Sheep Without a Shepherd

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Mark 6 is the longest chapter in the gospel so far. It covers more ground than any previous chapter — rejection, mission, murder, feeding, a night on the water — and it moves with Mark's characteristic urgency. But underneath the pace there is a sustained thread: what it costs to follow the way of Jesus, and the compassion that keeps meeting people anyway.

Read the whole chapter before the walk-through.

Walk-through

Not without honor, except (verses 1–6)

Jesus comes to his hometown, Nazareth, and teaches in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The people who hear him are astonished — but astonishment is not the same as faith. They know where he is from. They know his mother and his brothers and sisters. They know the carpenter.

Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own house."

Mark 6:4

He can do no mighty work there — except he lays hands on a few sick people and heals them. Mark's phrase is precise: not that he chooses not to, but that he cannot — the absence of faith closes something. He marvels at their unbelief. The man who marvelled at the centurion's extraordinary faith in chapter 8 of Matthew here marvels at its opposite.

He goes around the villages teaching.

Sent out (verses 7–13)

He calls the Twelve and begins to send them out two by two. He gives them authority over unclean spirits. His instructions are sparse: take a walking stick, sandals, no bread, no bag, no money, no extra coat. When you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If a place will not receive you, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.

They go out and proclaim that people should repent. They cast out many demons. They anoint many sick people with oil and heal them.

The death of John (verses 14–29)

Mark inserts a flashback here. Herod hears about Jesus — word of what he is doing has reached the palace. Herod's explanation: it must be John the Baptist raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

Then the story of how John died.

Herod had arrested John because John told him plainly: it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. Herodias — the wife — wanted John killed. Herod was afraid of him, knowing he was a righteous and holy man. He kept him safe. He also liked listening to him, though what he heard disturbed him.

On Herod's birthday, Salome — Herodias's daughter — dances before the guests and pleases Herod greatly. He swears to give her whatever she asks, up to half his kingdom. She asks her mother what to request. Her mother: the head of John the Baptist.

The king is deeply grieved. But because of his oath and his guests, he cannot refuse. He sends an executioner. The head is brought on a platter. John's disciples come and take the body and lay it in a tomb.

The flashback ends. The death of John the Baptist is the future of the one who sent him. Mark places it here — inside the mission of the Twelve — so that the reader understands what proclamation costs in a world with Herods in it.

Come away and rest (verses 30–34)

The apostles return and gather around Jesus. They report everything they have done and taught. He says:

"Come away into a deserted place, and rest awhile." For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

Mark 6:31

They go by boat to a desolate place. The crowd sees them leaving, figures out where they are going, and runs there on foot from all the towns — arriving ahead of them.

Jesus comes out of the boat and sees the great crowd.

He came out and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.

Mark 6:34

The rest does not happen. The crowd has beaten them to the shore. He looks at them and what he sees is not an interruption — it is people without direction, without care, without anyone to guide them. His compassion does not need a schedule. He teaches them.

Five loaves (verses 35–44)

It grows late. The disciples come: this is a desolate place, the hour is late, send them away to buy food.

He answered them, "You give them something to eat."

Mark 6:37

They are confused — would we spend two hundred denarii on bread? He asks: how many loaves do you have? Go and see. Five loaves and two fish.

He commands the crowd to sit down in groups on the green grass — groups of hundreds and fifties. He takes the five loaves and two fish, looks up to heaven, blesses and breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples to set before the people. He divides the two fish among them all.

All eat and are satisfied. Twelve baskets of broken pieces are left over. Five thousand men had eaten.

Took, blessed, broke, gave. The four verbs are the same as the Last Supper. Mark is not being accidental. The feeding in the wilderness is the same action that will happen in the upper room — the same hands, the same movement, the same gift given to the hungry.

On the water (verses 45–52)

Immediately he makes his disciples get into the boat and go ahead to Bethsaida while he dismisses the crowd. He goes up the mountain to pray, alone. Evening comes. The boat is in the middle of the sea; he is alone on land. He sees them making headway painfully, for the wind is against them.

In the fourth watch of the night — between three and six in the morning — he comes to them, walking on the sea. He means to pass by them.

When they see him walking on the water, they think it is a ghost and cry out in fear. He speaks to them immediately:

"For they all saw him and were troubled. But he immediately spoke with them and said to them, 'Cheer up! It is I. Don't be afraid.' He got into the boat with them; and the wind ceased, and they were very amazed among themselves, and marveled; for they hadn't understood about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened."

Mark 6:50–52

It is I — in Greek, ego eimi, I am. The same construction used in the Old Testament for the divine name. He is not just identifying himself to frightened men in a boat; he is using the name that belongs to the one who parted the sea, who spoke from the burning bush, who made a way in the wilderness.

The disciples are amazed. And then the verdict: their hearts were hardened. The same phrase used for the Pharisees in chapter 3. The disciples who have been with him, who just watched him feed five thousand from five loaves, still do not understand. The hardness is not malice — it is incomprehension. They are not yet able to see what they are seeing.

Gennesaret (verses 53–56)

They cross to Gennesaret. The people recognise him immediately and run through the whole region bringing the sick to wherever they hear he is. Wherever he goes — villages, cities, countryside — they lay the sick in the marketplaces and beg him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. All who touch it are made well.

Take with you

The rest that Jesus offered the disciples in verse 31 was interrupted before it began. The crowd was already there. And his response was compassion — not irritation, not a rescheduled plan, but the seeing that changes everything: they were like sheep without a shepherd.

He knows how to see people. He sees what they actually are, not what they appear to be from a distance. He saw the crowd as lost, not as a nuisance. He saw the disciples in the boat as afraid, and went to them across the water. He saw Nazareth's unbelief clearly, and marvelled.

The disciples are moving toward understanding but are not there yet. Their hearts are still hardened — not against Jesus, but to the full weight of who he is. They have seen the loaves and the water, and both still feel like problems that got solved rather than signs of what is standing in the boat with them.

Mark is patient. The understanding will come. But it will cost something before it does.