TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD
“The Good News Is…Together, the Impossible Is Possible”
Mark 6:30-44, Ephesians 3:14-21
March 8, 2026
Did you know that the only story told in all four gospels,
besides Jesus’ death and resurrection narratives, is the feeding of the five thousand?
This story must have been of tremendous importance to the early church.
In the Gospel of Mark, the disciples have just returned from preaching and healing
among the villages, and Mark reports that they were tired.
So many people were coming and going that they did not even have time to eat!
In order to get some rest, Jesus and his disciples get in a boat and sail, or row,
to a deserted place where they might enjoy a quiet meal and some down time.
As they are making their way towards a distant shore,
people from the local villages see their boat and recognize them.
The Sea of Galilee sits in a bowl of sorts, and a boat on the water can be seen from miles away.
By the time their boat nears the shore, a crowd has already gathered.
The villagers had followed the progression of the boat, and made their way on foot
to what had been a deserted place. When the boat pulled up on the sandy beach,
there they were, a vast multitude, a sea of human need, people of all ages and conditions.
Jesus, seeing them, had compassion upon them. They seemed like sheep without a shepherd.
Hear the Word of God from Mark 6:30-44
30The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.
31He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’
For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
32And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.
33Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot
from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd;
and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; 36send them away so that they may go
into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’
37But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him,
‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’
38And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’
When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’
39Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass.
40So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.
41Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven,
and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people;
and he divided the two fish among them all. 42And all ate and were filled;
43and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.
44Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Tradition locates the feeding of the 5,000 in a place called Tabgha.
Tabgha is a beautiful, green, sloping landscape situated on the old Via Maris –
the old Roman road of trade and commerce that connected the continents.
There was no town or village at that place, but there were natural springs,
and so Tabgha became a common place to stop for water and rest.
Visiting places like Tabgha in Galilee reminds a person that these gospel stories
are not idealistic fairy tales – they are grounded, grounded in real places,
involving real flesh and blood people, people who became hungry and tired,
people who, like us, were seeking some solace or healing in life.
Standing on the hillside in the green grass at Tabgha, one can almost smell the broken bread
and visualize the crowds of villagers.
You can hear literally water lapping against a boat pulled up on the nearby beach,
and, if the wind is right, you can catch the faint smell of fish in the air.
And, if you allow your mind to do so, you might even imagine the presence and the voice
of an unusual rabbi who spoke as one with authority.
When Jesus and the disciples arrived at the shore,
young and old alike were there, children running to keep up with older siblings,
grandparents limping down the hillside.
Young men and women walking together; young mothers carrying babies.
Nine and ten-year-old girls watching over younger siblings.
Field workers and their supervisors; fishermen and carpenters; maybe a tax collector or two.
Wise ones, foolish ones, healthy ones, and not so healthy ones.
As the story goes, there were some 5000 men, plus women and children.
As with any crowd, some were excited and hopeful, others anxious and depressed.
Some were curious and carefree.
Others were skeptical, wondering who this rabbi really was,
seeking to catch him in some sort of mistake.
Others were grieving over the loss of a loved one. Some were afraid,
afraid of the future, afraid of the Romans, afraid of what might happen to their family.
Others were concerned about someone they left at home that day.
All of them wanted to see Jesus, to hear his voice, to be close to him, if possible.
And Jesus saw them. He saw the people in all their humanity, with all their need,
in their skepticism or curiosity, in their innocence or guilt, their health or illness.
And Jesus had compassion on them.
Though he and his disciples were hungry and tired,
he did not tell the disciples to send the crowd away.
Instead, he spoke to them for hours.
He taught those who were curious. He confounded those who were skeptical.
He gave hope to those who were in despair.
He told them parables about the kingdom of heaven.
He listened to their concerns and healed the ones who were ill.
When the sun began to go down, the disciples were really getting restless.
It was past time for dinner, so the disciples had a reasonable solution:
Send all these people away to the nearby villages so that they can get something to eat.
Jesus, everyone here is tired and hungry. We are tired and hungry.
Let’s shut down this gathering and get some food and rest.
Jesus surprised them when he replied: “You give them something to eat.”
What? Jesus! Are we to go and buy them bread? That would cost some 200 days’ wages?
How could we possibly have $20,000 for a meal for all these people?!
The disciples were not unreasonable, not unfaithful; they were realists.
They looked at the crowd, took note of the need,
and knew their sparse resources would not even make a dent.
The disciples responded as many of us do on most days, with a scarcity mentality.
There are tremendous needs before us and we don’t have enough.
We don’t have enough energy. We don’t have enough food. We don’t have enough money.
Yes, we recognize serious, immediate needs, but we are not able to meet those needs.
There is simply not enough!
Just beyond our sanctuary doors, there are too many unhoused men,
too many unhoused women, too many children living in cheap hotels,
too many people sleeping in their cars.
There are far too many children in DeKalb County who show up at school not ready to learn,
because they’re hungry or without the spiritual or mental resources needed to keep up.
There are too many youth and young adults struggling with their mental health.
What can the Church possibly do? There are not simply enough resources to go around.
We cannot possibly make a difference in the needs of all these people.
Jesus, send them away to fend for themselves.
But Jesus asks us: “What do you have? Take an inventory.”
The disciples come back and report: “We have five loaves and two fish. That’s all.”
“Bring your limited resources to me,” Jesus replies.
Bring what you have, as limited as it may seem, and place it here at my feet.
All four of the gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John –
are surprisingly succinct as they tell this story: Jesus took what they brought,
looked to heaven, blessed and broke the bread and fish, and gave it to the disciples,
and the disciples distributed to all, and everyone ate, and all were filled.
The hunger of the crowd was satisfied. The tremendous need before them was met.
This is an amazing story! By the wonder and mystery of God’s grace,
the disciples served all those people. A vast and hungry crowd was fed.
How are we to understand such a narrative?
Over the years, scholars have offered various explanations.
Some say that the plain meaning of the text is clear.
This was a miracle similar to the creation of the world ex nihilo, out of nothing.
The One present at creation with God simply provided bread and fish for the multitude.
Others say that the sharing of that one small boy mentioned by Matthew,
or the sharing among the disciples of what little resources they had,
inspired or shamed the crowd into sharing with one another,
and that the real miracle was that people who had brought something
opened their carefully planned packages and shared with their neighbors.
Still others claim that this was a symbolic meal, that the disciples distributed small bits of bread
to the crowd in such a way that all participated in a common meal – like communion.
Some scholars even assert that the story is not based on a particular event at all,
but is purely a theological creation, a “story” created
to speak of God’s action in Jesus Christ meeting human need.
(Eugune Boring, New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII, 1995, pp. 325-326)
We will never know exactly what happened that afternoon at the springs by the Sea of Galilee,
but, having visiting Galilee and Capernaum, having walked through the fields
where Jesus walked, I choose to believe that something amazing happened.
This event was clearly remembered by the early church and recorded in all four of the gospels.
To be transparent, I don’t need to know exactly what happened that day or how it happened.
Oh, I would like to know, I confess. I would love to have been there
in Jesus’ physical presence to witness this and other wondrous works.
But I do not have to know exactly what happened in order to recognize the truth of the story.
The truth is that Jesus can still take just five loaves and two fish
and feed the population of Decatur!
Jesus can take five loaves and two fish and end homelessness in Dekalb County.
Jesus can take five loaves and two fish of the Christian church throughout the world
and feed a world in need!
Do you know that the world produces enough food for everyone on earth to be fed?
World hunger is not a problem of adequate food resources.
World hunger is a problem of will and of priorities!
World hunger is about “haves” and “have nots” and the challenges of distribution
and the politics of war and poverty.
The same is true for housing and health care and mental health care.
As an economics major in college, I learned that “scarcity” is a foundational economic idea
to understand the kingdoms of this world. But in seminary,
I learned that “abundance” is a foundational economic idea
to understand the kingdom of heaven.
The hungry crowd who gathered around Jesus that day was filled full.
We begin conversations about human need with the idea that the need,
whatever it may be, can never be met with our resources.
But the church has discovered that if we will lay what limited resources we have
at the feet of Jesus, if we trust Jesus and give up trying to do it alone,
if we give up relying on ourselves or our own scarce resources,
and allow our imaginations to be broadened,
then somehow, by the grace of God, all who gather around will be fed.
All who gather round will be housed. All who gather round will have access to health care.
After the resurrection, the Church of Jesus Christ began with twelve disciples.
They were scared, uncertain, hiding out in Jerusalem, with very limited resources.
Look at the Church now, extending to every corner of the globe,
with incredible, vast resources for doing good!
Did you know that, for most of the last half century or more, the Roman Catholic Church
has owned more land than any other private landowner in the world?
In the United States, Presbyterians and Episcopalians continue to be
among the most wealthy religious persons, per capita, in the world.
The problem with world poverty is not scarcity, but priorities and distribution.
Do you have a loaf of bread that you can share? Or perhaps two?
How about a piece of fish?
What if you and I put together what little we have and see what Jesus will do with it?
If we all take what limited resources we have, place them at the feet of Jesus,
and pray that God might multiply our efforts, God only knows what might happen.
Did you notice how many baskets were left over? There were 12 – one for each disciple!
Those tired and hungry disciples who had worried so much about how little they had,
who had wanted to send the crowds away to fend for themselves,
were left holding a basket full of leftovers!
I will close with a prayer that the Apostle Paul offered long ago for the church in Ephesus,
from chapter 3:14-21.
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven
and on earth takes its name. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory,
he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit,
17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,
as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints,
what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ
that surpasses understanding, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more
than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21)
Thanks be to God for the abundance available in Jesus Christ! Amen.
Rev. J. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
