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Lectio Mark: The Mystery of the Bread
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The mystery of the bread, the Eucharistic Presence of God, begins to be revealed in the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Jesus reveals himself as the divine giver of a new manna. Yet, as Isaiah foretold, the disciples struggle to understand the significance of his deeds.
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Welcome to our Bible study on the Gospel of Mark in our Alexio series. It's great to have you back and we're excited. This episode, we're going to focus on two key episodes in the life of Jesus here in the Gospel of Mark that both center around the bread. And we're going to see that bread and the mystery of the bread is going to be very important for Mark. It's at the center of his story of Jesus. And we're going to see that it's echoing and alluding to the. This famous story of Israel that we've talked about before the Exodus. And of course, if you remember, as Israel is crossing out of Egypt through the wilderness, for those 40 years they were sustained by the manna, by the bread from heaven that God provided. And so the manna, the bread, was crucial. It was vital to Israel's survival and sustenance on their journey to the Promised Land. On their way, that way of the Lord that we saw echoed in chapter one of Mark, the way of the Lord that is the Exodus way that Isaiah spoke of as a new Exodus way. And now as we're following Jesus, we know he is leading us as a new Moses on a new Exodus. And of course, there's going to have to be a new manna, a new manifestation of the bread. And we see that in two key episodes, one in chapter six of Mark and the other at the beginning of chapter eight. And those two have certain parallels as well as some contrasts that I want to focus in on in our episode. Because for Mark, if you don't get the mystery of the bread, you're not going to understand the mystery of Jesus. Those two are deeply intertwined. So let's look at chapter six, verse 30 and following, we find that Jesus and the apostles cross to the side. They go to a lonely place, but the crowds follow them. The crowds see them and they crowd in on them. And Jesus teaches and he has compassion because they're like sheep without a shepherd. And then the disciples come to Jesus and they say, look, the hour is now late. In verse 35, send them away that they may go into the country and surrounding villages round about to buy themselves something to eat. So that makes perfect sense. And the disciples are tired of running this conference and for this, all these huge crowds, and they want a break. And then Jesus turns to them and says something astonishing, something that they didn't want to hear, and certainly something they didn't expect to hear. Jesus says to them in verse 37, but he answered them, you give them Something to eat. You give them something to eat. And they said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? And he said to them, how many loaves have you? Go and see. Now, I like that phrase because you think Jesus says, how many loaves have you? And they're just standing there dumbfounded. And then Jesus says, go and see. Get to it. And then they go. And when they had found out, they said, five. Five loaves and two fish. And you know how much Peter eats, right? So basically they're like, this is not going to be enough. Five loaves and two fish. That wasn't enough for the 12 to be sufficient for the multitude of the 5,000 men, not counting women and children, that that's nothing for them, right? And so then Jesus says, okay, go buy some bread. No, he doesn't say that. Then he commanded them all to sit down by companies upon the green grass. That's one of the rare. Again, a nice small detail only found in the Gospel of Mark. Go sit down on the green grass. Now, probably, again, if this is the memories of Peter and his preaching, Peter remembered the grass was green. Now, that tells us, by the way, I've been in Israel many times. I've been in Galilee many times. The only time you find green grass in Galilee is in the early spring because it gets very hot. And so this is the early spring. This is the time of the Passover, because the Passover happens in early spring. So that's significant. That little clue that it was the green grass gives you a sense of timing, of season. It also gives you the flavor of eyewitness testimony. Peter is probably a bit perplexed at this time, saying, we only have five loaves and two fish. And then Jesus makes a public announcement for everybody to sit down for lunch. And Peter's staring. He's just seeing green grass. He's like, what are we going to do? Right? And so he remembers the green grass vividly. And when Jesus tells them to sit down in companies, they sat down in groups by hundreds and fifties. So Jesus gives a teaching. He has them sit down in small groups. Now they're going to do their small group discussion on his Bible study, right? And the idea of sitting down in groups of 50s and hundreds, that echoes an earlier story in the life of Israel. So again, so many small, minor details, things that we would think are minor details are filled with meaning. If we know the scriptures of Israel, if we know the Old Testament, all of a sudden, these little Details just kind of resonate with meaning if we have ears to hear. And if you have ears to hear, you say, oh, yeah, 50s and hundreds and sitting down in groups. That's what Moses did in Exodus chapter 18. Because his father Jethro told Moses, the crowds are overwhelming you, and this is not a good thing that you're doing. You need to divide the group. You need to put them into smaller groups and appoint people to help lead, because you can't lead alone. So Jesus tells the 12 to go and to lead this crowd. And he has the crowd break down in groups of 50s and hundreds and such. And then taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples. Now notice the verbs. He takes, he blesses, he breaks, and he gives. Those are the four verbs we're going to find at the Last Supper. And so clearly, if you're an early Christian in Mark's community and you hear this recounting of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, and you hear Jesus, and you hear, and that clear line, taking, blessing, breaking, giving, you're thinking of the Eucharist. Because that's exactly what the Christian community does. Every week on the Lord's Day, early in the morning, they gather for the breaking of bread. And we know this from the earliest writings of the New Testament, from St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians, which is around in the mid-50s, probably the year 54 A.D. paul writes to them and says how he handed on to them the tradition which he received, that the Lord, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it. So Paul talks about the Eucharist already as an established tradition in the life of the earliest church. So if you're a Christian disciple in Rome and you have this practice of. Of celebrating Eucharist and recounting what Jesus did on his last night, and you hear this story of the breaking of the bread and the feeding of the multitude, you're immediately thinking of the Eucharist. A Christian could hear this story no other way. Only we with kind of deaf ears would listen to the story and kind of get wowed by the miracle and miss the connection and the link to the Eucharist. So then Jesus gave it to the disciples to set before the crowds. Now, notice this small detail, small but significant. Jesus doesn't feed the multitude himself. He takes the five loaves and the two fish. He takes it, he blesses it, he breaks it, and then he Gives the broken parts of those five loaves and those two fish to the 12. And he says, you go feed the crowds. So Peter takes his fragments and he's like, I got that hill over there, you know, and Andrew's got, I got this side down here. And John's like, I got the middle. There's more people. And then they go off. And all of a sudden there's the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish and a multitude is fed. And the miracle happens at the hands of the disciples. That is a foreshadowing of what's going to happen with Jesus disciples and those of his apostolic succession, where the miracle of the bread, namely the Eucharist, becoming the body and blood of Christ. That miracle will happen likewise at the hands of Jesus priestly disciples. And so here we see a foreshadowing of that. Jesus doesn't say, get step aside guys, I'm going to do everything. He is discipling the apostles and preparing them to lead, for them to give, for them to bring about the miracle of the bread. And it first happens here. He's training them up for what their mission will be. And they all ate and were satisfied, we're told in verse 42. And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces. 12 basket signifying the 12 tribes of Israel. In fact, in the Greek here he uses the word kofenos, which is the Jewish word for basket. It's a Jewish type of basket that's woven. When we go to chapter eight and Jesus is in a more gentile area, we're going to find that he's going to use a different kind of basket, the spuros basket, which is the gentile Hellenistic style basket. So the fact that he uses a Jewish style basket and there's 12 baskets left over for the 12 tribes of Israel. And remember, Jesus is regathering the 12 tribes, just as there's a regathering of these fragments left over. And so there's an abundance left over with 12 baskets. And those who ate on those were 5,000 men. And immediately, because this is the Gospel of Mark and action has to keep moving immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida. So the side he's on right now of the sea is the side that Herod Antipater controlled. And that side probably, and the tradition says the side of this miracle happened in a place that the Franciscans have and operate for pilgrims called Tavge. Tavge. It's a beautiful place and there's an old mosaic over this spot which has a basket with five loaves and two fish, which is an old mosaic that goes back to the third or fourth century, probably the fourth century A.D. of first church. And that church was destroyed and then it was buried. But when the Franciscans came back and cleared away the rubble, they found these beautiful mosaics. And these mosaics in this church at Tavge are some of the most beautiful in the Holy Land. And they. They are really exquisite. And so anyhow, that emblem is there today. But now notice what Jesus does. He has the apostles, disciples get in the boat and go beside him, ahead of him, while he stays and prays and gives thanks to God. Notice that Jesus, after any moment of great success, he takes time aside to give praise to the Father, to give praise and thanks. And then he sends the disciples ahead. And of course, they're pretty excited. And why doesn't Jesus let the disciples dismiss the crowds? Because perhaps a challenge here. The disciples just experienced great success. They took those little fragments and fed 5,000. So Peter and Andrew and James and John, they were pretty popular with the crowd. They were pretty popular. You know, Peter comes back, you say, yeah, do you see how many I fed? And John's like, no, I fed more. There was more in the middle. And so you can kind of see what they would suffer from is big head. Itis right. God blessed them and they were successful. And the temptation is to think it's because of you and not because of God. And so Jesus sends them, he's going to dismiss the crowds. He doesn't want them now. He's going to send them off. And then, of course, by getting them off in the boat, they're going to be tested a little bit, and God's going to give them a little bit of humility. So Jesus goes and prays for most of the evening. And he saw that they were distressed because the wind's picking up in verse 48, and they're rowing. And for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea. Now, you can imagine Peter was a bit perplexed. Lord, if we leave you here and we go in the boat, how are you going to catch up? And Jesus is like, I have a shortcut. Don't worry about me, Peter. Right? And now Jesus is walking on the sea, and he meant to pass by them. Paragon, that's the same word for Jesus passing by in chapter one, verse 16 of Peter and Andrew, it's the same one we saw in chapter two with him passing by Levi the tax collector, that idea of kind of almost a theophany of God passing by Moses on Mount Sinai. And now we see Jesus passing by them as he's walking on the water. And he meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and they cried out for they all saw him and they were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, take heart. And then the RSV and the NAB say, it is I. Have no fear. But literally in the Greek it says, jesus says, take heart or take courage. Ego eimi I am. Ego eimi I am. It is not. Hey, he's not saying, it is I. This is not a subtle. Like, this is ego eimi. This is the phrase used by Yahweh in the Greek translation of Exodus 3, verse 14, where when Moses asked God for his name, God says in the Hebrew, ea asher eia, or in the Greek, ego eimi I am. I am. And translators oftentimes say, it is I. Now, that's a matter of interpretation, but I think it's a really bad interpretation, right? And this goes back to that old German tradition of the last couple hundred years, that Mark's Gospel is simplistic. His theology, therefore, is very primitive and simplistic. And no, Jesus is walking on the water. Look where he is. He's on waves, walking on water. As Job says in job 9. 8. Who is he who can walk upon the waters but God alone? Who is he who can walk upon the water but God alone? God alone. He's walking on the waves. And he says, ego e mi. I don't think he's saying, hey, it's me. I think he's saying something a little bit larger, right? He's saying, I am. Now, here's the other beautiful thing. And this is a verse that really deserves great meditation and prayer, especially if you're struggling in a difficult time in your life where you just. Can you trust God? And this phrase, what Jesus is giving here is such a great gift. Jesus is saying, take courage. I am. Have no fear. Now notice the I am is framed by two things, the call to courage and the call to not be afraid. And what anchors our courage and what dissipates our fear. The fact that Jesus is I am. The fact that Jesus is God. That. And that alone is the reason for courage and for our fears to flee. That's why we could be without fear, and that's why we can have courage, is because who Jesus is Not who we are, not for what we do, but for who he is. And that line is such a beautiful line, and its framing is so profound and deep. Now then, Jesus got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand. There's that Isaiah theme again. They did not understand. Now, what did they not understand? They did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. Now, notice that that's a rather odd explanation that Mark gives us. Jesus gets in the boat, the wind ceased, and they're astounded. They're dumbfounded. Why? Because they didn't understand. What didn't they understand? Because they didn't understand about the loaves. Because their hearts were hardened. They didn't get it about. They didn't get the miracle of the bread. And because they didn't get the miracle of the bread, they didn't get who Jesus is. Because Moses didn't give Israel the manna. Who gives the manna to Israel? God. And what did Jesus just do? He just gave them bread from five loaves to feed 5,000. In other words, Jesus is God. And they didn't get that about the bread and about Jesus. And because they don't get the bread and the mystery of Jesus, they are dumbfounded when they see him walking on water. They don't see him as God. And so they think it must be a ghost. And they're afraid. And they don't get that Jesus is the I am. That's the whole focus here. Repeatedly in the Gospel of Mark. Now we're going to see this play out again in an interesting way in the other scene where Jesus multiplies. And that's going to be in chapter eight of the Gospel of Mark. So turn with me now to chapter eight, verse one and following. It says, in those days, when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint along the way. And some have come a long way. And his disciples answered him, sure, we're ready. You do that bread thing again. No, that's not what they say. They say, how can one feed all these men with bread here in the desert? And he asked them, how many loaves have you? Right, here we go again. Right. And then they say, seven. And he commanded the crows to sit down on the ground. And he took the Seven loaves. And having given thanks Eucharist. Here we get the word for Eucharist in the Greek. Having given Eucharist thanks to God the Father, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. So again, it's the disciples who are going to be the instrument of the miracle. And they had a few small fish, and having blessed them, he commanded, these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now, they've been out there in this lonely place away from the villages for three days. So they've run out of food. Now, sometimes people like to say, well, it was the miracle of sharing, you know, that Jesus took out his food and he started to share it. And then other people took out their bagels and started sharing their lunch. But the problem with that is they're three days out and they're clearly hungry and they're willing to faint. And that idea that it's the miracle of sharing is trying to naturalize the Gospel stories. Clearly Mark and clearly Peter and his preaching, they didn't see this as the miracle of sharing. They saw it as the miracle of who Jesus is. To think that it is the miracle of sharing is to miss the point. It's to fail to understand ego eimi. It's to fail to understand the I am. If God provided bread in the wilderness for Israel for 40 years, how much more will the new Exodus miraculously provide bread? Right? This is not the miracle of sharing. And I remember one time hearing someone teach on this. And I went up to him afterwards and I said, I was really troubled by the teaching. And he kind of stiffened like, you know, I'm going to be, you know, as if I was some kind of fundamentalist or something, because I was arguing for it to be a miracle. And I said, look, I'm sorry, but that was the most anti Semitic teaching I've ever heard in my life. And he was like. It was like I punched him. He was like, what? And I'm like, you're saying that the Jews would rather go hungry than share their lunch? That everybody had a lunch, but they wouldn't want to take it out and share it because they might have to share their food. And you're saying that this is the caricature of the Jews, that they're so selfish and greedy they'd rather go hungry than share part of their lunch. I'm like, that's ridiculous. And he's like, I never thought of it that way. And so, but that's the point. When we come up with lame interpretations that try to, you know, demythologize and take away the miraculous, these stories become ridiculous. It only makes sense through the eyes of faith. Only makes sense through the eyes of faith. Now, they end up after this with seven baskets left over. And then they go on to the district of Dalmanutha, which is probably around Magdala. And that's what Matthew, when he describes this scene In Matthew chapter 15, he uses a version of Magdala. And so that's probably. It's either Magdala or a village right next to Magdala on the northwestern side of the Sea of Galilee. And then the Pharisees came and asked a sign. And then they leave and depart to the other side of the sea, which is the eastern side. And then in verse 14, on the way, departing in the boat, they have a discussion. Now, they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, take heed. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And what is that leaven? Disbelief. To go back to the very point we just made, they ask a sign. Jesus just did two major signs, and they're asking for a sign. They're not believing. Maybe they think, maybe the Pharisees and scribes are the first to think that it was the miracle of sharing. And they discussed it with one another, saying, we have no bread. And Jesus, aware of it, said to them, why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Now the question here is, how much bread is in the boat? Now, Mark, as the narrator tells us now, they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And then Jesus says, beware of the leaven, which leaven is what? Bread inflates, puffs up the bread. And that becomes a metaphor for pride, for conceit, for being inflated. And so he's being, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the scribes. And then they discuss this in their small group discussion. After Jesus gives that Bible study, they discuss the fact, hey, we don't have any bread. So Jesus starts teaching about leaven, and Peter starts thinking about bread, and he gets hungry. He says, hey, pass me one of those baskets. Right? Because how many baskets did they have left over? Seven. Seven baskets left over. And they forgot to bring any bread. They didn't just forget any bread. They forgot the wonder bread. Right? They forgot the miraculous bread. That was multiplied. And Peter hears Jesus talking about leaven and Peter, and the disciples start talking about bread because they're getting hungry again. And then they discussed among themselves the fact that they had no bread. What did that discussion look like? Who forgot to bring the seven baskets? You know? And Andrew's like, do I have to do everything? Peter, you know? And Peter's like, those are my baskets, you know? And John's like, come on, guys, can't we all get along? And they're discussing the fact that they had no bread. I'm sure that discussion was a little bit rougher than we might at first imagine. And then Jesus says, why do you discuss the fact that you have bread? Jesus is troubled that they discuss the fact that they have no bread. Why? Because how much bread is in the boat? They forgot to bring any bread. Remember now, they had forgotten to bring bread. But there's one loaf in the boat. It's not what is the one loaf? The question is, who is the one loaf? They forgot to bring any bread, but there was one loaf in the boat. Jesus is the bread of life. That's what they fail to see. Jesus is the bread of life. So it's not an inconsistency in the narrative where the narrator says, they forgot to bring any bread. And then the narrator tells you, but there's one loaf in the boat. And then they discuss amongst themselves the fact that they have no bread. They're not discussing the fact that they only have one loaf. They're discussing the fact that they have no bread. So Jesus, Mark is suggesting to us, Jesus is the bread of life. He is that one loaf. And if we don't get the mystery of Jesus and the bread, we're going to miss Jesus identity. We are going to miss Jesus identity. That's the crucial thing. So then Jesus goes on and says, why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? So these are all the terms we found in Isaiah, right? Eyes, ears, understanding. And if you read from the first servant song of Isaiah in Isaiah 42 to the fourth and last servant song of Isaiah in Isaiah 53 and 54, if you read between those servant songs, one of the major themes that's repeated, the most repeated theme is two things in Isaiah that Mark, I think, is basing his whole story on. What's repeated over and over again from Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 43 all the way through those chapters of Isaiah is God says, my servant whom I'm sending is blind and deaf and fails to understand. It's repeated over and over again. And then what? The question is, what do they fail to understand? What? What did they fail to see? What did they fail to hear? And over and over again God comes back to the key point. He's teaching Israel that they fail to get over and over again the heart of all of theology of the Old Testament. And it is this Ego eimi I am. My people are deaf. They go to other idols. They don't realize that I am he who blots out their sins. They forget that I am he who created heavens and the earth. I am Yahweh is God. And that's what Israel as God's servant fails to see over and over again and forgets over and over again throughout Isaiah and throughout the story of the servants songs. And what do we find here? Jesus servants, Jesus disciples are failing to see, hear and understand. And what are they failing to see, hear and understand? That Jesus is I am. That Jesus is I am. That God is present in the bread. That he is. That Jesus is God. And I think that Mark is telling and reminding his community that you find Jesus in the bread. God is present. Jesus is present in the breaking of the bread. The bread that we give Eucharistane, the bread that we give thanks to the Father for is Jesus himself. He is the bread come down from heaven that gives us life.