‘And he commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks he broke and gave to his disciples to set before them. And they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish, and having blessed them he commanded to set these also before them.”
Some have likened this to the giving of bread at the Lord's Supper, but while in some way it prepared for the latter it is interesting that here He gave thanks for the bread while in Mark 6:41 and Mark 14:22 He blessed it. Here it is the fish that He blessed. Had Mark intended to bring out the parallel this is not what we would have expected. (Interestingly in Mark 14:23 he gave thanks for the wine). Thus there is no slavish following of a recognised liturgy and we should recognise that what was done here simply followed the normal pattern of a Jewish meal. But certainly the significance is similar. He was offering Himself to them as the Bread of life (John 6:35).
‘Having given thanks He broke and gave to His disciples.' As a Jewish father would give thanks and break and hand on pieces of bread, so did Jesus in His Father's name. But there is symbolism here for it portrayed how once He was broken His disciples would minister Him as the Bread of life to the world.
The fish also were ‘blessed', (that is God was blessed for their provision), and passed on, mentioned only because they were part of what happened, but stated separately and unnumbered lest they blur the significance of the seven loaves. In this account the stress is on the sevenfold, divinely perfect bread.