In Mark’s account of the feeding of the five thousand, we see a beautiful truth of the finished work of Jesus that should stir up our faith in His power and provision.
“And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and BROKE the loaves, and GAVE them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all.” (Mark 6:41)1
In the past I used to teach that when the disciples distributed the loaves and fishes, it multiplied in THEIR hands. In ministry trainings I would teach, “It’s up to you! The miracles will occur in your hands!” As I look back, I realize that this idea put pressure on Christians to perform. But actually, that teaching wasn’t correct. If you look in the original Greek, you will see why.
Kenneth Wuest, a renowned Greek theologian, wrote in his commentary on the book of Mark the following note on Mark 6:41: “The verbs are in different tenses; the former [‘broke’] in the aorist, the latter [‘gave’] in the imperfect. The aorist implies instantaneous, the imperfect the continuous act.”2 Another important point about the aorist tense is that it’s not only an instantaneous act, it’s also an act that will never be repeated again. In other words, the BREAKING of the bread only happened once and was never repeated; however the GIVING of the bread was continuous.
Do you see what this means? The multiplication of the bread took place in JESUS’S hands between the breaking and giving! Jesus was giving us a picture in this miracle of what happened when His body was broken at the cross. That one act would never be repeated, but the blessing flowing from that one act is continuous!
The picture I used to have was of Jesus carefully pinching off minuscule amounts of food giving each disciple a teeny tiny, almost microscopic, crumb of bread and morsel of fish the size of a granule of salt and telling them to go and feed the five thousand with it. It was all up to them. Now I picture the disciples running back and forth as fast as they can to catch the food multiplying from Jesus’s hands. It’s all about Jesus! It’s all about His power and His provision.
All of Jesus. None of us.
What is the message here? May we consider Jesus in everything. May we remember the miracles we have seen in our lives and expect the same in the future. May we be less sensitive to the things of this world, less sensitive to lack, and more sensitive to His presence with us!
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)
(from pages 362-363 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
2Kenneth S. Wuest, Mark, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1950, p. 135
