Following after Jesus #66

Mark's account of the Feeding of the  20,000 is the most detailed of the Gospels:

30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

Since this is the only non-resurrection event recorded by all four Gospel writers, we have a lot of details to compare and contrast, like whose idea was it to go and buy bread, to go and see how much food was on hand, and to go and bring it to Jesus.  Mark fills in those details as the most extensive passage, possibly for this reason: He wrote for Peter, who remembered this event for how many ways the disciples were humbled by it. They thought they had arrived when they preached to crowds and performed miracles, but now were unable to handle the first challenge they came to. They thought they were doing Jesus a favor by taking Him away from the crowds for a time, when He was doing it for them. They failed to see the problem coming till late in the day, when He had foreseen it right away. They asked questions as a way of making excuses, while He asked them to help them find the solutions.  There Peter was, holding His basket, once again in awe of Jesus, and humbled by the privilege to serve Him while serving others. How will we allow Christ to teach us a little humility today?