Conversation Points for Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• This is the only time Mark referred to the disciples as “apostles” (apostello meaning “to send”), a term Luke will use exclusively in Acts. Here Mark used it as a reflection of them having been sent in v. 7.
• In v. 34, the reference to “sheep without a shepherd” calls on a common metaphor. Moses prayed for the people to have a leader so they would not be “sheep without a shepherd” (Numbers 27:17). The prophets criticized kings for not shepherding the people (1 Kings 22:17). Ezekiel spoke of when God would be the shepherd (Ezekiel 34:5-6).
• Jesus acts as shepherd by feeling compassion, teaching, and (in the story we’ll hear next week) by feeding.
• The word “compassion” is used eight times in the Gospels to refer to Jesus’ attitude toward humanity; compassion is an essential truth about God. To have compassion for another is to suffer with them, it is not something that can be experienced from afar. Jesus, the Word made Flesh, is the tangible sign of God’s compassion.

Works Sourced:
Hall, Douglas John. “Mark 6:30-34, 53-56: Theological Perspective.” Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.

Perkins, Pheme. “The Gospel of Mark.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.