Reading 22
Enough for everyone
The reading
Mark 6:30-44
The apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught. He said to them, “You come apart into a deserted place, and rest awhile.” For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. They saw them going, and many recognized him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him. Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.
When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him, and said, “This place is deserted, and it is late in the day. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They asked him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give them something to eat?” He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go see.” When they knew, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
He commanded them that everyone should sit down in groups on the green grass. They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves, and he gave to his disciples to set before them, and he divided the two fish among them all. They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and also of the fish. Those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
The companions
Psalm 145:15-16
The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season. You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
2 Kings 4:42-44
A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.” His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for the LORD says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’” So he set it before them, and they ate, and had some left over, according to the LORD’s word.
The note
The disciples do the arithmetic and it does not work. Thousands of people, a deserted place, late in the day. Their plan is sensible: send them to the villages and let each person sort themselves out. Scarcity produces that plan reliably.
Jesus asks a different question. Not how large is the shortfall, which is what they had been counting. How many do you have. Go and see.
They have to go and check, which means they did not know. They had been measuring the need and not the supply.
Five loaves and two fish. Against that crowd it is a joke, and they say so.
Then the passage slows down and turns procedural. Sit them in groups. Hundreds and fifties.
He blesses it, divides it, hands it to the disciples, and they hand it on. Whatever happens here happens in the passing along. Twelve baskets come back.
This week
Stop counting the gap for one week and count the holding instead. Take something you have written off as too small to matter — twenty minutes, one skill, one introduction, fifty in cash — and give it to a need you already know is real.
Do not wait until the amount is adequate. It will not become adequate. The disciples were asked what they had, and then sent to go and check.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” in the 2 Kings reading.
This page is made for paper too: print it and the reading prints clean, ready for the table.