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our last study Jesus was in the region known as the Decapolis. Jesus
went there in an attempt to get some rest, but he was unsuccessful due
to the crowds that came after Him. Nevertheless, He healed many that
day including a man who could not speak and could barely hear. The miracle
was unusual since Jesus’ method was unusual. After his long and
tiring day, Jesus remained in the area. News about Him spread everywhere
after that day of healing miracles. If we could have been there, we would
have heard excited people talking about the various and many healing
miracles that He had performed. We might have heard someone talking about
the healing of their grandmother, a father, or some mother’s child.
Since they did not have printing presses, televisions or radios, news
spread by word of mouth. The news about Jesus was not the ordinary common
stuff. It was extremely impressive news. The people came from all over
the region and as we will soon discove,r the crowd was large.
The Situation. The events that followed
are described in Mark 8:1-21 and Matthew 15:32-16:12. Mark 8:1-21 indicates
that a very large crowd had gathered and had been with Jesus for three days.
When is the last time a crowd gathered and remained for days to listen to
anyone in our times? They did in Jesus’ day. They remained so long
that the food that they had brought had been depleted. When the evening of
the third day came, they were hungry.
In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, “I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat.” Mark 8:1-2 (NAS95S) Jesus knew this and
responded with compassion. Consequently, Jesus turned to his disciples
and began to involve them in what would eventually become another spiritual
lesson. Jesus knew what He planned to do, but the disciples were clueless.
So He said,
If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance. Mark 8:3 (NAS95S) The Problem. Wherever this meeting out-in-the-open
occurred, it was desolate. There was no food nearby. Verse nine reveals
that the crowd was indeed large. There were four thousand people. Since
the Jews typically counted only the men in those days, as indicated in
Matthew 15:38, we can reasonably conclude that there could have been
at least twenty thousand people, including women and children.
Jesus started by calling their attention to the personal needs of the
men, women, and children that were present. Sometimes we become enthusiastic
about all of the people or the events that are occurring, and we forget
about the needs of individuals. But that was not true of Jesus.
And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?” Mark 8:4 (NAS95S) The disciples’ response to Jesus’ statement that the people
were hungry reveals that they only saw the roadblocks and not the solution.
They had not learned from their previous experience when Jesus fed five
thousand men and an unstated number of women and children. So Jesus helped
them.
And He was asking them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.” Mark 8:5 (NAS95S) What
a simple question Jesus asked. The disciples knew how to count even though
they were spiritually sort-sighted - perhaps many as twenty thousand
people and only seven loaves of bread. Peter and the other disciples
must have thought what an impossible task to feed so many people with
so little. Sometimes we think that way. We see our finances disappearing
and our first thought is to get a second job or work harder. Sometimes
church leaders only see how “little monies” the Lord is providing
and forget that our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps 50:10).
When we do not respond with, “Lord help” we have excluded
God and assumed that we will solve our own problems. We forget that God
owns everything, and He can meet our needs easily. Also, I wonder if
one of the disciples started strategizing how he could be one of the
first to get some of the food before it disappeared? If so, he thought
only of himself and not the masses seeking Jesus’ ministry.
The Solution. After the disciple answered, Jesus asked everyone to sit
down.
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| Life & Heart of Jesus | |||||
