Mark 6:35

This miracle of our Saviour's feeding five thousand men, besides women and children, with five loaves and two fishes, is recorded by all the four evangelists, and in the history of it these following particulars are observable.

Note, 1. The disciples' pity towards the multitude, who had long fasted and wanted now the ordinary comforts and supports of life. It well becomes the ministers of Christ to respect the bodily necessities, as well as regard the spiritual wants of persons.

Observe, 2. The motion which the disciples make to Christ on behalf of the multitude; Send them away that they may buy victuals. Here was. strong charity, in desiring the people's relief; but. weak faith, in supposing that they could not otherwise be relieved but by sending them away; forgetting that Christ, who had healed the multitude miraculously, could also feed them miraculously if he pleased; all things being equally easy to an almighty power.

Observe, 3. Our Saviour's strange reply to the disciples' request; They need not depart; give ye them to eat. Need not depart! Why, the people must either feed or famish. Victuals they must have, and. dry desert will afford none. Yes, says Christ to his disciples, Give ye them to eat. Alas, poor disciples! they had nothing for themselves to eat, how then should they give the multitude to eat?

When Christ requires of us what we are unable to perform, it is to show us our impotency and weakness, and to provoke us to look upon him, and depend by faith on his almighty power.

Observe, 4. What. poor and slender provision the Lord of the earth has for his household and family; five barley loaves and two small fishes. Teaching us, That these bodies of ours must be fed, but not pampered; our belly must not be our master, much less our god. The end of food is to sustain nature, we must not stifle it with. gluttonous variety.

And as the quality of the victuals was plain, so the quantity of it was small; five loaves and two fishes. Well might the disciples say, What are these amongst so many? The eye of sense and reason sees an utter impossibility of those effects which faith can easily apprehend, and divine power more easily produce.

Observe, 5. How Christ, the great Master of the feast, doth marshal his guests: He commands them all to sit down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. None of them reply, "Sit down, but to what? Here are the mouths, but where is the meat? We may soon be set, but when or whence shall we be served?" Not. word like this, but they obey and expect.

Lord, how easy it is to trust to thy providence, and rely upon thy power, when there is corn in the barn, bread in the cupboard, or money in the purse: but when our stores are all empty, and we have nothing in hand, then to depend upon an invisible bounty, is. true and noble act of faith.

Observe, 6. The actions performed by our blessed Saviour: He blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and they to the multitude.

1. He blessed them, teaching us by his example, never to use or receive the good creatures of God for our nourishment without prayer and praise; never to sit down to our food as. beast to his forage.

2. He brake the loaves. He could have multiplied them whole, why then would he rather do it in the breaking? Perhaps to teach us, that we may rather expect his blessing in the distribution of his bounty, than in the reservation of it. Scattering is the way to increasing: liberality is the way to riches.

3. Christ gave the bread thus broken to his disciples, that they might distribute it to the multitude. But why did our Lord distribute the loaves by his disciples' hands? Doubtless to gain respect to his disciples from the people. And the same course doth our Lord take in spiritual distributions. He that could feed the world by his own immediate hand, chooses rather by the hand of his ministers to divide the bread of life among his people.

Observe, 7. The certainty and the greatness of the miracle: They did all eat, and were filled. They did all eat, not. crumb or. bit, but to satiety and fulness. All that were hungry did eat, and all that did eat were satisified, and yet twelve baskets full of fragments remain. More is left than was at first set on. It is hard to say which was the greatest miracle, the miraculous eating, or the miraculous leaving. If we consider what they eat, we may wonder that they left any thing.

Observe, 8. These fragments, though of barley loaves and fish-bones, must not be lost, but, at our Saviour's command, gathered up. The liberal Housekeeper of the world will not allow the loss of his orts.. how tremendous will their account be, who having large and plentiful estates, spend them upon their lusts, being worse than lost in God's account.