Mark Photos - 6:30-44 - Sandwiches
Mark 6:30-44 - Feeding the Five Thousand
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
——
Today was our 2nd funeral in the last several days and we had opposite things happen with food at each. Today, we thought it would be a smaller number only to see many more people come for the service and the meal than anticipated. Thankfully, our Deacons in charge of the meal gave a quick call to the meat market and another tray of sandwiches and another bowl of fruit was quickly delivered! On Saturday, we had far more food than we ended up needing. But there’s a wonderful story that goes along with that. It was a Saturday afternoon and we weren’t sure where the extra food could go - the normal places we have delivered food to were not open or it was not the day for accepting outside food. Well, after a few phone calls, an organization downtown said that it was amazing timing as they had just found out that the group that was supposed to bring their residents dinner that night was not able to come. So, they were thinking dinner wouldn’t be served that night until our phone call came in. Suddenly, there was far more food than they needed! It wasn’t loaves of bread and fish, but sandwiches and fruit. But still a tremendous blessing for them and for us.