Continuing a Bible study of the Gospels:
(Mark 6:30) And the apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught.
In the last post, Jesus had sent His disciples out two by two to preach the Gospel. They now had come back to Jesus and reported all they had taught and done.
(31) And He said to them, "Come yourselves apart to a desert place and rest awhile," for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
Jesus told His disciples to go out to a deserted place to rest, for where they were, so many people were constantly coming and going that they didn't even have time to eat. Jesus knew that rest was necessary, and it is the reason that God rested the seventh day of creation, to show us the need for rest.
(32) And they departed to a desert place by ship privately.
Jesus and the disciples were able to separate themselves from the people by taking a ship to a deserted location.
(33) And the people saw them departing and many knew Him and ran afoot there out of all the cities, and outran them, and came together to Him.
Although they had separated themselves from the people by boarding the ship, the people saw them departing and many ran by foot and outran the boat, and came together to Jesus when He arrived at His destination.
(34) And Jesus, when He came out, saw many people and was moved with compassion toward them because they were as sheep not having a shepherd, and He began to teach them many things.
When Jesus came out of the boat and saw the many people who had run ahead to meet Him, He had compassion on them. They were as lost sheep without a shepherd. They were hungering to be taught by Jesus because they had no good teachers in the scribes and Pharisees. Therefore, Jesus began to teach them many things.
(35) And when the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, "This is a desert place and now the time is far passed. (36) Send them away that they may go into the surrounding country and into the villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat."
It appears Jesus taught the people most of the day. When it was late in the day, His disciples came to Him suggesting that it was getting quite late and since they were in a deserted place, He should send the people away so that they might go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves something to eat.
(37) He answered and said to them, "You give them something to eat." And they said to Him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii's worth of bread and give it to them to eat?"
Jesus told His disciples that they should give the people something to eat instead of sending them out to get it themselves. This brings to mind something that happened to me once. My husband and I were getting out of the car at church one Sunday morning when a young lady approached us. She had just been released from the jail across the street and had no money and no ride. My first impulse was to run inside the church to get her some help. I was even on my way when I stopped and turned around and said, "I guess we can help her." My husband nodded knowingly as he usually did know the right thing to do in these type situations. She just needed a lunch at Burger King, a ride to the bus station, and a ticket home. Of course, we were able to do that! But like the disciples, my first thought was to send her away to someone else to help.
Back to Jesus and His disciples--when Jesus directed the disciples to feed the people themselves, they asked if they should go buy bread to feed the people. In the account in John, Philip suggested that two hundred denarii's worth of bread wasn't even enough to give every single one of the people there just a little bread. The disciples were limiting Jesus to what they themselves might be able to do without Him. We humans do seem to want to put God in a little human box and limit Him to our understanding. 2 Timothy 3:5 talks about people who have a form of godliness but deny its power. Paul told Timothy to turn away from such people! That is like the scribes and Pharisees were; they had a form of godliness in religion, but denied the power of the true all-powerful God. Our one true God and Jesus in the flesh could do all things! The disciples should have realized that by now.
(38) He said to them, "How many loaves have you? Go and see." And when they knew, they said, "Five and two fish."
Jesus asked the disciples to go and see how many loaves of bread they had. They came to Him and reported they had five loaves of bread and two fish.
(39) And He commanded them to make all sit down in groups on the green grass.
Then Jesus instructed the disciples to have all the people sit down on the grass in groups.
(40) And they sat down in groups, in hundreds and in fifties.
Indeed, the disciples had the people sit down in groups of one hundred and groups of fifty.
(41) And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to the heaven and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all.
Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, and looked up to heaven and blessed the food. Our food and all provisions are surely blessed by God in that He provided them to us, and we should always be mindful to thank Him for these blessings. Jesus then broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish.
(42) And they all ate and were filled.
Miraculously all the people were able to eat their fill!
(43) And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments and of the fish.
When the people were full, the disciples picked up the leftovers in baskets and filled twelve of them, much more than when they started.
(44) And those who ate of the loaves were about five thousand men.
Jesus had fed five thousand men, not including women and children, according to the account in Matthew, with what began as five loaves of bread and two fish.
(45) And immediately He compelled His disciples to get into the ship and to go to the other side over against Bethsaida while He sent away the people.
Immediately after they ate, Jesus instructed His disciples to get into the ship and go to the other side of the sea across from Bethsaida while He sent the multitudes away.
(46) And when He had sent them away, He departed to a mountain to pray.
When Jesus had sent His disciples away in the ship and had sent the multitude of people away, He was alone to depart into a mountain to pray. It is interesting that Jesus being God, prayed to God in heaven as often as He did. Did He need to pray in order to continue to have power on earth? I don't think so. As completely human, He did have a need for prayer, but not because it would give Him the innate godly power He already had on earth. Rather it was a need for spiritual support, and a desire to be in communion with God in heaven, and prayer is the only way we here on earth can communicate with God in heaven.
(47) And when evening had come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and He was alone on the land.
By the time evening had come, Jesus was alone on the shore as He had sent all the people away, and the ship with His disciples was in the midst of the sea.
(48) And He saw them toiling in rowing for the wind was contrary to them; and about the fourth watch of the night He came to them walking on the sea, and would have passed by them.
Jesus saw the disciples in their ship in the midst of the sea struggling to row against the wind. It was in the fourth watch of the night, which would have been after 3:00 in the morning, when He came to them walking on water, and it seemed as though He would have walked right past them. Why was that part significant enough to be added to the scripture? I think it was meant to give a visual of how Jesus appeared on the water. By the direct line in which He appeared to be going, and perhaps with the swiftness and determination with which He walked, it seemed as if He would walk right past them.
(49) But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a spirit and cried out.
When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea, they assumed it was a ghost and cried out in fear.
(50) For they all saw Him and were troubled. And immediately He talked with them, and said to them, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid."
All the disciples had seen what they thought to be a ghost walking on the water and were afraid. However, Jesus spoke to them, telling them to be of good cheer, for it was Him and they had no need to be afraid.
(51) And He went up to them in the ship, and the wind ceased; and they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure and wondered.
Jesus went up into the ship with the disciples and the wind ceased and the sea was calm. Amazingly, the disciples were so amazed beyond measure and marveled at what they had seen Jesus do. They had seen countless miracles, even the raising of the dead, and so recently the feeding of the more than five thousand, yet this miracle of walking on water amazed them beyond measure?
It is also interesting to note that although Mark was said to be Peter's scribe, he did not write about Peter's walking on water to meet Jesus as Matthew had written. It seems that Matthew often elevated Peter to a position greater than the other disciples, as if he were the head of their group. I would imagine Peter, in turn, would not want to boast about himself, but rather concentrate on the greatness of his Master.
(52) For they considered not the loaves, for their hearts were hardened.
Indeed, the scripture points out that the disciples should have considered the miracle of the loaves they had just witnessed, as well as countless other miracles, and known in their hearts that Jesus was perfectly capable of any such miracle. However, their hearts and minds were still hard and slow to understand.
(53) And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret and drew to the shore.
When Jesus and His disciples had completely crossed over the sea, they came to the land of Gennesaret and brought their boat to shore.
(54) And when they had come out of the ship, immediately they knew Him.
When Jesus and the disciples came out of the ship, the people there immediately recognized Jesus.
(55) And ran through that whole surrounding region, and began to carry about in beds those who were sick to where they heard He was.
The people ran through the whole region scrambling to bring to Jesus those who were sick wherever they heard He might be.
(56) And wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought Him that they might touch if it were only the border of His garment; and as many as touched Him were made whole.
Wherever in that region that Jesus went, whether in the villages, the cities, or even in the country, people brought their sick to Him and laid them in the streets, beseeching Him that they be allowed to merely touch the hem of His garment. It seems as though the news of that such miracle as with the woman with the issue of blood had reached them, and they desired merely to be able to touch His hem. All those who touched Him were indeed made whole. We aren't told that the people desired to hear Jesus's teaching, only to be healed, but just as Jesus had compassion on the sick in Nazareth where it was said He could do no mighty work because of their unbelief, He had compassion on these sick people.
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