Bartered Sum
And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him.
34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.
35 And when the day was no far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed:
36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.
37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?
38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? Go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.
Mark 6:33-38
Let’s talk about what’d happen if you didn’t have any pennies, lucky charms, or even a few goodwill tokens. There’s how to get them of course, usually through work or begging from off the blessings of somebody else. There’s very few who’ll actually go about giving out large sums for nothing it seems. Back in Jesus day, it wasn’t for nothing but rather for the comfort and companionship gained from the people. Think of it as he went around mostly with nothing to give though at all times needed unlike some of the few. Not that I’m saying there weren’t some that needed a little more time, care, and attention. A prime example of this was the beggar which met Peter and John going into the temple. He asked them for money when just a healing was all that would do for fixing the problem and solving the evil. Had he only been given money time and again, well, there weren’t any doubts really. The vicious cycle of want and need would’ve only continued for certain. Saving him perhaps in the form of a healing was the best thing that could’ve possibly happened. Consider what then of the large crowds which seemingly came out of nowhere as though drawn to the Lord. Some have said it was only for food but I think they’ve followed him for whatever else he could offer. Just think of it as large crowds came out of nowhere in the most desert locations. We’ll see more of it later for sure. The word on the street least as far as the text actually goes is that they’d known him afar off even that of the Lord. Funny thing too, the Lord felt obligated to feed them somewhat whenever appealed.
That’s the best part of the whole thing in the bargain is the very decided lack of all this. You know, the provisions and stuff of whatever was needed at times such as these. First thing you’d think of when meeting large crowds of people was how much their absence from work and all that sore would be missed not whether they could all spread out again to go inhabit the towns. Clearly, these are some more unnatural creatures or beings or people not ones that should probably thus have gone off from their homes. Certainly, I’m not saying that any should rise from the dead in this fashion much less what they’ll look like should these thus then appear. So, to avoid all the guesswork and such, let’s just stick with what we already know as them that are merely in need of the Lord. He’s not going to just let them go hungry, now is he? Rather, he’ll feed them and teach them and given them a reason for staying around him much later. After he’s done surely, they’ll go on back to their towns. The point though I’m making isn’t what’s been done but now just about how it will happen. Thus, you might wonder how you’re to go about feeding all these new hungry hundreds of people. Jesus and his disciples were able to make enough of a living from the occasional harvest of crops, returns back to their boats by the sea, and whatever gathered there the people could spare. Here though, it’s something of the opposite sort of an issue. Food for so many involved, first of all, a supply or else some money to buy it with as the disciples had said.
Think of it sort of like this. If you can’t afford to buy with coin as at first, you can always do a trade or a barter for stuff. To do that though, you’ve got to have something of roughly similar or equal in value to make it all worth your while. Over the years people have bartered with work, wares, or whatever’s needful most at the time. Two-hundred pennyworth of bread in that day would’ve been fit for a king. Certainly, it would’ve required a taxing to get it for sure, cause it’s hardly likely that a bunch of guys going down to catch fish from out of the sea would likely have very much either. If you remember, the fish that was for dinner instead coughed up a coin for the repayment of taxing much later. With funds like this, Jesus could’ve had something the envy of Caesar himself if he wanted. Small wonder then that the disciples were always constantly asking about his soon returning the kingdom back to the people. Though it really wasn’t about the funding or lack thereof when really the followings what mattered as unto the Lord. That’s assuming first off though that anywhere around was large enough to actually have such a store. Remember, the former recommendation from disciple headquarters itself there for the taking. Supposing there wasn’t enough to go around then in plenty, regardless of how much actual money, the people were better off dispersing back to their own homes and towns. Regardless, we’ll see the Lord handling the matter again in a bit.