ROME IMPROVEMENT 8/22/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 8:1-10

This week we leave the Decapolis and enter a desert place. It has been a long journey and the people are hungry. Before Jesus sends the people back into the world from which they have come, he tells his disciples to feed the people. Again, we witness consternation concerning the number of people and the limited supply of food.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

In those days again, a great crowd being, and not having what they [needed to] eat. Having called the disciples before him, [Jesus] says to them, “I am moved with compassion upon the crowd because already three days they continue with me, and they have not [some] that they might eat. And if I might unbind (dismiss) them [i.e., send them from me] fasting into their house, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away. And his disciples answered him, “From where will anyone here be able to satisfy [with] bread in [this] desert?”

And [Jesus] was asking them, “How many breads have you?” And [the disciples] said, “Seven.” And he passes along the message to the crowd to recline upon the ground. And having seized the seven breads, having given thanks, he broke and kept giving to his disciples in order that they should lay [it] before the crowd. And they set [it] before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessing them, he said [for] these also to be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they lifted up the excess fragments, seven baskets [large enough to hold a person]. There were four thousand. And he unbound (dismissed) them.

And immediately having got into the boat with his disciples, he came to the parts of Dalmanutha.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Recently I wrote about the use of wilderness-time and the creation story of Genesis. (See Rome Improvement, July 18, 2021.) The last time Jesus encountered a crowd in the wilderness, five thousand men were fed (Mark 6). Last week we talked about spiritual geography vs actual geography.

This week, without discounting that Jesus made food possible for the crowd in the middle of the desert/wilderness, it is important to consider the use of numbers in describing the crowd, the abundance of the meals, and volume of leftovers.  As we consider the desert story where four thousand are fed, we look at numbers as spiritual symbols vs accounting statistics, as biblical images.

Although there was an understanding of zero, the Western world would not have the zero in mathematics for several hundred years yet. Just keeping track of the everyday things of life become daunting calculations without a zero. When you purchase XII gallons and II quarts, can you say, “XXXVI dollars and XXIV cents more or less?” Or in referring to historical events, did the Roman Empire end in CDLXXVI or XXIVD? Both are proper ways to say 476.

The largest number commonly notated in Roman numerals is MMMCMXCIX, 3999. Although there were some ways of expressing larger numbers, they were not standardized. Usually, numbers of great size were verbally expressed, e.g., four thousand or five thousand. These large numbers are more imaginary or symbols of the infinite than a number that was exact.

The number of people fed this week is 4,000. One way it may have been represented was ĪĪĪĪ, four I’s with a bar drawn over the top. This image mimicked the then current understanding of what the world looked like—four pillars supporting the flat earth over the seas of chaos—or, to me, it looks like an altar/table from which the crowd was fed.

Most commentaries note the parallel structures of the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand. In both accounts, Jesus has compassion on the crowd, the time is late, people need to be fed, scarcity becomes abundance, people are satisfied, and the disciples are sent out on the sea. There are, however, distinct differences between the two that are especially important when looking at them as post-resurrection narratives as I have been doing throughout this series on the Gospel of Mark.

In both meals the people are fed in the place of new creation, the wilderness. The promise of new life is intensified by the description, “The people have been with me three days.”, before this week’s meal. Now, with the work of the new creation “engaged” (See Rome Improvement, June 27, 2021.), Jesus sends the people out. He then gets into the boat and goes to Dalmanutha.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Although it is difficult to fully appreciate the Feeding of the 4000 without the Feeding of the 5000 because of their parallel structure, this week is not simply fewer people. Understanding the imagery of each number in both stories is crucial to understanding their individual places in Mark’s gospel.

Biblically, the number five, according to Dr. Duane Priebe, was a cosmic number because the cosmos consisted of the sun, the moon, the earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. Mars and Venus were not included because people thought they were stars. Using the word “cosmos” rather than the word “universe” implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity, the opposite of chaos.

This pattern of five shows up in Scripture many times. For instance, there are five books in the Torah or Pentateuch—Genesis through Deuteronomy; we see Moses with two tablets of five commandments each; five kinds of animals were sacrificed—bull, sheep, goat, pigeon, dove; and Jesus bled from five wounds on the Cross.

The two of fish are also significant. The ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthus) is the acronym of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior. The two might be the two natures of Jesus—truly human and truly divine. Or two might refer to the relationship between heaven and earth, God and humanity, life and eternal life.

In the abundance of this cosmic meal, twelve baskets of excess are gathered. References that would have been familiar to the first hearers of Mark’s Gospel include the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve apostles who will lead the new tribes of Christianity, and the number of signs of the zodiac. Yes, the depiction of the Hellenistic/Western zodiac was often included within a synagogue. The number twelve is also a number of “abundance” since the sum of its aliquots, the numbers other than itself that divide another number evenly, gives a result higher than 12: 1+2+3+4+6=16.

To summarize the cosmic meal of the five thousand: it is a sign of the transfer of authority from the authority of the twelve tribes to the twelve disciples as the new leaders of God’s people and the meal of celebration that follows the disciples’ first foray into ministry and overcoming the distraction of the crowd. Moreover, this meal opens the eucharistic resurrection world to all.

Here, in Mark 8, following the spread of faith from Gennesaret, throughout the region of Tyre, Sidon, and the Decapolis, we witness another meal in the desert. This one has new images. As a post-resurrection account, it is possible for the language to remind us of the meal of Mark 14:22-28, where the bread and the cup are given as a sign of the new covenant.

Now we see this meal is not about cosmic expanses but of new creation itself. “He took the seven loaves, gave thanks (the word is “eucharist”), broke them, gave them to the disciples to set before the people.” When feeding the five thousand, Jesus’ compassion is because the people are aimless, “They are like sheep without a shepherd”. Now his compassion is for people who have been with him for “three days” (the time from Jesus’ crucifixion to the resurrection).

Although this three-day reference may point ahead to the resurrection in a pre-crucifixion narrative, in a post-resurrection narrative, the three days claims the bodily resurrection as a reality. The early Church fasted from the cross to the resurrection, from Good Friday to Easter morn. No wonder the people were hungry. The feeding of the four thousand then, leads us into the new creation world and the possibilities opened to us in this “engaged” eucharistic reign of God.

Again, the symbolic numbers inform our understanding. In the image of four thousand (the four I’s, or pillars, supporting the table-top bar across the top), we are presented with the world of the new creation of the reign of God with Jesus, the ΙΧΘΥΣ, the fish, presiding at the altar. No longer is he the sacrifice on the altar but the one who has passed from the place of death into the world of eternal life.

This meal of new creation is given to feed and satisfy them all. The seven loaves easily represent the seven days of creation. The ΙΧΘΥΣ is Christ himself; then the few small fish, the disciples, are those who bear witness to Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior and now live in Christ, those who have traveled from that place of not being in the body of Christ, through the waters of baptism, those waters of death that lead to resurrection in Christ. In Luther’s words we are to be “little Christs” to our neighbors, a few small fish within the ΙΧΘΥΣ.

Lastly, while the description of the excess of the meal of the four thousand at first appears to be less than the excess from the meal of the five thousand, the difference between the type of baskets used in each is significant. The twelve baskets of the five thousand are serving baskets—an important image for the impending work of the disciples and for the Church.

But the baskets of the four thousand are very large baskets. They were used by fishermen to keep the catch. Fish were caught in nets; then they were put into these baskets which were kept in the water. They were hoisted from the water when the fishing was done.

This same basket is large enough to hold a man. In Acts 9:25, the followers of Saul, soon to be Paul, lowered him over the wall of the city to safety in one of these baskets. The basket for fish becomes the basket of man. Jesus’ promise to make the disciples fish for people is decisively heard differently when this is a post-resurrection account.

In summary, the meal of the four thousand again gathers excess, an abundance, but now it is of the new creation in Christ for the sake of the world. It is a fitting conclusion to the journey we have taken with the risen Christ. We have traveled from the restored garden of Gennesaret where wholeness is brought to the diseased and the broken; to Tyre, where the unclean spirits are cast out; to Sidon, where the deaf man, baptized with Jesus’ spit, is able to hear God’s word and speak it plainly; to this place of new creation. Unlike the earlier meal where Jesus dismisses the people with a farewell, here in the desert place, Jesus sends them.

HANGING THE TRIM

In this detoured journey across the sea to Bethsaida, there is liturgical movement. The people, who gather along the way and in the marketplace, there gain new identity. The good news is spoken to a woman of faith; a man hears the word of God for the first time and is baptized; and the community is gathered for the meal. Jesus sends the people out and one is almost prepared to hear, “Go in peace. Serve the Lord.” Then the Word of God gets into the boat/ark with his disciples and journeys to the place of Dalmanutha (a place of uncertain meaning). Thanks be to God.