Were you tempted to skip over this section? It looks remarkably similar to the feeding of the 5,000 in chapter 6. Is it necessary? Has Mark included it by mistake? Be careful! Your preconceptions can make you miss the obvious. 

Having seen Jesus feed the 5,000, how could the disciples imagine that he would not feed this crowd? Although the two feeding miracles are similar in many ways, there is one crucial difference. The first took place in a Jewish area, whereas this incident takes place in a Gentile area. The disciples expected Jesus to provide for Israel, but they didn’t seem to expect him to be Messiah for everyone else. 

Jesus’ implicit claim to be the Saviour of the world may have been behind the Pharisees’ demand for a sign from heaven (v 11). Sceptical of Jesus’ claims unless substantiated by God, they believed that the true Messiah would smash Israel’s enemies. But Jesus keeps moving on (vs 10,13) and will not be boxed in. The only way to understand Jesus is to keep moving with him, constantly open to new discoveries.

One feast that has fed us, one light that has led us, / unite us as one in his life that we share.’¹

‘During those days’ (v 1) indicates Mark’s intention that we should understand this event to have taken place in foreign territory. Of the four evangelists, Mark is the most anxious to communicate the gospel to people without Jewish background. He provides additional information, explains Jewish rituals and culture² and translates Aramaic into Greek. By the time Mark was writing, the Christian faith was spreading rapidly throughout the Roman world. Many Greek-speaking people were coming to faith in Christ. He particularly wanted them to know that when Jesus was physically present in the world, he accepted and blessed people of all races and ethnicities. Jesus did for them and in their countries everything that he did for Jews in Judea and Galilee.

Already, in Mark’s account, Jesus has made several trips outside Judea and Galilee. He healed a tragically demented man in Gerasa and many more sick people in Gennesaret, cast out an evil spirit in Tyre and healed a deaf man in Decapolis. Now, still in that area, he feeds 4,000. There is no impatience or terseness in Jesus here. He has been teaching and healing for three days and now he worries about the physical well-being of the crowd. This is not, as some commentators suggest, a second version of the other story, but a new event: Jesus again taking, blessing, breaking and giving the bread, that potent image of his own life, to be broken and given for the whole world. There is nothing artificial here, as if Jesus contrived to do something symbolic. Jesus simply cared that people were faint with hunger. It was only later that Mark and the other early Christians understood the parable of Jesus’ own life. He himself would become the bread.

Lord, you died for all people. Draw us to your table, where we take from your hands the bread of life. Feed us, nourish us, sustain us to eternal life.

¹ Omer Westendorf, 1916–97, ‘Sent forth by God’s blessing’  ² Eg Mark 7:3,4