The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. 32 So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. 33 People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. 34 When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35 By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. 36 Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” 38 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” 39 So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. 41 Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to [his] disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. 44 Those who ate [of the loaves] were five thousand men.
The apostles in this scriptural text were the twelve disciples Jesus sent on a mission to preach repentance, drive out demons and heal the sick (Mk. 6:7-13). Those who accepted Jesus and his teaching were disciples some of whom physically followed him during his ministry, including women (Lk. 10:38-42). The disciples Jesus specifically sent forth to spread the Gospel were called apostles. Their ministry officially started at Pentecost (Acts 2:14).
The apostles returned from their mission (Mk. 6:7-13) and enthusiastically reported on their mission. There were many people coming to see Jesus so the apostles had no opportunity to eat before they got into a boat with Jesus to go to a deserted place to rest. They would have had little food with them. People found out where they were going and arrived at the place before Jesus and the twelve. On seeing the crowd, Jesus started to teach them out of pity because they had no one to guide them (Ezek. 34:5-6). Jesus was going to be the true shepherd and take care of his sheep. Since it was late and the place was deserted, the disciples encouraged Jesus to send the crowd away so that they could buy food (v. 36) but Jesus told the disciples to give the crowd food themselves which was an impossible task for them since they would not have had the resources to do so. A denarius (v. 37) was a day’s wage for a laborer (Mt. 20:2).
The disciples had five loaves and two fish among them which they brought to Jesus to share with the crowd. Jesus had the crowd sit down in an orderly fashion on the green grass to rest and eat (Ps. 23:2). Then Jesus blessed the meal (v. 41) as he did at the Last Supper (Mk. 14:22), which the evangelist interpreted as Jesus looking forward to the Eucharist on earth and the Messianic Banquet in heaven (Is. 25:6). He gave the food to the disciples to distribute. “All ate and were satisfied (v. 42)” would have reminded Mark’s community of the Exodus, manna in the desert (Exod. 16:15, 31), and Elisha miraculously feeding 100 men (2 Kgs. 4:42-44). Jesus feeding 5,000 men was greater that what Elisha did and there was much more food left over. Twelve baskets reminded the Mark's community of the twelve reconstituted tribes of Israel.
Almighty God, out of your abundance of goodness give us the
bread of life always that we may be strengthened for any mission on which you
send your children. May we desire to be
filled with your grace and by the blood of Christ be brought to your
everlasting kingdom. This we pray
through the same Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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