Twelve Baskets Left Over
Mark 6:33-44
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore.

Whether you are the captain of a destroyer or your own rowboat, you must abide by God’s rules, or you will run aground.  Why do so many Christians crash on the shores of ruin when Jesus has already won their victory?  The answer lies in the following story here in Mark 6:33-44.  Three questions in the feeding of the five thousand help us identify why many run aground.  Let’s read our passage. “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they wee like sheep without a shepherd.  So he began teaching them many things.  By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him.  This is a remote place, they said, and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.  But he answered, You give them something to eat.  They said to him, that would take eight months of a man’s wages!  Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?  How many loves do you have?  He asked, God and see.  When they found out, they said, Five and two fish.  Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.  So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.  Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people.  He also divided the two fish among them all.  They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.  The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.”