Mark 8:1-10. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 01, 2019.
In our story today, we are going to see another miraculous feeding of thousands of people with only a small amount of food. Back in Mark 6, we saw the feeding of the 5,000 and now it happens again.
The stories both follow the same pattern and emphasize the same points. Thus, we will be revisiting them. However, the second occurrence of this miracle serves to underline its importance to us. God wants us to understand, to apprehend, that He really does have compassion on the multitudes of people who are on this planet, and even more so, for those who come to Him seeking help.
The story starts with Jesus explaining to his disciples that he has compassion for the crowd. They had come out to a place in the country far from any close town. They had also been there for three days listening to Jesus and seeing him heal many.
Now, when we think about Jesus having compassion upon the crowd, we should also make the connection that Jesus is the perfect representation of our Father in heaven. His compassion is the compassion of the Father. In fact, his very presence is part of the compassion of God. It is easy to think of God as being distant and uncaring because He is not physically with us, but the Scriptures reveal that He is compassionate at the core of His being.
The word for “compassion” is meant to speak of a very deep-seated emotion of concern for the situation of another. It is an aspect of the love of God. God’s compassion, or concern for our situation, is demonstrated at first in a general way. John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (ESV). God’s love sees mankind in its dire straits of sin and inability to fix things. He is moved to do something about it and so, He sends His only son to save us. Those who are against God and are enemies towards His purposes also benefit from His loving provision of resources both in material matters (sun, earth, matter, etc.) and His offer of spiritual forgiveness.
Yet, in our story, we have a very specific compassion of God upon a very specific group of people, upon those who were hungry for him and what he was doing. Jesus was a novelty, but he also spoke and acted on behalf of God. The people knew this and were drawn to him. On the other hand, the religious authorities were already rejecting Jesus. Many times, the common people have far more sense (common sense) than the educated elite. Yet, their common sense is not without error, and it is not enough to save them. They must learn to put their faith in Jesus regardless of what happens.
Perhaps you are reading this today, a recipient of the general love, grace, and compassion of God, and yet you have a very specific need. Can you believe that Jesus sees your need and looks upon you with compassion? Even when we are wrestling with our faith and our ability to follow him, even then, he has compassion upon us. Remember the disciple Peter. Don’t fall into the trap of cynically believing that he loves the world, but doesn’t care at all about you specifically. The truth is that God loves you and has compassion on your situation.
It is one thing to be moved by the plight of the people, and quite another to have the wherewithal to do something about it. In this story we see the limitations of the compassion of people. The disciples of Jesus do not borrow the lunch of a little boy this time. They have 7 loaves of bread and two small fish. This is not enough to feed the disciples, much less thousands of people. They are also in a remote place in which there is no food to buy. Lastly, it is highly unlikely that they have enough dough to buy bread even if they could. As humans, we are often bumping up against our limitations, and it is easy to see the limitations themselves as a kind of evil. "I could do something for God if only I had more of (fill in the blank here)!" God is constantly calling us to things that are more than we can do in and of ourselves. This is not a bad thing. The whole transhumanist movement is built off of the idea that our limitations are inherently bad. Yet, there is a wisdom of God in our weakness. It is a sad and lonely road that we head down when we try to make ourselves gods through technology. It is a never-ending sacrifice of your true self for the want of something that you can never be.
Our limitations teach us to trust and look to God to provide what we lack. It is not a cop-out where we fail to use our gifts and work hard. Rather, it is a strong confidence that, if I do my best with what I have, I can trust God to supply what I lack. It gives us peace to know that God does not expect us to take His place.
God’s compassion and provision is unlimited, but ours is not. Yet, God has a way of blessing us when we step out and do what He has told us to do. It doesn’t always come in a way that looks supernatural, but it truly does come from a supernatural source. Our church has had an example of this during the fundraising of our Thanksgiving Compassion Ministry. Every year, we try to bless as many families as we can with the ability to have a full Thanksgiving meal as well as extra groceries on top of that. We are totally dependent upon people donating each year. This year we had several behind the scenes donations that were quite large and had not happened in the past. We also had a church member who pulled together a Singspiration night that raised about $600 for the ministry and also had not happened in the past. When you step out and do what you can, God’s help comes to us through whatever means He chooses to use. We can take peace in knowing this truth.
If you remember the famous Serenity Prayer, you see the same wisdom behind it. May God give us the courage to change or do the things that we can, be at peace with the things that we can’t do or change, and have the wisdom to know that He knows what we lack.
Before we look at the miracle, we are told that Jesus gives thanks for the bread (vs. 6) and blesses it (vs. 7). Here our Lord models the proper attitude for us. We too easily fall into the habit of despising the smallness of what we have, instead of being thankful for it. This despising has a way of bringing a kind of curse upon the little that we do have. It will never be enough because my heart is “two sizes too small.” Jesus does not look down on the 7 loaves and complain against God that they are in a deserted place without very much food. Instead, Jesus sees the bread for what it is. It is a good thing and something for which they should be thankful to God. Thankfulness is about recognizing good, regardless the size, and being grateful to God for it.
So, what does it mean to bless the food? There are two aspects to this. On one hand we are asking God to help the food to meet the need within us, to strengthen, and to nurture us. However, we are also blessing God for providing it. It is just another form of being thankful. I am thankful for this food and I bless you, Father God, for being the kind of God who would provide such things for His children! We focus too much of our time on trying to get God to bless us and not enough on trying to bless Him. Yes, you can bless the Creator of the universe. Let’s resist the tendency to have a grinchy heart. Let's ask the Lord to increase our ability to be thankful, and bless Him for His provision, even in the face of apparent lack. I can be at peace because He has promised to take care of me.
Jesus has the people sit down in groups and then has the disciples serve the food to them. How the miracle occurs is not explained exactly. There just continues to be more to pass on to the next person until we are told that the people ate and were filled. This is an important theme within the gospels. Those that come to God will be filled. He is the source of all satisfaction and fulfillment in this life. Any other source will leave us hungry and empty, but only God can truly satisfy.
In this story, the miracle is in the need for natural food in order to deal with natural hunger. However, Jesus continually tells us that there is a more important hunger and a more important bread that we need, that is the hunger for the righteousness of God. Matthew 5:6 says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.” (NKJV). I have asked this before and I will ask it again. What am I hungry for? Our flesh hungers for all manner of things that can never truly satisfy us. Many pursue the tastes, sights, sounds, pleasures, and the experiences of this life, but they always leave you needing more. There is not anything necesarily wrong with them. They were created to be limited just as you are limited. However, humans were not designed to be ultimately fulfilled by the limited things of this world. We were designed to be filled with God Himself. We are made to be a person that He can dwell within and satisfy the very depths of our heart and soul. May God help us to hunger for things that are greater than the newest trinkets of this age. May God help us to hunger for Him and for His righteousness. I do not say this as if God could care less about our material needs. This story begs to differ. He does! Yet, we must never be content for the natural bread and not use the strength from it to pursue the Bread from Heaven.
We are told that there are 7 baskets leftover. The word for basket in this account is different from the one in Mark 6. This is a larger basket that a person could sit in. What is the significance? Clearly, God can supply more than we need. Yet, 7 is a number that connotes complete and full provision. It emphasizes that God’s provision is a complete provision that often overflows. In this case, the number of the crowd is 4,000 men. Matthew’s account tells us that there were also some women and children there. Jesus sends them all home with full bellies, but hopefully with hearts that are full of the Spirit of God also.
Let me end with noting that there is some skepticism concerning this account. Some think that it is just a retelling of the same event of Mark 6, but with the details wrong. That could be plausible if the Gospels did not agree about the story. However, the Gospels are very clear. All of them have the feeding of the 5,000 and the number is the same in each. Mark and Matthew both agree that there was a second event, but with 4,000 men. Their timelines leading up to the event agree, and the details that differ from the feeding of the 5,000 also agree. These facts make it highly unlikely that both Matthew and Mark accidentally record a second erroneous telling of the event (especially since Matthew would have been an eye-witness).
The best argument of the skeptics is that the disciples seem to have no clue that Jesus could do the same thing again. Surely, if Jesus had done this before then they would mention it this time. Right? The problem with this argument is that in the text itself (see verses 17 and 18), Jesus himself berates them for being slow of understanding and not remembering what he had done before. The clincher, though, would be what Jesus says next in verses (19-20). Jesus mentions the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 as two distinct events, exactly as they are recorded in Matthew and Mark.
You could say that such skepticism comes from the same difficulty the disciples had. It comes from a heart that is having trouble accepting the power of God. This second event serves to remind the people that God is still their provider, just as He provided Manna in the desert with Moses. Yet, it also serves to highlight and stress God’s intention towards us. He not only intends to provide for us, He already has provided all that we could ever need. We simply need to trust Him and step forth in faith!