This time of year many of us find ourselves with the same question: will there be enough rolls at Thanksgiving? Rolls are arguably the best part of the meal. Regardless if your family makes a traditional turkey dinner, has ham on the table, or even goes all out with a “turducken”, there will always be rolls So, it would be safe to assume that we spend a fair amount of time deciding how many rolls we need for one meal. One website suggested that Americans purchase more than 40.5 million rolls in preparation for the holiday. Cooking websites will recommend that you plan one to two rolls per guest. I’m not sure that accounts for teenage boys, toddlers who only eat rolls, or those who decide “carbs don’t count” on major holidays.

In this month’s Bible study, we turn our thoughts towards a question of Jesus that involves bread. In Mark 6:38 Jesus asks: “How much bread do you have?” In a well-known story of miraculous feeding, Jesus asks His disciples to meet the needs of a crowd at the end of the day. As we take a deeper look at this account in the gospel of Mark, we hope to see what Jesus is asking us to do. We might find that He is pointing out resources that we have overlooked in fulfilling His call.

It is helpful to understand where this story falls contextually. Earlier in Mark 6, Jesus “began sending [the disciples] out two by two” in ministry to the towns nearby (v 7). The disciples are being released into the mission on their own to imitate what they had seen Jesus doing among the people. In verse 12, we read: “So the disciples went out, telling everyone they met to repent of their sins and turn to God. And they cast out many demons and healed sick people, anointing them with olive oil.”  

In verse 30, we are told that “the apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught.” They are excited to return and share all the details with their leader. If you’ve ever been on a mission trip you might be familiar with the feeling: excitement, joy, eagerness to share all the ups and downs, and a heavy dose of physical and emotional exhaustion. Ministry can be physically draining, which is probably why Jesus invites the disciples to “a quiet place and [to] rest awhile” (v 31). Jesus recognizes the physical need in the disciples to rest, eat, and relax after the grueling pace they had been keeping.

The crowds, however, do not get the memo that Jesus and the disciples are out of office. Mark tells us that “people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got [to their quiet place] ahead of them” (v 33). Jesus sees the crowd and, because of His compassionate nature, “began teaching them many things” (v 34). Soon the disciples begin to realize that the day is coming to an end, and they are in a remote place with a huge crowd of people. They approach Jesus about ending the meeting so everyone can make it home to eat before all the shops close (v 35 – 36). Jesus gives them the instruction to feed the crowd, but the disciples point out that they would “have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!” (v 37).

The disciples’ compassionate response to the moment is to let the crowd get on the road. Jesus’ compassionate response is to feed them with whatever you have. The disciples scrounge up “five loaves and two fish” (v 38). In John’s version of the same feeding, we are told that a young boy offered his food to Andrew (John 6: 1 – 14). Jesus has the people sit down in groups. He blesses the food and begins “giving it to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people” (v 39 – 41). Mark tells us that “they all ate as much as they wanted” and there were even leftovers (v 42 – 43).

The problem in the passage is that the disciples were only able to see what was in front of them. They understood the need but focused on what they didn’t have in resources. To be fair, the disciples were tired. They had just come off a long ministry tour and had spent a long day working at the start of what was supposed to be time off. Their brains were foggy. Their eyelids were drooping. Their energy was spent. They only saw what they lacked because they were tired and overwhelmed. 

We can struggle with the same issues. Long days and short nights leave us unrested and our minds clouded. Our long to-do lists seem never-ending. We feel overwhelmed by the demands and under-resourced by the system. We quickly see what’s missing: not enough people, not enough money, not enough time, not enough energy. We live with a scarcity mindset that leads us to believe there isn’t enough. We think that what God is asking of us is impossible! One commentator says that “Jesus always calls upon his disciples to do the impossible … His impossible commands force us to learn to depend totally on him. His call is always precisely to the level of our inadequacy” (Michael Card, “Mark: The Gospel of Passion”). In our fatigued and overwhelmed state, our problem is that we only see the inadequacy and might miss the miracle if we’re not attentive. 

In Mark 6, Jesus turns a meager meal into an abundant feast! The promise we find is that God always sees what could be and only asks that we surrender what we have in our hands to Him. Jesus has the disciples distribute the food in verse 41 so that they can directly see the miracle take place. “The disciples only had meager provisions for such a large crowd, but when they put what they had in Jesus’s hands, it became sufficient” (Joel Williams, “Mark”). We too are called to trust the promise that when we relinquish what we have to the Lord, we will see the miracle of His abundant goodness. God can do big things when we are faithful with what little we have.

There is another smaller miracle that points to the promise of God’s ability to provide just what is needed through what we surrender to Him. Mark tells us that “afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish” (v 43). The Greek word for “basket” in this verse is to be understood as a lunch box-sized basket. There were 12 lunchboxes of leftovers, enough for 12 tired, overwhelmed, hungry disciples. 

Michael Card in his commentary on Mark says: “We celebrate abundant provision, but rarely are we equally amazed at the God who so intimately knows our needs that he provides perfectly—no more, no less than we need.” The promise of God’s provision for our personal needs is the same. Sometimes we are so busy waiting on the giant miraculous move of God in a situation, that we fail to see the everyday miracles He performs in our life. If we are willing to let go of a viewpoint that focuses on what isn’t there and choose to see with God what could be, we will find the miracle of the everyday: the blue of the sky, the laughter of a child, unexpected blessings of provisions to get us to another day, the beauty of worshiping with other believers, and the list goes on. Mark’s account reminds us that God works in big and small ways when we are willing to give whatever we have to His purpose. 

Questions to ponder

• Name three “everyday miracles” you’ve seen today.
• Has God called you to do something that is seemingly impossible? Is there something you need to ask Him to supply for His mission?

AN OPEN INVITATION

You can receive the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ by praying something like the following:

Dear God, I know I am a sinner. I need Your forgiveness and grace. I believe that Christ paid the penalty for my sin, and He died in my place, and He rose from the dead. I invite Jesus Christ to come into my life as Savior. Thank You for saving me from my sin and making me Your child. Help me to grow and learn how to serve You. Amen.