Mark arranged selected events in Jesus' training of His disciples to show how He brought them to a deeper understanding of who He was and to a deeper commitment to Himself. Jesus led them through two similar series of experiences to teach them these lessons. He had to do it twice because the disciples where slow to learn.
Mark's account of this miracle plays an important role in his Gospel. The unusually long introduction provides the setting for this miracle. It stresses Jesus' humanity, and the miracle itself demonstrates His deity. Mark later referred to this miracle twice (6:52; 8:17-21) showing that the disciples did not learn what they should have from it. This meal on the mountainside contrasts with the feast in Antipas' fortress that Mark just described (vv. 17-29). It shows the simplicity of Jesus' provision for a vast multitude compared to Herod's sumptuous and selfish banquet that resulted in the death of a righteous and holy man.161There is also an emphasis in this section of the Gospel on how Jesus cares for His own.
6:31 This verse does not appear in any of the other Gospels. Jesus provided rest for His busy servants by leading them out to a lonely area (Gr. eremos) where the crowds that were greater than ever were not as likely to follow. This place was near Bethsaida Julius on the northeast side of the lake (cf. Luke 9:10; John 6:1). It is interesting that Mark did not record Jesus' evaluation of the disciples' work but His consideration for them as workers.
"For continued effectiveness, every worker must now and then stop to take a breath and relax a little."162
6:32-34 Many people anticipated where Jesus was heading with His disciples in a large boat, probably a fishing boat (Gr. ploion). They were able to skirt the northern end of the lake on foot and meet the boat when it landed. Instead of feeling frustrated, Jesus felt compassion for the multitudes. He saw them as sheep lacking a shepherd who would provide for their needs (cf. Num. 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; 2 Chron. 18:16; Ezek. 34:5). As David had done, Jesus provided for His sheep in a remote area (John 10:1-21; cf. Ezek. 34:23-25). He began to teach them and apparently did so for many hours (v. 35). Teaching was their greatest need, though healing was what they craved.
6:35-36 The disciples assumed that Jesus wanted the people to provide their own suppers. They reminded Jesus of the time so He could dismiss them. Jesus had something else in mind. He wanted to teach the disciples and the multitudes to look to Him for their needs. He was the ultimate source of all they needed.
6:37 Jesus suggested that the disciples feed the people because He wanted them to realize their inability to do so. The word "you"is emphatic in the Greek text. Having admitted their inability, Jesus' ability would make a greater impression on them. It would teach them that He was different from them. The disciples' response shows that they had not yet learned to look to Jesus for all their needs. Instead of asking Him to provide what the people needed, they calculated the cost of the food and concluded that they could not afford to pay for it.
6:38 Jesus asked them how many loaves of bread they had because He would use what they had to feed the multitude. Normally Jesus uses what His disciples have to meet the needs of others. While the loaves were inadequate, they were still essential elements in this miracle. Likewise disciples need to realize the inadequacy of their resources, but they also need to understand that it is those resources, as inadequate as they are, that Jesus uses. The barley loaves in view were small and flat (cf. John 6:9). One person could eat several of them in one meal.163The two fish were probably salted and dried.
6:39-40 Mark alone noted the green grass thus dating this miracle in the late winter or early spring. John dated it more specifically as near Pentecost, which fell in late March or early April (John 6:4).164In the summer the grass turns brown in Palestine.
The orderly division of the people at least facilitated the distribution of food. The Greek phrases symposia symposia(v. 39) and prasiai prasiai(v. 40) picture the people spread out on the hillside like several garden plots. This organization may reflect the student teacher relationship that the rabbis fostered by seating their students in rows.165This seems far fetched to me. Another suggestion is that Jesus intended this arrangement to recall Israel camping in the wilderness so His disciples would view these people as the new Israel.166This view is possible but unlikely since most of those present were probably unbelievers.
6:41 By praying Jesus gave God thanks for the food and reminded the people that it came from Him. Giving thanks before meals was a common Jewish practice. Jesus blessed God for giving the food. He did not bless the food itself.167Looking up to heaven further clarified that it was God to whom He was praying.
Mark did not record how Jesus performed the miracle, though evidently the multiplication happened in Jesus' hands. He stressed that it was Jesus who did it. This was the most important point to him. Jesus met the needs of people in innumerable creative ways. It is important for disciples to focus on the source of the provision, God, rather than the means and methods He uses to provide. By thanking God for the food and then providing it miraculously for the people, Jesus was presenting evidence that He was God. Thoughtful individuals in the crowd remembered God's miraculous provision of manna in the wilderness (John 6:14) and realized that Jesus was God's servant who delivered what God provided, a second Moses.
Jesus served the people through the disciples who presented what He had provided to the multitudes. The disciples served as waiters. This is the work of servant disciples. This was another lesson in discipleship.
6:42-44 The abundance and adequacy of Jesus' provision were obvious in the amount of food that remained uneaten. The baskets (Gr. kophinoi) were large wicker ones, though there was not much food left over. Jesus provides generously, but He does not provide so extravagantly that there is needless waste.
This miracle revealed the person of Jesus to the multitudes, but it was its effect on the disciples that Mark stressed. As noted, the incident contained many lessons about discipleship as well as revelations of Jesus' identity.
This confrontation played an important part in Jesus' decision to withdraw from Galilee again (v. 24; cf. 2:1-3:6). Along with mounting popularity (6:53-56) came increasing opposition from the Jewish religious leaders. This section is essentially another block of Jesus' teaching. It revealed Jesus further and continued the preparation of the disciples for what lay ahead of them. In Mark's narrative, the words "unclean"(vv. 2, 5, 15, 18, 20, 23) and "tradition"(vv. 3, 5, 8, 9, 13) are key.
Jesus increased His ministry to Gentiles as He experienced increasing rejection from the Jews. This third withdrawal from Galilee took Jesus outside Palestine for the first time. Mark also recorded Jesus doing more things outside Galilee and fewer things within Galilee than the other evangelists. By pointing this out Mark helped his readers realize that ministry to Gentiles was God's will in view of Israel's final rejection of Jesus.176Mark included three events that occurred outside Palestine and one following Jesus' return.
There is a logical connection between this section and the one that precedes it (7:1-23). Jesus had explained why He did not observe the traditional separation from defiling associations. Now He illustrated that by going into Gentile territory. This contact would have rendered Him ceremonial unclean according to the Jews' traditions.
7:24 Mark normally began a new paragraph with the Greek word kai("and"). Here he used de("and"or "now"). This change indicates a significant change in the narrative. The hostility of Israel's leaders led Jesus to correct them "and"to leave Galilee for ministry elsewhere.
The New Testament writers often spoke of Phoenicia as the land of Tyre and or Sidon because they were the two notable cities of the region. Tyre stood on the Mediterranean coast about 40 miles northwest of Capernaum. Jesus went there to be alone with the disciples. Nevertheless His fame accompanied Him, and He was not able to remain incognito.
7:25-26 "Syrophoenician"combines the terms Syrian and Phoenician. Phoenicia was a part of the larger Roman province of Syria. Other Phoenicians lived elsewhere since they were a great seafaring and commercial people. For example, the Libyo-Phoenicians lived in North Africa.177
The woman who heard about Jesus and sought Him out was a Gentile. Demons were afflicting her young daughter (cf. v. 30). Her persistent request for help demonstrated her faith in Jesus. She believed Jesus could heal her if He would do so.
7:27-28 Jesus probably conversed with the woman in the Greek language, which was common in that area. The woman conceded that the Jews had a prior claim on Jesus' ministry. Nonetheless if the little pet dogs (Gr. kynarion) get the table scraps, then she felt she had a right to a crumb from Jesus' table. She implied that the Gentiles need not wait to receive Jesus' blessings until a later time. They could feed when the children did, namely during Jesus' ministry. A little Gentile blessing would not deprive the Jews of what God wanted them to have.
"The Gentiles are not called dogs' but doggies,' not outside scavengers, but household companions."178
7:29-30 The woman's answer had revealed a quick wit and humility, but it was her persistent faith that Jesus rewarded (cf. Matt. 15:28).
"In contrast to the tradition of the elders Jesus [authoritatively] embraces the alienated of the Mosaic and rabbinic tradition: a leper (1:40-45), tax collectors and sinners (2:13-17), and even unclean Gentiles, including a Syrophoenician woman (7:24-30)."179
The woman's departure for home without Jesus also shows her faith. This is the only instance of Jesus healing from a distance without a vocal command that Mark recorded. As such, it demonstrates the great power of Jesus working for this woman's need. The healing was instantaneous, as usual. Perhaps one of the disciples accompanied the woman and reported what Mark wrote in verse 30.
This incident would have had special interest for Gentile readers. It shows that Jesus rewards Gentile faith as well as Jewish faith. Jesus had come to deliver both Gentiles and Jews (10:45).
Mark was the only evangelist to record this miracle. He apparently included it in his Gospel because it is another instance of Jesus healing a Gentile. This particular miracle is also significant because it prefigured Jesus opening the spiritual ears of His disciples. >From 6:31, the beginning of the second withdrawal and return, to 7:37, Jesus had been revealing Himself with increasing clarity to the disciples but with little response. A repetition of some of these lessons followed culminating in the disciples' confession of Jesus as the divine Messiah (8:1-30).
7:31 Jesus seems to have travelled north toward Sidon, which stood about 20 miles north of Tyre, and then eventually back to the east side of the Sea of Galilee. He penetrated deeply into Gentile territory. The Decapolis region was also primarily Gentile (cf. 5:1-20). Evidently Jesus looped around northern Palestine and approached the Sea of Galilee from the north or east. This trip may have taken several weeks or even months.180
7:32 The Greek word describing this man's speech impediment, mogilalos, is a rare one. It occurs only here in the New Testament and only in Isaiah 35:6 in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. Its presence there is significant because there Isaiah predicted that Messiah would loose the tongues of the dumb when He came (cf. v. 37).
"Defective speech usually results from defective hearing, both physically and spiritually."181
7:33 Jesus had personal contact with this man as He did with so many others He healed, which Mark stressed. Jesus apparently did what He did to help the man place his trust in Jesus.
"The laying on of hands would of itself have been sufficiently efficacious, and even, without moving a finger, he might have accomplished it by a single act of his will; but it is evident that he made abundant use of outward signs, when they were found to be advantageous. Thus, by touching the tongue with spittle, he intended to point out that the faculty of speech was communicated by himself alone; and by putting his fingers into the ears, he showed that it belonged to his office to pierce the ears of the deaf."182
Jesus probably spat on the ground and then touched the man's tongue with His finger. Both acts would have told the man that Jesus intended to do something about his tongue and mouth.
7:34-35 Looking up to heaven and sighing were also acts intended to communicate with the man. By looking up Jesus associated the coming healing with God. By sighing or groaning He conveyed His compassion for the man and the fact that the healing involved spiritual warfare.183Jesus spoke in Aramaic since this was the language that was common in Palestine (cf. 5:41). Probably the man could read Jesus' lips. Jesus' healing was again instantaneous.
7:36 Another command to keep the miracle quiet went unheeded (cf. 1:44; 5:43).
"The conduct of the multitude is a good example of the way in which men treat Jesus, yielding him all homage, except obedience."184
"The difficult conflicts . . . lie not with demons, for Jesus has authority from God to destroy them, Nor does Jesus struggle much in conflict with nature, for Jesus has authority over it. The difficult conflicts arise with people, for Jesus has no authority to control them; people choose and nothing can be forced upon them. . . . He can successfully order a deaf-mute to hear and talk, but he cannot make him keep quiet or stop others from listening to him. Furthermore, he cannot make his disciples understand nor can he constrain the authorities to stop opposing him."185
Mark expressed the crowd's amazement with a strong word that appears only here in the New Testament, hyperperissos. It means "extremely overwhelmed"(cf. 1:22; 6:2; 10:26; 11:18). Their statement that Jesus did everything well recalls Genesis 1:31 where Moses wrote that God saw that everything that He had created was good. The restoration of hearing to the deaf and speaking to the dumb was the work of God (cf. Isa. 35:3-6). Matthew recorded that Jesus healed many other people with various afflictions at this time (Matt. 15:29-31).
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