Welcome to our Bible study on the Gospel of Mark in our Alexio series.

It's great to have you back, and we're excited.

This episode, we're going to focus on two key episodes in the life of Jesus here in the Gospel of Mark

that both center around the bread.

And we're going to see that bread, and the mystery of the bread, is going to be very important for Mark.

It's at the center of

his story of Jesus. And we're going to see that it's echoing and alluding to this famous story of

Israel that we've talked about before, the Exodus. And of course, if you remember, as Israel is

crossing out of Egypt through the wilderness for those 40 years, they were sustained by the manna,

by the bread from heaven that God provided. And so the manna, the bread, was crucial. It was

vital to Israel's survival and sustenance on their journey to the promised land, on their way,

that way of the Lord, that we saw echoed in chapter one of Mark,

the way of the Lord, that is the Exodus way that Isaiah spoke of as a new Exodus way,

and now as we're following Jesus, we know he is leading us as a new Moses on a new Exodus,

and of course there's going to have to be a new manna,

a new manifestation of the bread. And we see that in two key episodes, one in chapter six of

Mark and the other at the beginning of chapter eight. And those two have certain parallels,

as well as some contrast that I want to focus in on in our episode, because for Mark,

if you don't get the mystery of the bread, you're not

going to understand the mystery of Jesus. Those two are deeply intertwined. So let's look at chapter 6,

verse 30 and following. We find that Jesus when the apostles cross to the

side they go to a lonely place but the crowds follow them the crowds see them and

...