Mark 8: Feeding the 4000 - a story of compassion in the ordinary
“During those days, another massive crowd gathered to hear Jesus, and again, there was no food and the people were hungry. So Jesus called his disciples to come near him and said to them, “My heart goes out to this crowd, for they’ve already been here with me for three days with nothing to eat. I’m concerned that if I send them home hungry, they’ll be exhausted along the way, for some of them have come a long, long way just to be with me.” His disciples replied, “But could anyone possibly get enough food to satisfy a crowd this size out here in this isolated place?” He asked them, “How many loaves of flatbread have you got?” “Seven,” they replied. Jesus instructed the crowd to sit down on the grass. After he took the seven loaves, he gave thanks to God, broke them, and started handing them to his disciples. They kept distributing the bread until they had served the entire crowd. They also had a few small fish, and after giving thanks for these, Jesus had his disciples serve them to the crowd. Everyone ate until they were satisfied. Then the disciples gathered up the broken pieces and filled seven large baskets with the leftovers. About four thousand people ate the food that had been multiplied! Then he dismissed the crowd. Afterward, Jesus got into a boat and sailed to the vicinity of Dalmanutha.”
Compassion
According to the dictionary, compassion is a deep sympathy and a desire to help.
The need wasn’t particularly glamourous. It wasn’t particularly impressive. It was a day-to-day need. They were hungry. And although it wasn’t a big deal in the whole place of human history - it was very real for them.
Jesus told them to sit down. He gets involved in the day-to-day needs that we have, not just the ‘big’ things. God has compassion on us despite the size of the need.
He flung the stars into space, yet he still has compassion on us.
Where do we need God’s compassion in our lives?
The Power of Testimony
“His disciples replied, “But could anyone possibly get enough food to satisfy a crowd this size out here in this isolated place?””
This is intriguing how quickly it follows the feeding of the 5,000. Imagine the scene. Everyone is hungry and in need.
Where are we going to get enough food? Are you kidding me? Only a few chapters ago - they witnessed the 5,000 being fed. It’s the same deal, just 1,000 less. They had been there. They witnessed it. They were involved in handing out the food.
But in this situation - they just look at Jesus blankly.
No one tentatively suggesting multiplying again as they did previously. Did they not realize that this was the same situation and that Jesus could do something about it?
What would you have done? It’s easy to answer this question in hindsight - but are there times where God has acted and provided for us, and we’ve forgotten about it?
By looking back at what God has done for us before, and looking at how God has answered our prayers it gives us hope and inspires our faith that God can do it again.
Remember what God has done for you. It helps in the present.
“...The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
If we share a testimony of what God has done, it is like He will want to do it again. Our testimonies are prophetic in nature.
Share your testimony - you don’t know who it might encourage or who it might inspire.
What about when horrible things happen and God doesn’t seem to have answered your prayers? What about when bad things happen to good people? It doesn’t always make sense. It doesn’t always seem fair - but God is still God. You may want to shout at God, “What is going on?!”
I don't have all the answers, but what I do know is that God is good, He cares for me and He has a plan for me - a plan to prosper me and not to harm me. How do you balance this out when things aren’t going well?
One of the things that you can do is look back and see how God has done things before…and understand that He can do it again.