The Lord, the Lad, and the Lunch
The King’s Cause, Part 19
Mark 6:30-44
Ethan Welch
WELCOME
Good morning…
If you have a Bible…
**Champion women in the church…Women’s retreat coming up…
PRAYER
INTRO
**The King’s Cause
**One of the most well-known stories in the entire Bible…
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“Unlike Herod, Jesus will be presented here as Israel’s true shepherd king who feeds the flock, meeting
their needs as Moses did in the wilderness” (20).1
It is the only ministry miracle recorded in all four Gospels.2
Mark’s account of this story is the longest in the NT.3
TEXT—Mark 6:30-44
[30] The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. [31] And he said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they
had no leisure even to eat. [32] And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.
**Desolate place…withdraw, retreat, rest, renew…
**Nap on the hammock last Sunday…
[33] Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got
there ahead of them. [34] When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them,
because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
**Reference to the Old Testament passage when Moses asks God for a new leader for the people of Israel…
Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come
in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as
1
Witherington, 20.
Witherington, B., III. (2001). The Gospel of Mark: a socio-rhetorical commentary (p. 217). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co.
3
Witherington, B., III. (2001). The Gospel of Mark: a socio-rhetorical commentary (p. 217). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co.
2
1
sheep that have no shepherd.” So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the
Spirit, and lay your hand on him.”
Numbers 27:15-19
**Joshua
 ַ‫ יְ הֹוׁשּוע‬Yehoshua or ַ‫ יְ הֹוׁשֻׁ ע‬Yehoshua (221c); “the Lord is salvation,” Moses’ successor, also the name of
a number of Isr.:—Jeshua(28), Joshua(219).4
 Ἰησοῦς, οῦ m: ‘Jesus, Joshua.’ ‘Jesus’ is a Greek transliteration for the Hebrew name Joshua.5
**Jesus is to be seen as the new shepherd, the greater Joshua, who leads and feeds God’s people.6
Illustration—Sheep and the shepherd
 Sheep are actually dumb, helpless animals…not able to have purpose or direction with their lives…can’t
figure out where they should go…
 Without a shepherd, they just wander from one pleasantry to another…until they can’t find any
food…when they can’t find food, they end up putting themselves in dangerous situations…
 We are sheep…
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never
perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
John 10:27-28
Without Jesus, you will wander aimlessly through life.
**Our life is journey…something is leading us…
[35] And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now
late. [36] Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to
eat.”
**The disciples are tired after a long, wearisome day and just want everyone to go home…
**This is a very reasonable recommendation…
[37] But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two
hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”
**Jesus gives them a test…Jesus is always training his disciples…he’s constantly trying to get them to see the
world through a different lens…
**The test seems like an impossible scenario…200 denarii would’ve been about a year’s wages…what it
would’ve taken to feed this many people…there are upwards of 15,000 people or so here…there’s no way this
can happen…
Jesus uses impossible situations because they require miracles.
4
Thomas, R. L. (1998). New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries : updated edition. Anaheim: Foundation
Publications, Inc.
5
Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the
2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 823). New York: United Bible Societies.
6
Witherington, B., III. (2001). The Gospel of Mark: a socio-rhetorical commentary (p. 218). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co.
2
**Are in in an impossible situation today?
 Marriage
 Finances
 Family…foster parents…single mothers…
 Relationships
**Maybe you’re in an impossible situation where the only answer is a miracle.
Our inadequacy is God’s opportunity to show us his sufficiency.
Jim Schettler
**The vision of our church…
 Rigorously theological/biblical and rigorously cultural/mercy/justice…
 Next generation
 Be a multiethnic church
**We worship the God of the impossible…
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with
God.”
Mark 10:27
**Do you believe that all things are possible with God?
[38] And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they
said, “Five, and two fish.”
**Five loaves and two fish
 Imagine the young boy (John’s account) who gave Jesus his lunch…Hebrew happy meal…
 Cheese biscuits and fried fish…
[39] Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. [40] So they sat down in groups, by
hundreds and by fifties. [41] And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a
blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two
fish among them all.
**Looked to heaven and said a blessing/prayer
The answer to an impossible situation is to look to heaven.
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,
and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
James 5:16-18
**Taking the five loaves and the two fish”
The issue is never the amount of your resources but whether or not you place them in Jesus’ hands.
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**Many American Christians don’t struggle with having resources…they struggle with putting them in Jesus’
hands…
Illustration—Story of the boy with the cockroach in his hand…
Pastoral Moment
 Is your life submitted to Jesus today?
 Is there something in your life today that you aren’t willing to let go of…that you aren’t willing to give
to Jesus…
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Jim Elliot
**Wasting our lives away…
 College students don't wish they had played more video games…
 Parents don’t wish they would’ve stayed at the office more…
[42] And they all ate and were satisfied. [43] And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the
fish. [44] And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
**15,000 people or more eating this meal…
 I wonder how it happened…was he pulling it out of the basket like a Mary Poppins style miracle??
 …if I were a disciple I would be looking into the basket trying to get a peak…
**Satisfied…
 Not just a morsel, not just an appetizer, but a full meal…
 Satisfied in the Greek the term means “nothing lacking” (χορτάζω7)
 They ate so many cheese biscuits and fried fish until they couldn’t possibly eat anymore...
I think it’s intentional that Jesus’ fed them until they were completely satisfied...
 All of life is the pursuit of satisfaction…satisfaction is the essence of happiness…to have nothing
lacking…
 But we all feel at some level a dissatisfaction with our lives…a lack…a dissonance…a gap from where
we are and where we wish we were…we aren’t satisfied…
 Relationally, vocationally, financially, personally…
 That’s why we keep upgrading to homes with more square footage…
 That’s why we aren’t satisfied at a certain income level…
 That’s why we keep giving away our bodies from one pleasure to another…
 That’s why we look for higher mountains to climb…for bigger waves to surf…
What else does this craving and this helplessness proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of
which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around
him…though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in
other words by God himself.8
Blaise Pascal (1670 AD)
7
Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the
2nd edition., Vol. 1, pp. 249–250). New York: United Bible Societies.
8
Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII (425).
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Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me
shall never thirst.
John 6:35
Jesus is the true bread that satisfies the hunger of our soul.
**Jesus is trying to tell you today, “I can satisfy you.”
**Christians need to be reminded that satisfaction has already been secured in Christ...
CONCLUSION
**This is not just a cool story that would make it into the Bible…Jesus is showing us the story of history…
**Jesus himself would be the bread that would be broken…
PRAYER
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Mark 6 and Mark 8 stories…
Very clearly the first feeding indicates Jesus manifesting himself to Israel as the new Moses, but in Mark 8 there
is no allusion to Moses or David. There the compassion of Jesus involves his concern about the crowd’s
physical hunger and does not involve his teaching, as in 6:34. It is true that both stories take place in an
isolated or deserted location, an allusion perhaps to manna in the wilderness, but as Hurtado points out, at v. 3
it is stressed that some have come from far off, a phrase often used to speak of Gentile foreigners from distant
lands (Isa. 60:4; Jer. 46:27; and material found only in the Greek version of Jer. 26:27 and 38:10).9
http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/sermons/2216.htm
9
Witherington, B., III. (2001). The Gospel of Mark: a socio-rhetorical commentary (p. 235). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co.
6
Jim Schettler sermon
http://libertybaptistchurch.org/wp-content/media/Camp%202012/TheLordtheLadandtheLunch-Schettler.mp3
One of the most popular stories in the entire Bible…
John’s gospel has a unique aspect…the little boy, the lad is only mentioned in John.
Jesus gives them a test…
I believe there is a “lad” here who wants to give his lunch to Jesus…
Cockroach story of his son…holding it in his hands…you’re holding something in your hand and won’t give it
up…
**The Lord
Vs. 5—Jesus asks them a question…this is a test…Jesus never asks a question to gather information…Philip
immediately goes to natural resources…
“Our inadequacy is God’s opportunity to show us his sufficiency.”
Pickle Jar illustration—when my wife can’t open the pickle jar, but I open it for her…sometimes we get
ourselves in a pickle and can’t get out of the situation…
**The Lunch
The lunch wasn’t important…it was what God did with the lunch…
**Your lunch is powerless until it gets in Jesus’ hands.
Illustration—prince in India…asked the lame boy for a gift and he gave him a nut and two beans…
Jesus took it and broke it…whatever you give to God, he breaks it.
**The Lad
Just a young kid…going with his friends to see this guy named Jesus…his mom packed a lunch for him…then
the disciples starting asking the people if anyone has any food…Jesus has asked if anyone has anything to
contribute and they take the young boy to Jesus…and the young boy watches Jesus take his lunch and feed
15,000 people…
Have you given what’s in your hands to Jesus?
Illustration—mission trip story to the Bahamas and the orphanage…
Tim Keller sermon, The Good Shepherd, King’s Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 1: The Coming of the
King—May 7, 2006, Mark 6:30–4410
This passage is, first, about a revolution. Secondly, it’s about a revolution no one expected, a completely
unexpected kind of revolution. Thirdly, it was led by impossibly unqualified revolutionaries. Fourth, it was
10
Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
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based on a shocking revolutionary act. This is about a revolution (but a completely unexpected revolution) led
by impossibly unqualified revolutionaries and based on a shocking revolutionary act.11
A Revolution…
John, in his gospel account of this incident, in John 6:15, comes right out and says what Mark hints at here.
That is, they came to make him king by force. This is the place where everyone wanted a revolutionary leader.
Jesus shows up. They come out. Why? They want a revolution! I mean, don’t forget. If you’ve been with us
through this walk through the book of Mark, just immediately before this is the story of Herod and the murder
of John the Baptist.12
A Completely Unexpected Kind of Revolution
However, Jesus is actually quoting here Moses’ prayer to God at the end of his life (Numbers 27) where Moses
says, “After me, you must give the children of Israel a political and military leader.” So Jesus is actually
quoting Numbers 27. It goes like this. This is Moses praying to God and saying, “May the Lord … appoint a
man over this community to go out and … lead them … so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a
shepherd.”13
 Almost every place in the Old Testament that talks about sheep without a shepherd is talking about the
need for a political military leader. When Jesus looks out and sees them coming and says, “They’re like
sheep without a shepherd,” he knows what they’re after. They want him to be their revolutionary leader
who liberates them from oppression. They want him to be another Moses, another Joshua.14
11
Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
13
Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
14
Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
12
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Lane, NACNT
Wilderness motif…
Sheep without a shepherd
In Num. 27:17 Moses prays that the Lord will appoint a leader to take his place prior to his death in the
wilderness lest the people “be as sheep which have no shepherd.” It is significant that God appointed as
shepherd Joshua, whose name in the Septuagint is “Jesus.” In Ezek. 34 the shepherd image is also associated
with the wilderness. There is no shepherd for the sheep, but God promises the coming of a faithful shepherd,
“my servant David” (Ch. 34:23), who will establish a covenant of peace, causing the people to “dwell securely
in the wilderness” (Ch. 34:25). In verse 34 Mark proclaims Jesus on the background provided by these
passages: he is the one appointed by God to be the leader of the people in their exodus into the wilderness; he is
God’s servant David who provides rest for the people in the wilderness. These theological notes are not
extraneous to Mark’s presentation. They provide the indispensable background for understanding the feeding
narrative which follows. The multitude who pursue Jesus and the disciples are representative of Israel once
more in the wilderness. There they experience the compassion of the Messiah, who teaches them “at length”
concerning the Kingdom of God.9315
15
Lane, W. L. (1974). The Gospel of Mark (p. 226). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
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Parallel Passages
[1] After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. [2] And a
large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. [3] Jesus went up on
the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. [4] Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at
hand. [5] Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip,
“Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” [6] He said this to test him, for he himself knew
what he would do. [7] Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for
each of them to get a little.” [8] One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, [9] “There is
a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” [10] Jesus said, “Have the
people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.
[11] Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.
So also the fish, as much as they wanted. [12] And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather
up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” [13] So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets
with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. [14] When the people saw the sign that
he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
John 6:1-14
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