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.”
Mark 6:35-38
Mark 6 [30.] 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.”
Mark 6 [37.] 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?”
Mark 6 [38.] He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go see.”
When they knew, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
Mark 6 [39.] 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.
Meaning:
Jesus had spent the day teaching a huge crowd that had followed him into the wilderness, moved with compassion because they were “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). As evening approached, the disciples saw a practical problem: thousands of hungry people, no food and no shops. These verses record the conversation that led up to the feeding of the five thousand. They show the disciples’ realistic but limited thinking, Jesus’ surprising command, and the small resources with which he would work a great miracle.
- Send them away
The disciples’ suggestion was sensible. “This place is deserted, and it is late in the day.” The crowd had been listening for hours, and night falls quickly in the hills around the lake. Sending people to the surrounding farms and villages to buy bread before dark seemed the responsible thing to do. Yet it also reveals how the disciples saw the situation: the crowd’s hunger was not their problem. They had just returned from a mission in which they had healed the sick and cast out demons, but it did not occur to them that Jesus could meet this need too.
- You give them something to eat
Jesus’ reply turns the problem back to them: “You give them something to eat.” The word “you” is emphatic. He was not asking the impossible in order to mock them; he was teaching them that the needs of the people were now their responsibility, and that what they could not do alone, they could do with him. Centuries earlier, the prophet Elisha told his servant to feed a hundred men with twenty barley loaves: “Give the people, that they may eat” (2 Kings 4:42-43). Jesus would do far more.
- Two hundred denarii
The disciples answered with arithmetic. A denarius was roughly a day’s wage for a labourer, so two hundred denarii was about seven or eight months’ wages. Their question, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread?”, sounds incredulous, perhaps even sarcastic. John’s Gospel records that Philip made the same calculation and that Andrew found a boy with five barley loaves and two fish, asking, “but what are these among so many?” (John 6:8-9). The disciples’ response echoes Moses in the wilderness, who asked whether all the flocks and fish of the sea would be enough for Israel, and was answered, “Has Yahweh’s hand grown short?” (Numbers 11:21-23).
- How many loaves do you have?
Jesus did not start with what they lacked but with what they had: “How many loaves do you have? Go see.” They returned with the answer: “Five, and two fish.” The loaves were small flat cakes of bread, the staple food of ordinary people, and the fish were probably dried or salted fish from the lake, eaten with bread. It was a meal for one or two people, not five thousand. Yet Jesus asked for an honest count of what was in their hands. Israel had once asked in unbelief, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?” (Psalm 78:19). Jesus was about to answer that question (Mark 6:39-44).
The Significance of Mark 6:35-38
- Needs are opportunities
The disciples saw the hungry crowd as a problem to send away. Jesus saw it as an opportunity to show God’s care. Believers are often tempted to pass needs on to someone else. Jesus still says, “You give them something to eat”, and invites his followers to look at needs through his eyes.
- Start with what you have
God often begins with small and ordinary things: five loaves and two fish. We should not despise “the day of small things” (Zechariah 4:10). What we bring may seem tiny, but in Jesus’ hands it is enough.
- Calculation is not the whole picture
Budgets and planning are good, but they are not the limit of what God can do. The disciples counted the cost and despaired; they had not yet counted on the power of Jesus. God promises to supply every need of his people (Philippians 4:19).
Cross-References:
2 Kings 4:43: "His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”" An earlier miracle of multiplied bread, on a smaller scale.
John 6:8-9: "One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many?”" John names the source of the five loaves and two fish.
Numbers 11:23: "Yahweh said to Moses, “Has Yahweh’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.”" God’s answer to human calculation in the wilderness.
Philippians 4:19: "My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." The God who fed the crowd still provides for his people.
Conclusion: As evening came, the disciples urged Jesus to send the hungry crowd away to buy food. Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat”, and when they protested that it would cost two hundred denarii, he asked how many loaves they had. The answer was five loaves and two fish. The conversation exposes the limits of human resources and calculation, and prepares for the miracle in which Jesus would feed thousands from almost nothing, teaching his followers to bring what they have to him and trust his provision.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible