Mark 8:1-9 | “The Bread that Satisfies Us, and Others”

One Feeding or Two?

The passage we’re going to study this morning is Jesus’ feeding of the four thousand.  You may think that I meant to say, “Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand” and wonder why we’re studying this story again.  But you heard me right.  There are two stories in the Gospel’s of Jesus feeding a large crowd, one was 5,000 (Mk. 6:34-44) and one was 4,000 (8:1-9).

Many critical scholars have argued that there was only one feeding story and that the Gospel writers just retold the story to make a separate point, or that the scribes got mixed up when they were copying the manuscripts of the Gospels and accidentally wrote down this story twice.

Similarities in the Two Accounts

It’s not hard to see why they would believe this.  There are many similarities in the two stories.  In both stories a large crowd gathers to hear the teaching of Jesus somewhere in the wilderness.  In both stories Jesus was filled with compassion for the needs of the crowd.  In both stories, the disciples express doubt that such a large crowd could be fed.  In both stories, Jesus asks the disciples how much food is on hand and they only find a few loaves and a few fish.  In both stories, Jesus multiplies the bread and the fish so that everyone had more than enough to eat and there was food left over.  It’s thus not hard to see why many scholars say that this is the repetition of the same story.

The critical scholars focus on the similarities and essentially ignore the differences, concluding that this is the same story told twice.  But this is not how knowledge is gained in any field.  When scientists, for example, want to learn about a new species they’ve discovered, they begin by placing it in a group of similar species and classifying it as either an invertebrate, fish, amphibian, reptile, mammal, or bird.  After the similarities of the new species are noted, then the scientist can start looking at the things that make it different.  All fish are similar, but they’re not all the same.  The scientists’ focus on the similarities and the differences of species is what makes up our knowledge of each living thing. 

Differences in the Two Accounts

We must use this same process to understand these two accounts.  There are lots of similarities, but there are also lots of differences.  In the second account, it says that the people were with Jesus for three days, not one (v. 2).  It says that there were seven loaves of bread, not five (vv. 5-6) and fewer baskets of leftovers (v. 8).  The word for “fish” is different in each account, the second feeding story using the word for “small fish,” or “sardine.”  The number of people is different in each account.  The first feeding was to “five thousand men” (6:44).  The second was to “four thousand people” (8:9).  In the second feeding, the people aren’t broken up into groups but are simply seated “on the ground” (v. 6).  Jesus’ role is slightly different in each feeding.  In the second one, Jesus directs rather than responds to events.  He, rather than the disciples, takes the initiative to do something about the crowd’s hunger.  His words are recorded in the first person in the second feeding and in the third person in the first feeding.

The number of differences in the two feeding accounts provide enough evidence for us to conclude that these were two separate miracles.  But there’s one more piece of evidence that seals the deal for this view.  In verses 19-20, Jesus refers to two feedings.  Jesus certainly believed he did two separate miracles.  Thus, we can be confident that the Bible accurately tells us that there were two separate feeding miracles.  The question then becomes, “Why does Jesus do the same basic miracle twice?”  I’ll attempt to answer this question at the end, but first let’s spend a few minutes working through some of the details of this text.

  

The Hunger of the Crowd

In verses 1-3, we see the hunger of the crowd and the compassion of Jesus.  The emphasis of the text is the need of the people.  Verse 1, “They had nothing to eat.”  Verse 2, “They have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.”  Verse 3 says that Jesus didn’t want to send them away in their hungry condition because they would “faint on the way.”  Many of them came from far away, hadn’t eaten for up to three days, and therefore didn’t have the physical strength to walk back home.

The text doesn’t say explicitly why the crowd had gathered around Jesus.  But elsewhere in Mark, when large crowds gather around Jesus, it’s usually to hear his teaching or Jesus uses it as an opportunity to start teaching (4:1; 6:34).  It’s thus safe to assume that the “great crowd” of 8:1 gathers around Jesus to hear his teaching.

Let’s think about this for a moment.  This means that people came from all over that region and were willing to go without food for up to three days in order to hear Jesus’ teaching.  These people were hungrier for Jesus’ teaching than they were for food.  They sacrificed the food of the world for the food of God. 

Do you have this kind of hunger for Jesus’ teaching?  Would you forsake personal comforts for days on end in order to sit around Jesus and listen to him?  Do you come to our worship services hungry for the Word or hoping to get out as soon as possible?  What is the Word of God worth to you?  Is it your delight?  Do you love it and cherish it?  Have you read the Bible this week?  People are starving for Jesus’ teaching and our Bible’s lie around collecting dust. 

This crowd hung around Jesus for several days because they wanted to feast on his word more than they wanted to feast on food.  Their spiritual hunger overshadowed their physical hunger.  They had a right sense of what was truly important.  May God give us a similar hunger and love for his Word.

The Compassion of Jesus

The crowd was hungry for spiritual food and Jesus fed them abundantly.  But they were also hungry for physical food, and, out of compassion, Jesus chose to feed them abundantly (vv. 2-3).  We must not miss the fact that Jesus chose to meet the physical need of the crowd simply because he wanted to.  He saw their need and chose to meet it. 

In the feeding of the five thousand, the disciples bring the need of the people to Jesus’ attention.  Here it is Jesus who sees the problem.  Verse 1, “When they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him.”  He sees the problem, but he also identifies himself with it.  Verse 2, “I have compassion on the crowd.”  The word for “compassion” here is a word that refers to our vital organs, our “guts,” the deepest part of our bodies. 

The word refers to what happens when something touches the deepest part of us, to “gut-wrenching” emotion.  Jesus feels this way for the hungry crowd.  He’s undoubtedly tired and hungry himself – he’s been teaching for three days.  But his heart breaks for the needs of the crowd.  He’s moved by their willingness to forsake the nourishment of bread in order to be nourished by his word.  Jesus knows that they don’t have enough energy to make the trip back to their homes.  But he doesn’t just see their problem.  It touches him.  It moves him.  It causes him a level of grief.  He identifies with their affliction.

Jesus is the Bread from God

This is what God has done through Jesus in the gospel.  God is the holy Creator of all things.  He made us in his image.  We’ve all rebelled against him and deserve his judgment.  But God, in mercy, saw our affliction and was moved by love to enter into our situation and meet us at the point of our deepest need.  The Father sent the Son to die on a cross in order to take the judgment that our sins deserve and to rise from the dead in order to prove that his sacrifice was accepted by God, so that everyone who puts their hope in Jesus and stops trusting in themselves will be accepted by God. 

In Jesus, God sees our need.  He knows we don’t have enough strength to make it home to heaven.  He knows we’ll exhaust ourselves if we try.  In the gospel, God has looked out over the crowd of seven billion people in the world and had compassion on us.  He sees us starving spiritually and unable to find the food that’ll give us life and has compassion on us.  He sees us trying to stay alive by eating the food of the world and has compassion on us.  He doesn’t want us to starve to death.  He wants us to live.  He wants us to eat and be satisfied.

In our text, the word for “satisfied” in verse 8 is also used in verse 4.  The disciple’s question could be translated, “Who is able in this desolate place to satisfy these people with bread?”  In the miracle that follows, Jesus answers and says, “I can satisfy the people.  I can give them what they need.”  When we eat what Jesus has provided we will also be satisfied. 

The trouble is that you and I are eating at the wrong restaurants and drinking from the wrong fountains.  The food and delights and pleasures of this world were never meant to quench the abiding hunger of our soul – that ache and longing that you have for something more, that desire you have to acquire more stuff or a wife or husband or kids or more education or more whatever in hopes that you’ll finally be full. 

The good news of Jesus is that God wants to give you what you’re looking for.  He wants to satisfy your hunger and quench your thirst.  And he even wants to do it for free.  Listen to how the prophet Isaiah put it seven hundred years before Jesus was born: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?  Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” (55:1-2). 

God wants to satisfy your soul and the only thing you have to have is thirst.  Isaiah asks us why we spend so much on food that doesn’t satisfy.  For example, pornography is not only evil, it’s like a restaurant that looks great on the outside but serves no food.  All its customers keep coming back because the signage is great, only to realize that the kitchen is closed.  Each customer goes in expecting a great meal but always leaves with a hunger that isn’t satisfied.  It’s like a fountain that’ll never fill you and only leave you thirstier than before.  Same goes for money and houses and cars and prestigious jobs and great retirements and spouses and kids and grandkids.  They’re not bad in themselves, but they all over-promise and under-deliver.  None of them satisfy the ache of our souls.  All the while, God says, “Come to me.  If you’re hungry and thirsty, come to me.  If you don’t have anything to offer, perfect, I’ve already paid the price, come to me.  If you’ve spent years wasting your life on bread that never fills your stomach, come to me.  Listen to my word and feast on me and my grace.  Come to me.”   

God sent Jesus to meet us where we are and be the food that we need.  Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn. 6:51).  Jesus is God’s gift of food to everyone willing to admit their hunger and feast on him through faith.

The Church Is God’s Plan to Grow the Church and Bless the World

This text also teaches us something about the kind of life we should live if we’ve been satisfied by God’s food.  Notice that Jesus takes the initiative in drawing his disciple’s attention to the needs around them.  He sees the need, feels the need, and does something about the need (vv. 1, 5-7).

As a church, we need to grow to be more like Jesus in this way.  We need God’s help to see needs, feel compassion, and do something.  There are needs all over our church family.  Do you have eyes to see them?  I’m talking about your brothers and sisters who’re suffering silently and sitting next to you this morning.  After the service, instead of shooting the bull for a few minutes, why not ask someone how you can pray for them or invite them to lunch or coffee this week?  I fear that many of us don’t take this kind of initiative because we see the church as something we go to rather than something that we are.  The members of a church are responsible for each other’s growth in Christ (Eph. 4:15-16).  Who are you ministering to and helping grow?

There are needs when we gather, such as kid’s ministry, greeting ministry, kitchen ministry, and sound room ministry that need our attention.  I pray many of you see these needs and take the initiative to serve.  Talk with me or Nick or one of our deacons on how you can serve. 

Our main ministry is to one another, however, not the logistics of our weekly gathering.  What are you doing to see and feel and take steps to help your brothers and sisters in Christ?  How are you extending the grace of Jesus to other church members, neighbors, or coworkers?  We all can’t do everything, but we should all be doing something. 

Jesus’ compassion toward you is meant to go through you to others.  In our text, we see Jesus involving his disciples in his work of compassion (vv. 5-7).  Jesus’ followers are meant to extend Jesus’ ministry to others.  Jesus wants to change people’s lives.  The way he aims to do this is through his people who have his Word and his Spirit.  This is God’s plan for church growth and world evangelization: every Christian ministering God’s Word in the power of God’s Spirit to those in the church and those in the world.  You, church, are God’s plan to grow the church and bless the world.  What needs do you see?  What breaks your heart?  What will you do?

Why Does Jesus Do the Same Basic Miracle Twice?

There’s another aspect of this miracle that compels us to look beyond ourselves and get out of our comfort zones and serve others.  As I said, this miracle is similar to the feeding of the five thousand in chapter 6.  But it also has many differences.  The question I want to close with is, “Why does Jesus do the same basic miracle twice?”

Another reason we should go out of our way to serve others and the reason Jesus does the same basic miracle twice is found in the location of this miracle.  In 7:24, Mark says that Jesus went to Tyre and Sidon.  In 7:31, he says that he went to the “region of the Decapolis.”  These are Gentile regions.  This section of Mark’s Gospel (7:24-8:9) is Jesus’ journey to the Gentiles.

Why is this important?  Because it tells us several things about Jesus’ approach to ministry.  It tells us that he, the Jewish Messiah, also came for the Gentiles.  It tells us that he came for those who were far from God.  It tells us that his message, like Jonah’s in Nineveh, was received surprisingly well among people who were enemies of Israel.  It tells us that Jesus’ compassion wasn’t just for his friends and kinsmen.  It’s natural and normal to feel compassion for people you know well or people who’re like you.  Jesus showed gut-level love for those who were nothing like him.  Jesus’ compassion was for his ethnic enemies.

This miracle foreshadows what Jesus came to ultimately accomplish: the uniting of Jew and Gentile as the new people of God in order to display the glory and wisdom of God (Eph. 3:6-10).  Jesus didn’t come to just love his ethnic enemies.  He came to save them and bring them into a new nation that would be created in his name, the church of Jesus Christ. 

This miracle in the Decapolis shows us that, though Gentiles are disliked by the Jews, they’re not disliked by God.  God loves the nations and sent Jesus to show his compassion to them.  A compassion most fully revealed on his bloody cross.  A compassion meant to draw people from every people group into unified communities of self-sacrifice and love called churches. 

The Bible says that all of us are enemies of God because of our sin.  Yet, in love, God moved toward his enemies and met our greatest need.  In light of this, as we rest in the satisfaction of knowing God through Christ, we can move with compassion, like Jesus, toward those who’re far from God, remembering that none of our friends or enemies are forsaken by God or beyond the love of Jesus.  We can move toward others because God moved toward us.