In Mark’s account of the feeding of the 5000, we’re specifically told that Jesus sat all the people down in an orderly fashion, on the green grass. With military like precision, he organised them. With shepherd like care, he directed them to fertile ground.

Mark places the story just after the story of Herod’s cowardly and callous execution of John the Baptist. Herod, as king of Israel was a poor shepherd. God’s people sat under corrupt and lacklustre leadership. Their appetite for a good king was evident in the rigorous way they pursued Jesus en masse. But unlike Herod, when Jesus saw the people, “he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

The whole episode by the sea of Galilee reflects the delightful beauty of Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” Jesus is the Lord who leads his people in perfect righteousness. He governs from a base of compassion. With him as our Lord, we lack nothing.

And we never will. Because his love will always attend us, and his glory ever sustain us. In Jesus our souls will always find endless nourishment. Such is his commitment and compassion toward us.