahweh, who heals the wounded sheep, is the Shepherd of Israel (cf. Ez. 34)…