Feeding the [Legion]
Many passages of Scripture contain unexplored intersections of faith and service. The feeding of the 5,000 in particular, contains some prominent military language. For example, the scene is preceded in Matthew and Mark by Herod killing Jesus’ relative and mentor, John the Baptizer, evoking an act of war. Mark goes further, pointing out the murder occurs at a banquet with Herod’s “military commanders.” (chiliarchos, Mark 6:21)
The crowd “had no leisure even to eat” (6:31) because they “were coming and going,” a weird phrase that comes outta nowhere. Casual Bible readers might not notice that the Hebrew Scriptures use something like it to suggest military authority. Mark says the crowd was erchomai (G2064) and hypago (G5217). These are both root words used to form similar phrases in the Greek Old Testament to evoke political and military activity.
After King Saul makes David a chiliarchos in 1 Samuel 18:13, “…all Israel and Judah loved David; for it was he who ekporeuomai (G1607) and eisporeuomai (G1531), leading them.” (1 Samuel 18:16) When Solomon asks YHWH for wisdom, it is because a king is supposed to “know how to exerchomai (G1831)and eiserchomai (G1525).” (2 Chronicles 1:10) The “coming and going” of Mark is meant to connect readers with the military order and political authority of Israel’s idealized past. But it also connects “Jesus” to his Biblical namesake, the Son of Nun.
As Moses nears the end of his life, YHWH tells him to call a new leader of Israel, one “who shall exerchomai and eiserchomai before them, who shall exerchomai and eiserchomai, so that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” (Numbers 27:17) That new leader is Joshua, the same name Mary was told to give God’s Son.
Following John’s murder by Herod, the crowd anticipates a military response by the prophet’s apparent successor. Mark 6:34 depicts the “great crowd” as an infantry unit anxiously awaiting orders, a Roman legio in need of a legatus. Later, we are even told that this legion of meandering Judeans is broken down into groups of “hundreds” (hekaton, v.40), just like Roman legions, each of which would have its own centurion (hekatontarchēs).
Jesus is the new Joshua, a model commander. Rather than mirror his soldiers’ bloodlust, “Jesus” sees his troops and is moved to compassion “because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”
Mark wants us to make no mistake; Jesus is the new Joshua. The messiah has come to lead the people, but not in the way they expect. They want blood, and he’s there for it, just not someone else’s. Not all soldiers kill, but they do all know that they might sacrifice their lives for a higher purpose. Like his Father, “Jesus” can’t bear to see his people in disarray, and a little blood is a small price to pay for salvation.
