The Gospel for Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Mark 8:1-10
And now once again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat. So he called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. If I send them off home hungry they will collapse on the way; some have come a great distance.’ His disciples replied, ‘Where could anyone get these people enough bread to eat in a deserted place?’ He asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ And they said to him, ‘Seven.’ Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and began handing them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them among the crowd. They had a few small fishes as well, and over these he said a blessing and ordered them to be distributed too. They ate as much as they wanted, and they collected seven basketfuls of the scraps left over. Now there had been about four thousand people. He sent them away and at once, getting into the boat with his disciples, went to the region of Dalmanutha.
A Study
The Oxford Bible Commentary puts the 4,000 vs the 5,000 in its best light as regads Mark's telling:
"More directly, the story serves in Mark to underline the obtuseness of the disciples. The very fact that the two stories occur so close together in the gospel, and the accounts are so closely parallel, makes the disciples’ initial reaction here all the more pointed. They have just witnessed Jesus feed 5,000 people miraculously; exactly the same situation recurs and yet the disciples again ask ‘How can one feed these people with bread in the desert?’ (v. 4). What they have just experienced should surely tell them how! The duplication in the story thus serves to highlight the growing incomprehension of the disciples." -- Barton, J., & Muddiman, J. 2001. Oxford Bible Commentary . Oxford University Press: New York
A Reflection
We must look like these disciples, most of the time.
If we were to ask for another chance, every time we need one, we would constantly be engaged in asking for another chance. As tempting as it is to think of these disciples as dolts, we are far too qualified as dolts, ourselves!
When we try simple acts of obedience, like fasting, we fail more often than not. Daily disciplines of prayer and scripture reading are left in the wake of inattention and preoccupation with the world. We are of the world, as we prove so frequently. How like drowning people we would appear to creatures from outside our frame of reference, surfacing from an unbreatheable ocean of sin, to savor the sweet grace of God's forgiveness, only to sink back again.
Look to Easter!
6:26:16 AM 
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