The Bible Says
Mark 6:33-44 Meaning

The parallel gospel accounts for Mark 6:33-44 are found in Matthew 14:15-21, Matthew 9:36, Luke 9:12-17, and John 6:5-14.

In Mark 6:33-44, a large crowd eagerly follows Jesus and the apostles to their secluded location, and Jesus, moved with compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd, teaches them and then miraculously feeds the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, leaving twelve baskets of leftovers.

The event of Mark 6:33-44 is referred to as “Jesus’s Feeding of the Five Thousand.” This is one of a few events in the life of Jesus that is described in all four Gospels.

John’s Gospel indicates that this event took place near the time of the Passover feast (John 6:4). Jesus was crucified during the feast of Passover, so this event likely took place about a year before His death.

Jesus and His disciples were seeking a secluded place to rest following the disciples’ return from their mission and apparently for them to grieve the murder of John the Baptist, the Messianic forerunner and Jesus’s cousin (Mark 6:30-31, Matthew 14:13). They regathered at Bethsaida (Luke 9:10), the hometown of Philip, Andrew, and Peter (John 1:44), a fishing village on the north shore of Galilee.

But there were “many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat” (Mark 6:32). So they got in a boat to find a place where they could be alone, pray, rest, and grieve (Mark 6:33).

Evidently, due to Jesus’s growing fame, the only seclusion they were to enjoy was in the boat as traveled from Bethsaida.

The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them (v 33).

The Sea of Galilee is approximately 13 miles long from north to south and about 7 miles wide from east to west at its broadest point. Bethsaida was located near the northeastern corner of the Sea of Galilee, near where the Jordan River enters the lake. This location made it possible for the people to watch the boat and then follow which direction it was going.

The people recognized Jesus and His disciples. They saw them leaving in the boat. And watched where He and the twelve were headed. When they saw where the boat was going, many of them ran together on foot from their cities, and got there ahead of Jesus and His disciples.

When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd (v 34a).

Because a large crowd of people was already there when Jesus came ashore, He would not be able to spend much time alone with God while mourning His cousin. And neither would His disciples.

The Gospel of John indicates that Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down with His disciples (John 6:3). Meanwhile the crowds continued to come hoping to see Jesus heal and perform miracles (John 6:2, 4).

Rather than thinking of Himself and being annoyed at their persistence in following Him, Jesus considered their needs above His own (Philippians 2:3-5).

He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things (v 34).

As a true servant, Jesus placed the needs of others above His own. Mark’s description of Jesus’s heart parallels Matthew’s description of Jesus as He was going about the villages teaching and healing (Matthew 9:35). On that occasion, Matthew also wrote of Jesus:

“Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
(Matthew 9:36)

Jesus saw the people’s true condition. He saw that they were:

• “Distressed” (Matthew 9:36)-That is, their lives were difficult and hard.

• “Dispirited” (Matthew 9:36)-That is, they felt religiously hopeless. Their lack of hope may have been exacerbated by Rome’ political oppression and the Pharisees religious oppression (Matthew 23:4).

• Like sheep without a shepherd.

The phrase describing people as sheep without a shepherd comes from 1 Kings 22:17 when the prophet Micaiah describes the people of Israel under wicked king Ahab. The Pharisees ought to have been their shepherd, but instead they were putting the people under oppressive traditions that they themselves did not keep.

Sheep were livestock and were important to the economy throughout biblical times. Sheep were used for their wool, as a source of food, and for sacrifices offered to God.

Throughout the Bible, sheep are symbols, sometimes symbols of innocence and dependence (upon a shepherd to lead and protect them). When the Bible uses sheep to describe a people, it is instructive and deliberate. Sheep are defenseless. Without the constant supervision of a shepherd, a sheep is prone to die from a predator or from its own wandering. Sheep were raised and tended by shepherds who migrated their flocks among the hills, pastures, and streams of Judea.

The expression sheep without a shepherd also alludes to Ezekiel 34. In this prophetic chapter, the LORD chastises the faithless shepherds of Israel for neglecting and abusing His sheep. God promises to punish them but also to become a shepherd for them who will take care of their needs (Ezekiel 34:11-16). And most remarkable of all, God promises to both come and send His servant David to shepherd and feed His Sheep (Ezekiel 34:23-24). God’s promise is fulfilled in Jesus who is both God and the Son of David (Messiah).

Jesus affirmed: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).

As the good shepherd, Jesus takes care of His sheep. He protects them. As they trust Him and seek His kingdom first, they overcome the trials that cause them to be distressed or dispirited (Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34, Matthew 6:25, James 1:2-3, Revelation 2:11).

When Jesus saw that the people had come to Him in their helpless and aimless condition, He felt compassion for them and began to teach them many things. Matthew’s Gospel adds that Jesus also “healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14b).

The gospel writers do not specify what time of day it was when Jesus first went ashore and saw the large crowd, nor do they tell us precisely how long He spent teaching them. However, it appears to have been a significant length of time.

Mark notes that after a while Jesus’s disciples approached Him: when it was already quite late (v 35). Matthew says they came to Him “when it was evening” (Matthew 14:15). In Jewish terms, this could mean anywhere between 3:00pm and sundown. (Jewish days begin and end at sundown).

When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat” (vv 35-36).

The place Jesus came to in search of solitude (to where the crowds had also run to meet Him) was isolated and desolate. And evidently these people had traveled such a great distance that it was now too late for them to return to their homes and prepare a meal before nightfall. If Jesus did not send them away soon as His disciples advised, they would go without food. And according to Luke, the disciples also pointed out that the people would soon need lodging (Luke 9:12).

The disciples reasonably assumed the only solution was for the people to disperse into the nearby villages and buy whatever food and lodging they could find for themselves. But Jesus challenged their natural assumptions.

He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” (v 37a).

John’s Gospel indicates that Jesus said this challenge in the form of a rhetorical question addressed to His disciple, Phillip: “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” (John 6:5b).

The implied response to Jesus’s question (John 6:5b) was that there was no place they could go and buy bread for all these people. Jesus and His disciples would have to feed them themselves if the crowds were to be fed. But they obviously did not have enough food for all these people to have something to eat. John adds that Jesus was saying this to test His disciples, because He already knew He was about to miraculously feed everyone (John 6:6).

But in the moment, the disciples were startled by the apparent absurdity and impossibility of Jesus’s command, and they responded with a pointed question.

And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” (v 37b).

John’s Gospel recorded Phillip’s fuller response as: “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little” (John 6:7).

A denarius was a day’s wages. Spending two hundred denarii on bread would mean spending two hundred days wages to give the people something to eat. This would have been excessively expensive even if there was a ready market available. But there was no market in this desolate place.

Jesus was unphased by these irrelevant obstacles.

And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” (v 38a)

At least one of His disciples obeyed His instruction.

And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish” (v38b).

John’s Gospel records that it was Andrew who told Jesus there was a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:9a). But Andrew also pointed out that this meager amount of food was woefully insufficient for so large a crowd of people (John 6:9b).

Andrew and his fellow disciples had nowhere near enough provisions to feed such a large crowd, but what they had was enough for Jesus.

And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties (vv 39-40).

As the crowd sat down in their groups, Jesus performed one of His most well-known and remarkable miracles.

Matthew, Mark, and John all comment that Jesus had the people sit down on the “grass” (Matthew 14:17, John 6:10) or green grass (v 39).

This detail not only indicates that they had a comfortable place to sit, but it also alludes to how the LORD our Shepherd “makes me lie down in green pastures” (Psalm 23:2a).

Their mentioning of the grass may also be a way to indicate that what Jesus was about to do would be a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy:

“‘I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,’ declares the Lord God. ‘I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick…’”
(Ezekiel 34:14-16a)

And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied (vv 41-42).

Jesus took the little food He had-the five loaves of bread and the two fish-and raised His gaze up toward heaven. He was facing the sky, but He was looking in faith to God amidst His circumstances. As He was looking up toward heaven, Jesus blessed the food and broke the loaves. John’s account describes His blessing as giving thanks to God for His provision (John 6:11).

In breaking the five loaves and the two fish, Jesus was dividing them into pieces to share with everyone. But as He was dividing them, He and His Father, were also multiplying them.

Jesus kept giving the broken pieces of food to His disciples to distribute to the large groups of people sitting on the green grass.  Mark’s description that Jesus kept giving the food is his way of describing how the food Jesus blessed miraculously kept coming and coming.

Mark records how everyone in attendance ate and were satisfied. God had provided, and no one left hungry.

In Jesus’s time, hunger was a common part of daily life, and only the wealthy or powerful regularly ate their fill. Yet here in this desolate place, Jesus had miraculously multiplied a few pieces of food into a feast for the multitudes, satisfying them completely.

To demonstrate just how satisfied everyone was, Mark writes:

And they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish (v 43).

This detail (also noted in Matthew 14:13, Luke 9:17, and John 6:13) indicates that the multiplied food which Jesus provided was more than sufficient for all present.

The number twelve is a symbol of the twelve tribes of Israel, reflecting that Jesus, the Messiah from the line of David, came to restore the entirety of Israel. Additionally, the five loaves of bread symbolize the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And the two fish can be seen as representing the remaining portions of the Jewish Scriptures-the Prophets (Nevi'im) and the Writings (Ketuvim)-which together testify to the coming of the Messiah. Thus, this miraculous feeding may symbolize how Jesus fulfills and provides through the complete Word of God given to Israel.

Mark ends his account of this miracle by stating how many people were present who ate and were satisfied.

There were five thousand men who ate the loaves (v 44).

Matthew said this number of five thousand men did not include the many women and children who were also present and ate (Matthew 14:21). Luke and John agree that the men numbered “five thousand” (Luke 9:14, John 6:10).

Given the number of additional women and children who were there, conservatively, the crowd numbered at least ten thousand people, though it may have been as many as twenty thousand.

This miracle, commonly known as “the feeding of the five thousand,” is the only miracle besides Christ’s resurrection that appears in all four gospels (Mark 6:33-44, Matthew 14:15-21, Luke 9:12-17, John 6:1-14). Jesus miraculously feeding thousands with just a few small provisions clearly showcases divine and Messianic significance.

First, it demonstrates Jesus’s creative power. His multiplication of a small amount of food mirrors the creation of the world, when God brought the entire cosmos into existence by His word from nothing.

Second, just as Jesus provided more than enough food to satisfy everyone’s physical hunger, He-who reveals Himself as “the bread of life” (John 6:35)-offers abundant grace to forgive all sins and restore the world to Himself.

Third, this miracle echoes-and in some ways surpasses-the provision of manna during Moses’s time, when bread from heaven sustained the children of Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 16, Deuteronomy 8:3).

One day after performing this miracle, Jesus directly connected this miracle with the manna that fed the exodus generation in the wilderness:

"Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
(John 6:31-33)

The feeding of the five thousand men is yet another Messianic identification of Jesus, who is the prophet like Moses,

"I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him."
(Deuteronomy 18:18)

This prophecy from Deuteronomy came after the people requested that Moses serve as God’s intermediary, fearing they would die if God spoke directly to them from Mount Sinai. Moses agreed and then delivered this prophecy. Now, Jesus emerges as the second Moses-speaking on God’s behalf-yet also as God Himself speaking directly to the people.

John’s gospel account of Jesus’s feeding of the five thousand points out that the people whom Jesus miraculously fed recognized Him as the prophet whom Moses foretold in Deuteronomy 18:18,

"Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’"
(John 6:14)

John also said that they even tried to force Him to be their King (John 6:15a). But Jesus dismissed them because this was not the time or place for Him to begin His Messianic reign. The time for Jesus to become King was according His Father’s plan (Acts 1:6-7). And the place was to be Jerusalem-not Galilee (Psalm 2:6).

Jesus’s feeding of the five thousand men (plus many other women and children) was one of His most powerful miracles and public statements declaring that He was God and the Messiah.