The Bread of Life! - Mark 8:1-10

 

The Bread of Life!

Mark 8:1-10

Introduction: Spring training is in progress, so forgive me if I start with a baseball reference! Yogi Berra died a few years ago and even Philly fans will have to admit that he had a great career as a catcher for the NY Yankees! He was an 18-time all-star, and played in 14 World Series with the Yankees, of which they won 10 (more than any other player in history). He is also well known for some of the sayings he came up with over the years (OK, most of which are memorable because they don’t make sense!), like…

1) “No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded!”;

2) “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”;

3) “Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical!”;

4) “The future ain’t what it used to be!”;

5) “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”;

6) “It gets late early out here!” and finally,

7) “It’s like déjà vu all over again!”  

       At this point in Mark’s Gospel, we encounter a story that sounds really familiar, a large crowd, a few loaves, some fish, and a miraculous feeding!  Is it “déjà vu all over again,” or could it be something new?  John tells us that if everything Jesus did was written down, the world could not contain the books that would be written (Jn 21:25). Why did God inspire Mark to write down a second, similar, feeding of a multitude? Some commentators actually say that it is a repetition of the same miracle story we saw in Mark 6. That doesn’t make sense since they are only a couple of chapters apart, and as we’ll see, there are significant differences in the stories. Also, in 8:14-21 Jesus talks to the disciples about the two events! I think that may be a key: the disciples were slow to learn the lessons Jesus was teaching. Only John gives us Jesus' "Bread of Life" discourse after the feeding of the 5,000. Many people were confounded by Jesus' teaching, and even the disciples struggled to understand. in John 6:32-33 Jesus said, 

"Truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father who gives you the bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 

Jesus is the Bread of Life! He shows compassion on the multitude, and patiently He reinforces and deepens some lessons the disciples needed to learn. We never have to hear a lesson twice before we learn, do we?  I do, and often more than twice! Like Yogi, “I learned that lesson before, I just forgot it!” 

Context: As the chapter opens, Jesus continues to minister in the region of Decapolis, another predominantly gentile area, on the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee. The deaf man in the previous scene had his ears opened by Jesus, may He open our ears and our hearts to the message here! That brings us to…

The BIG Idea: If we remember what God has already done for us we will trust Him, even as we face the challenges of life in this fallen world. We’ll be reminded to 1)Look up and trust the Lord; 2) Look back and remember what God has done; 3) Look ahead with hope; and we should always 4) Look within, asking what God is trying to teach us…

I. Look up and trust in the Lord: The scene reminds us that He is compassionate and knows our needs (1-3).  As we trust Him, we should also learn from His example!

In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them,  ² “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.  ³ And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”  

       “In those days” connects this story with the previous context, and tells us that Jesus was still in Gentile territory, not far from where the deaf man was healed, on the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee. The fame of Jesus was spreading beyond the context of Judaism, and even though He came first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, His compassion extended to the nations. From the time Jesus had set free the Gadarene demoniac (chapter 5) and sent him back to his own people with a mandate to tell them what God had done, the fame of Jesus was spreading through the region of the “Ten Cities” (Decapolis). Again, that location makes it highly likely that this crowd was predominantly gentile.  

       A great crowd gathered to hear Jesus, and the people apparently didn’t come prepared for a lengthy stay. After three days, it seems that whatever meager provisions they had with them were all but gone. Yet the teaching of the Master was so compelling they stayed, seemingly hungering for the truth more than for physical food. Have you ever been so engaged in something that you forgot to eat?  (Rarely does that happen to me!). Spiritually speaking, remember what Jesus said after forty days of fasting when He was being tempted in the wilderness? “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Jesus knows who is in the crowd. He even knows where they came from. And He knows they will need nourishment for the journey home. It’s another opportunity to compassionately meet a need, and also to continue to teach the disciples. These guys had to be ready to continue the mission without Jesus being physically present!  Their faith needed to be stretched.

       The similar miracle back in chapter 6 had some important differences from this one. The audience was different first of all. The first time the crowd was mostly Jewish. This time it is almost surely predominantly gentile. The first time the disciples came to Jesus with a problem, asking Him to send the people away to get food. Here, Jesus is the initiator. He calls the disciples to himself and begins to tell them what He is feeling and thinking. He feels compassion for the multitude, and He is concerned that their strength might fail, that they might not have the energy they need to even make it home. Why does Jesus lead the disciples through His thinking process? He knows what He is about to do, He also knows these men need to have a lesson reinforced in their hearts and minds. He is seemingly revealing his thoughts to them, that they might know Him better, and one day, follow His example. It seems they had forgotten, or at least grown a bit dull with respect to who Jesus is and what He could do in this situation. This lesson will help prepare them for the next phase of the mission, as they are challenged to consider their understanding of Jesus’ identity, and to wrestle with what He would soon tell them must happen in Jerusalem (His betrayal, death, and resurrection). We have the whole story, but do our hearts sometimes grow dull?  Do we not even notice the hunger in our own hearts, the longing we have for the Bread of Life? Some of us may be thinking of lunch… Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God… If we remember what God has already done for us we will trust Him as we face the challenges of life in this fallen world. So we Look up and trust and…

II. Look back and remember what God has done (4-5). Is anything too hard for God?

⁴ And his disciples answered him, "How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?"  ⁵ And he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven."  

       As I read this, I wonder when the disciples might have started to think, “This is déjà vu all over again!” Was it in their minds already when they ask Him the question, “How can we feed these people?” Did it come into their minds as soon as they got out the question, or was it maybe when He asked them how many loaves they had? Did they feel the earlier miracle was unique and that it would be presumptuous to bring the idea up, “Lord, maybe you could it again?” Did they wonder if He should feed them, if this was a predominantly gentile crowd? Wasn’t the messianic bread for the children? We don’t know for sure. Later Jesus does ask them, “…Do you not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?” (Mark 8:17). Sometimes we too can be spiritually dull.

       A while ago, on a cold morning, I got in my car and noticed the “low pressure” light for my tires had come on. I had seen that happen before with a temperature change, but decided to get it checked when I got the oil changed. The dealer wanted to sell me a new set of tires! I got a second opinion from a tire shop, they checked the tire out the dealer had said was bad and found no problem! We might look at the disciples here and wonder if they had a “brain” leak to forget so quickly, but it may be that in midst of the mission, their hearts had grown a bit cold to the lessons the Master was teaching. Maybe, like me and Yogi, they learned that lesson before, they just forgot it! A crowd, a little bread, a desolate place… but little is much when God is in it!

       Before we judge the disciples too harshly, we should each take our own spiritual temperature! Are there any “low pressure” warning lights coming on in your life or in mine? Was it hard to get up and out and come to church this morning? Did you come with joy, expecting a blessing, expecting to meet with the Lord?  How is your devotional life going? Do you have a time when you can pick up your Bible and read the Word, systematically, consistently?  Here is a tough one, how is your prayer life? I think if we are healthy, we always hunger for more. If prayer and Bible reading is a struggle, don’t despair! Persist, humbly call on God. The owner’s manual tells you that when you add air to the tires the pressure warning light won’t always immediately turn off, you may need to drive it for a few miles. So far, the warning light hasn’t come back on! Keep seeking! Ask Him for ears to hear and eyes to see! The Lord is compassionate, merciful, and gracious. He knows our weakness, and as we seek Him we will have the joy renewed! James said, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…” (James 4:8)! Keep knocking, keep seeking, keep asking.  God is faithful and compassionate.  If we remember what God has already done for us we will trust Him as we face the challenges of life in this fallen world. So we 1) look up and trust, 2) Look back and remember, then we can…

III. Look ahead, knowing He can do more than we would ask or think (6-9!) Don’t doubt what God can do! Little is much when God is in it!

⁶ And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.  ⁷ And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them.  ⁸ And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.  ⁹ And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 

       At each stage this scene is different than what we saw in Mark 6. Jesus takes that initiative, pointing out the problem, directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, and asking about the available food.  In the earlier story the disciples had come to Jesus with the problem. In the first miracle, there were five loaves and two fish. Here, there are seven loaves of bread, and then we learn in v.7, a “few small fish.” The word for “fish” is different form, implying something very small, like a sardine or something. It wasn’t much, but little is much when God is in it! From our post-crucifixion / post-resurrection perspective it is hard not to “hear” the language of the Lord’s supper anticipated in Jesus’ handling of the bread…

²² And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, "Take; this is my body."  ²³ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it… (Mark 14:22-23).

The blessing, the taking the bread, giving thanks, breaking it, and giving it, the same sequence of verbs that appear in this scene appear also in Mark 8. Only John gives us the extended “Bread of Life” discourse after the first feeding of the 5,000, when Jesus said, “I AM the Bread of Life….” But it may be that Mark would expect us, who have the whole story, to understand what the disciples, at that moment, could not have under-stood. All of these miracles, including the acts of compassion like we see here, were anticipating the greatest act of compassion, the demonstration of God’s love when Christ would die for us on the Cross. The need for physical bread is real, but there is a deeper hunger, a deeper need, that can only be met by the Bread of Life. The psalmist said, “For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things...” (107:9).

     God alone can satisfy the longing of our soul! Remember that the miracles Jesus did were glimpses of the future, the blessing of the messianic kingdom breaking into the present. When Jesus fed the Jewish multitude of the 5000 men (plus women and children) we said that was a look ahead to another meal, spoken of in Revelation 19:9,

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

One day there will be a messianic banquet with a remnant from every race and nation gathered at the Lord’s table! The full realization of the Kingdom is yet future, but as the King reigns in our hearts we see glimpses of the blessings of the Kingdom even as we live our lives in this fallen world. He gives us each day our daily bread. Our sure hope empowers us and deepens our faith!  If we remember what God has already done for us we will trust Him as we face the challenges of life. Look up, look back, look ahead, and…

IV. Look within, always ask “What do I need to learn? What is God trying to teach me in this trial?” (10). He had compassion on the crowd and met a need, and He continued the training of the disciples for the mission. Just as surely as the Lord walked with the disciples in the first century and taught them through His works and words, He is also walking with us through life in this fallen world, teaching us through His Word, and through His demonstrated faithfulness. The Scripture tells us,

“And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha…” (Mark 8:10).

     Mark tells us that “immediately,” once again, Jesus moves on. The action continues. He gets in the boat with His disciples and heads west across the lake to Dalmanutha, which may have been a small area near Magdala (the hometown of Mary Magdalene?). The return to Jewish territory would mean that the conflict with the leaders would be renewed (in the very next scene He mentions the Pharisees!) and that the journey toward Jerusalem, and, according to God’s plan, to the Cross, continues. Jesus is preparing these men to embrace the mission when He is no longer physically with them. They would be called on to preach the message of His grace, with compassion, calling men and women to repentance and faith. 

What is God saying to me in this passage? If we remember what God has already done for us we will trust Him as we face the challenges of life in this fallen world.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? 1) Jesus had compassion on the multitude. On another occasion, In Matthew 9:36, we read that “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.” Do we have compassion? He goes on to say in there that, in light of the plentiful harvest and the paucity of workers, we should “Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest would send forth workers into the harvest.” Remember that in the next chapter, Matthew 10, He calls the disciples apart and sends them out! 

       2) Having compassion should move us to prayer, and if we are praying honestly, openly, prayer will move us to action! Are we available? We need to pray realizing that we may be part of the answer! The mission Christ entrusted to the disciples has by extension been entrusted to us, the church. In His providence God has placed us where we are, and we are called, by word and by example, to be light in the darkness! And He is with us always.

        3) Have you ever looked heavenward and asked, “Is this a test?” It probably was! God wants us to learn, to grow through through the trials of life. Have you ever encountered a situation, maybe a trial in life, and thought, “I’ve been here before! This is déjà vu all over again!” Could it be that God is trying to grow your faith, maybe deepen your understanding of who He is? As He teaches you, do you always get it right the first time? The second?  He is patient with us, and He never gives up. He can do exceeding, abundantly, beyond all that we would ask or think. Do you know when you can stop learning? Not in this life. Keep seeking more of Him!   AMEN.