There is another part to the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 I had never seen before, that has captured my heart.

Here is a quick recap starting in Mark 6:34, leading to the part of the story I would like to share.

When Jesus went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and felt compassion for them (greek: splagchnizomai; a gut response; “in the inward parts” ) because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He began to teach them many things. When it was getting quite late, His disciples began saying “the place is desolate, and it is already late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

But we know what Jesus was intending to do here. He wanted to feed them! There was a young boy in the crowd, with two loaves of bread and five fish. Jesus took the loaves and the fish, and began breaking it and passing it out to the people. It multiplied to feed everyone there until they were full, leaving 12 baskets of left overs. There is so much in this story but these next two verses have been speaking to me; revealing more about the love and deep care of Jesus.

And immediately Jesus had His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself dismissed the crowd. And after saying goodbye to them, He left for the mountain to pray. Mark 6:45-46 NASB

At Bridge of Hope, we do a 4 -5 hour food distribution once a week, and after it is over, we are exhausted and pretty much done for the day. Jesus had been teaching, healing, and ministering that whole day before dinner was served! Not to mention all the walking and hiking they did most likely everyday, to get to where Jesus would be ministering next.

The disciples wanted to be done long before the idea of a dinner party started, “send them home!” But Jesus…. who the Bible says, experienced fully what it is like to live on this earth including being tired, and who was tempted in every way we are, was going to see this day through to the end.

After dinner, He sent the disciples to go get into the boat. Jesus stayed and said His goodbyes to the people. I can hear it now, “Goodbye friends! Have a wonderful night! Great to see you! Bye for now!”
I wonder what time it was when everyone left… It must of been really late.

Staying to the end and saying goodbye to all the people was important to Him, or He wouldn’t have done it.

Oh…. the tenderheartedness of our Lord. His kindness. His love. His compassion! Jesus, the King of glory taking the time at the end of a very long day…..

to stay and say His goodbyes.