Summer Reflection 3- Mark 8:1-9
Mark 8:1 In those days again, when there was a great multitude and they had nothing to eat, He called His disciples and said to them, 2 “I feel compassion for the multitude because they have remained with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat;
Introduction
This morning I want to continue our Summer Reflections by looking at Mark chapter 8
And as we do so I think you will begin to realize that this seemingly innocent passage, lies at the very heart of Scripture and thus provides an essential ingredient of what it means to be a church and what it means to be a follower of Jesus
Mark 8:1 In those days again, when there was a great multitude and they had nothing to eat, He called His disciples and said to them, 2 “I feel compassion for the multitude because they have remained with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat; 3 and if I send them away hungry to their home, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a distance.”
A] Notice at once the first thing that strikes us is that (according to human standards) this is a very bad location to hold a revival. Simply put, it does not have the infrastructure to support the number of people in attendance. In modern terms: the NFL would not hold a Super Bowl here. The national political parties would not approve of it as the site for their big convention. By every human standard this is a very bad location for a revival. Importance: here we come upon our first life lesson: we need to be very careful in our own lives that we do not try to limit God to only those things that make sense by human standards. Sometimes God will use the very impracticality or unlikeliness of a situation to clarify for us exactly who is in charge; and in whose hands the matter has always rested.
B] Next, notice the circumstances that have led up to our passage: People have heard that Jesus is passing through the area and they have come out to hear him (and some of them have traveled a great distance). Not only that, in Matthew’s account of this same event (15:30) we learn that they brought the lame and sick to Jesus for Him to healFN#1. Notice the result: by the time we reach our passage the people have caught up with Jesus and have been with him three days. However, there is a problem: the people have outstayed their provisions [notice the verb tense here: Jesus does not say “they have been with me 3 days and have had nothing to eat. Rather, Jesus says they have been here three days and have (present tense) nothing to eat. In other words, they ran out of food]. Importance: what is beginning to unfold in our passage is the lavishness of God. Jesus has provided more than the people were counting on (in other words, Jesus has exceeded their expectations and therefore their provisions).
C] Notice the result: Jesus feels compassion for the people. He knows they are hungry and that many of them have traveled a long way. Therefore, Jesus wants to feed them before they leave (again the lavishness of God). Importance: notice at once that this notion of God’s care and compassion, which the disciples are about to learn, is the very same care and compassion that Scripture calls each of us to show. However, in our passage today we get to see what it looks like when God’s people share their heavenly Father’s compassion.
4 And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough to satisfy these men with bread here in a desolate place?”
Notice at once the way the disciples respond to the need: they pull their check books out and try to answer the dilemma with cash. In other words, their first response is to try and buy some bread FN#2. However, there is a problem: there is nowhere in the area to buy the amount of bread they need. In other words, Jesus has chosen a location that utterly neutralizes their money. Their money is absolutely worthless. They cannot provide the needed solution.
5 And He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.”
Notice at once that verses 4-5 are the hinge of the entire passage. First, in verse 4 Jesus calls His disciples to a humanly impossible task. And now in verse 5 Jesus asks the disciples to put all that they have towards this futile business. Not only that, think about it: where did the disciples get the 7 loaves that they have? The 7 loaves are their own provisions for the road. So, to recap, Jesus has proposed an impossible task and asked the disciples to invest (not disposable income but) their very sustenance. Importance: the disciples are learning the economics of Heaven, which is this: everything to be a part of God’s compassionate work. In other words, God’s compassion (not finances, abilities, or situations) is to set the course of our work, walk, and ministries. It is the first concern/objective/pursuit for which we are to be ready to trade everything else. Is this where God is leading? Then that is where I will be.
6 And He directed the multitude to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the multitude. 7 They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well.
Notice at once the surprise: Jesus takes the bread and fish but He does not feed the multitude. Instead, Jesus hands the bread to the disciples and they feed the multitudes. Notice the result: by the time we reach verse 6, the disciples are participating in the compassion of God (their hands/actions are moving in sync with God’s heart). Simply put, Mark 8 is what Scripture’s call to compassion looks like. It is God’s people having God’s compassion as their first objective in all they do.
8 And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces. 9 And about four thousand were there; then He sent them away.
Notice at once the Gospel in the baskets: remember these baskets were what the people had packed their provisions in when they left home and now they are empty FN#3. However, Jesus not only feeds the multitude before they leave, He also fills their baskets for their journey home. Importance: again we see the lavishness of God’s compassion. Notice then the tally of God’s compassion: the people have stayed past their provisions because they have received from Jesus far more than the quick fixes they were looking for. They have been healed; they have heard the message of salvation; they have been fed; and on top of all of that, they have been given provisions for the road ahead. And then Jesus sends them away.
In the meantime, you, me, and the disciples have learned what it means to be a church as well as the single focus of your walk with God- everything/anything in order to share in the compassion of God, to be a part of what God is doing.
Footnotes
1] Matthew 15:30 And great multitudes came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, dumb, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them, 31 so that the multitude marveled as they saw the dumb speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. 32 And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the multitude, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not wish to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”
One final point: an interesting study would be to follow the trail of crumbs through this section of Mark’s Gospel. Just before our passage occurs, Jesus had been in the region of Tyre and Sidon in the north. It is there that he has the encounter with the Canaanite woman whose daughter was demon possessed (a passage that we reference every week in our liturgy). Before healing the daughter, Jesus responds to her mother’s pleas by saying:
Mark 7:27 “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”28 But she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”
A few verses later Jesus hands his disciples bread to feed the 4000
Mark 8:5 And He was asking them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.” 6 And He directed the multitude to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the multitude.
Finally as they board the boat to cross the sea, the conversation once again turns to bread
Mark 8:14 And they had forgotten to take bread; and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. 15 And He was giving orders to them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”16 And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? 18 “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember,19 when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” 20 “And when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they said to Him, “Seven.” 21 And He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?” 22 And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Him,
Anyway, I thought I would point this out to you here in the footnotes because it might be a fun study for you to explore
2] Notice by the time our passage occurs the disciples have already seen Jesus feed the 5000. Notice then in just a few verses Jesus will bring this point to the disciples’ attention
Mark 8: 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? 18 “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember, 19 when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” 20 “And when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they said to Him, “Seven.”
Importance: the disciples’ attitude is exactly the same as our attitude today. What? Miracles don’t happen today. Miracles may have happened back then but we should not expect them to happen today- even though the very hands into which the disciples placed the bread to feed the 5000 are the very same hands in front of them now and are the very same hands that are in front of you and me today
3] σπυρίς, (Basket)- the word here denotes a large reed basket or hamper used by Jews especially on longer journeys, for carrying along levitically clean provisions, such as food.
Where did the baskets come from? There are two options here: the first is that these baskets belonged to the disciples and were for their provisions. This seems highly unlikely. First the baskets would have been expensive and time consuming to make. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the disciples would have left them behind. Case in point: in just a few verses down from our passage the disciples think Jesus is mad that they forgot to bring bread with them as they crossed the sea. However, in that passage there is no mention of baskets only bread. In other words, the disciples don’t think Jesus is mad because they left their storage bins. Instead, they think He is mad because they did not get their share of the bread out of those bins when they were filling them.
Mark 8:14 And they had forgotten to take bread; and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. 15 And He was giving orders to them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16 And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.
Notice then there is no mention of baskets. Bottom line: the baskets did not belong to the disciples. It is unlikely that they would have forgotten such a valuable item and there is no mention of the baskets in their misunderstanding of Jesus.
Therefore, the second option is that the baskets belonged to the folks in the multitude who had traveled some distance to see Jesus. Importance: the people during this time knew how to do pilgrimage. Three times a year the Jewish people would travel (some a great distance) to Jerusalem for the prescribed feasts. Likewise, the first time we meet several of the disciples, they have traveled from the north all the way down to the south to hear John the Baptist who is preaching and baptizing on the other side of the Jorden. In other words they knew how to travel. This fact together with the verb tense in verse 2 (they have nothing to eat instead of they have had nothing to eat) together with the common meaning of the particular Greek word used here for basket to denote a traveling bag, all indicates that the baskets belonged to the people who had come to see Jesus. They were the baskets in which the people had packed their provisions when they left home and which are now empty.