Sermon - Sunday May 31, 2026 - The Gospel of Mark 6:30-49 - The Feeding of the 5,000

 As we remember week prior before we covered the death of John the Baptist, Jesus had sent out his disciples to preach the Gospel and now they are returning from their trip. And since this was not a vacation, they had covered a lot of distance and talked to a lot of people, Jesus looks to give the disciples a break from the teaching and the crowds.

Mark 6:30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.

Mark 6:31 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.

When Jesus remarks that he is taking them to a desolate place, what is saying that He is taking them out into the middle of nowhere. Far from the towns and the population centers, out into the countryside, where few people lived and fewer people came to. Why? Because there was no purpose in it. There is no reason to go to some place in which you could not apply your standard trade.

Mark 6:32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Mark 6:33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

And yet the crowd followed anyway. They did not care. Again, let us remind ourselves who is in this crowd, those who are earnestly seeking healing whether for the body or the soul, and then there are those who have come for the teaching, and then there are those who come for the show.

So, these people see them leave, see the direction that they are going and they high tail it over to the other side, and get there before they do. No matter what you can say for these folks they are dedicated to going wherever Jesus was.

Mark 6:34 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.

This has practical meaning that the Roman reader would understand. Sheep without direction will pretty much just wonder off in any direction. To say that they are clueless is an understatement, self-awareness is not something that comes with sheep. There is a video, where a sheep is stuck in a narrow ditch and a boy pulls the sheep out by his hind legs, and soon as the sheep is out, it bucks its legs free and takes off running, and leaps right back into the ditch.

So, you can have two views when it comes to sheep, they can be extremely annoying, plucking your last nerve, not a clue of what they are doing. Or you can take Jesus’ attitude, He had compassion on them, they needed direction. What is your attitude towards the sheep, are they just an annoyance or do you have compassion on them and seek to give them guidance. Let’s be honest, the latter is much harder, especially when the sheep do not want to listen, what is the purpose of trying to give the sheep direction if they will not listen.

Well part of problem is the sheep may realize more than you think that you are not really concerned about their wellbeing, you are just trying to manage the chaos. You have addressed your need for control in a phony cloak of compassion. A true shepherd understands the sheep and what they need, they do not lead them to water when they need to eat, and they do not lead them to eat when they water. Truly having compassion on the sheep is understanding who the sheep are and what they need. And Jesus sees these people as sheep without a shepherd, and He has compassion on the sheep and He knows what they need, they need to be taught the ways of God, and so rather than seek the rest that He was taking the disciples to, Jesus rather turns and teaches the crowd.

Mark 6:35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.

Mark 6:36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

Notice the contrast here between Jesus and the disciples. The disciples were most likely annoyed by the crowds, when the boat came ashore and all those people were already there, the amount of eye rolling from the 12 was off the chart. So rather that Jesus sending them away, Jesus sits down with them and teaches them, and He teaches for hours, and it is becoming late in the afternoon, it is getting close to dinner time, and these men being good Baptist (he he he) tell Jesus, hey it is getting late, don’t you think it is about time to send these people on their way? I mean, there is nothing out here for them to eat and they are going to have to travel quite a distance, so best get them on their way.

Do you see the contrast? Jesus sees the opportunity, sheep without a shepherd who need to be taught. Disciples lots of people who are annoying them and disrupting their plans. One is focused on others, and one is focused on self. Opportunity sees others as a chance to serve them, to have an influence, Annoyance sees a disruption in their plans. Can there be a clearer example of applying the Greatest Commandment? When you see people as an opportunity, that is to show them love and compassion as Jesus has done, here, to not is to be annoyed with them, as an obstacle to your plans, to your way of life.

Mark 6:37 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 seeing these people as an opportunity says, you give them something to eat. What do the disciples do? Obstacles, rather than see the opportunity that these people are, and trying to figure it out how can we take care of these people, what do they focus on? The obstacles, and they are actually snarky about it. Hey Jesus why don’t we just spend all of this money, of course they would be us having to do it, and us having to spend our money rather than these people taking care of themselves, no Jesus you want us to go spend a whole bunch of money to buy bread for these people. They cannot see the people, who are without a shepherd, all they see is the annoyance, all they see is the people who disrupted their plans, who wanted to come in and change everything, these people need to take care of themselves, we told you to send them away and let them take care of themselves, but no, you want us to spend what little money we have to take care of them? Really?

I can see them being quite ugly towards Jesus, because He is not saying the things they want to hear, and when people do not say what you want them to say, well it does not matter if you are the actual Son of Man, I am going to give you a piece of my mind.

Thankfully Jesus, knows how to shake if off, not take it personal. And in fact He is going to show them how selfish and narrow minded they truly are, because they did not need to go spend all of their money to buy bread, the solution to them problem was standing right in front of them.

Mark 6:38 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.”

Mark 6:39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.

Mark 6:40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.

Mark 6:41 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.

Mark 6:42 And they all ate and were satisfied.

Mark 6:43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.

Mark 6:44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

How quickly they had forgotten. How quickly they get so self focused, how quickly they are about what cannot be done, rather than what can be done.

See they forgot, that this Jesus had cast out demons, and in one instance, some 2k from one man.

They forgot that this Jesus had healed hundreds if not thousands of people.

They had forgotten that this Jesus commanded the winds and the waves to stop.

They had forgotten that this Jesus had raised a little girl from the dead.

So if this Jesus could do all of those things, well then how hard would it be for him to feed 5,000 men, and their families, and still have twelve baskets of food leftover.

See they forgot that God can do anything, and if they had only been focusing on the opportunities rather than the obstacles, then when Jesus said to them give these people something to eat, rather than turning on Jesus, they should have turned to Jesus. Because when you see the opportunity, rather than the obstacle, you turn to God and say, LORD I see this great opportunity you have placed before me, these sheep have no shepherd, Lord they need a shepherd, but I cannot do it alone Lord, I need your help.

Jesus said, gives these people something to eat, rather than be snarky and seeing the obstacles, if the disciples would have been obedient, they would have turn to Jesus and said, yes Lord we will, but we cannot do it without your help, would this not have been a totally different story? You bet.

Now apply it to your life, God presents you with an opportunity, what is your response? Is it to find all the obstacles that keep you from that opportunity or is it to submit to God’s will and say, yes Lord, I will, but I am going to need your help.

Turn to God, see the opportunity and in that opportunity see the Greatest Commandments come to life, that you Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength, and then you will love you neighbor as yourself

There were sheep without a shepherd the sheep needed to be feed the disciples saw them as an obstacle to what they wanted, to their plans, and rather that focusing on the needs of the sheep, they were selfish only focusing on their concerns and the obstacles.

There were sheep without a shepherd, the sheep needed to be feed. Jesus saw the opportunity that through the teaching Jesus feed the Spirit, and through the power of God, Jesus was able to feed the sheep. He saw the opportunity, He did not allow the obstacles to distract Him, from caring for the sheep.

At then end of the Gospel of John, what does Jesus tell Peter? Feed my sheep.

Hey people, are you listening to God, are being mindful of the opportunities that He is putting in front of you, do you hear His voice even now? If you can’t let me help you.

Feed my sheep.

Darin Bracy is the pastor at Yorktown Baptist Church in Yorktown Virginia. He is a graduate of Veritas Baptist College with a BA in Ministry and a minor in History. He has a wife Stacy, two daughters, Ashlynne and her husband Justin, their daughter Harper Darin's other daughter Aftyn, and her two dogs, Eddie and Lulubelle.

You can reach Darin at his email address, Darinbracy@gmail.com and you can see his video content on YouTube – Basic Baptist Guy