Mark 6:30-44 Jesus is the Lord of Provision
The Text
Mark 6:30–44 (CSB)
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught.31 He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
32 So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place,
33 but many saw them leaving and recognized them, and they ran on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.
34 When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.
35 When it grew late, his disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late.
36 Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat.”
37 “You give them something to eat,” he responded. They said to him, “Should we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”
38 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” When they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”
39 Then he instructed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.
40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.
41 He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves. He kept giving them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.
42 Everyone ate and was satisfied.
43 They picked up twelve baskets full of pieces of bread and fish.
44 Now those who had eaten the loaves were five thousand men.
The Devotion
Christ knows your needs
Matthew 6:7-8 (CSB) When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.
Christ alone is your provision
Matthew 6:25-34 (CSB) “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Psalms 16:5-6 (CSB) LORD, you are my portion and my cup of blessing; you hold my future. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
Christ alone is the source of our righteousness
2 Corinthians 5:21 (CSB) He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Christ alone is the source of our eternal life
John 3:16 (CSB) For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.