THE COMPASSIONATE SAVIOR (Mark 8:1-10)
INTRODUCTION:
Not long after the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus’ message on the bread of life that is recorded in the Gospel of John for us, Jesus left Galilee for a time. In fact, He left Israel and took His disciples into Gentile territory. Jesus’ purpose was to have an extended time to teach His disciples. They traveled first to the vicinity of Tyre where Jesus ministered to the Syrophoenician woman who displayed great faith in the Lord Jesus. Next, they traveled north to Sidon and then turned east and south avoiding Galilee and going down the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and into the Gentile area of the Decapolis. In all, this journey of more than 120 miles through Gentile territory likely lasted at least a couple of months, providing the Twelve with focused personal training from the Lord.
During this time of travel the disciples would be well aware that they were not in the land of Israel, which fit the teaching focus of Jesus Christ as He began to prepare the disciples for the Great Commission: to take the gospel to people of every nation. I have already told you how the Israelites of Jesus’ day despised the Gentiles and had no desire for their salvation. The disciples had grown up learning this and were certainly influenced by this racial bias of their culture. But that racial bias was opposite from the heart of God, whose plan from eternity intended the message of salvation to spread from His chosen people to all the world. It was necessary and very important for the Twelve to understand that the gospel was a message for all people, whether Jew of Gentile. It was a message for the whole world.
This time in Gentile territory ended in the Decapolis which I said bordered the southeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The people, the Gentiles of the Decapolis knew about Jesus because of the man whom Jesus had cast the legion of demons out of, he had become the first home missionary telling the Gentiles of the Decapolis about all that Jesus had done for him and how Jesus had showed him mercy. When the news spread, that Jesus had returned to their region, massive crowds came out to meet Him on a mountainside near the lake. They brought to Him the sick, the lame and crippled, the blind, the deaf and mute and all that were brought to Him He healed. The result of His miracles was that the Gentile crowd marveled seeing the mute speaking, the crippled and lame walking, and the blind seeing and Matthew tells us that they glorified the God of Israel.
This morning’s passage and the miraculous event that occurred concludes Jesus’ trip through those Gentile areas. Again, in this passage we see the great compassion of God on display through the compassionate Savior as He ministers to the people. Let’s pray and then get into the Scriptures.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Mark 8:1-10. If you are able, please stand, in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Mark 8:1-10,
“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. 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.’ And His disciples answered Him, ‘Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?’ And He was asking them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ And they said, ‘Seven.’ And He directed the people 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 people. They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well. And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces. About four thousand were there; and He sent them away. And immediately He entered the boat with His disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha.” (Mark 8:1–10, NASB95)[1]
JESUS’ SYMPATHETIC COMPASSION (Mark 8:1-3)
When Jesus first created the meal that fed the 5000 men, plus women and children that had taken place on the northeast side of the lake, and if you remember it was near the time of Passover, so early Spring when the hills around the lake were covered in lush, green grass. Several months have gone by since that miraculous event, evidenced by the description of the hillside where Jesus was now as just ground. The intense heat of the summer months had caused the lush, green grass of Spring to dry up, now it was just ground.
Mark informs us that in those days, the days that Jesus was in the Decapolis, there was a large crowd that had come out of the cities to this remote place on a hillside by the lake, and this crowd that had gathered around Jesus had nothing to eat. This massive crowd had come out to see Jesus because of the testimony of the former demoniac and because of the reports of Jesus’ miracles. Even though these were Gentiles from a pagan region, when they saw Jesus perform miracles and heal the diseased and the disabled their response was praise to the God of Israel. Mark writes, “In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat…” (Mark 8:1a, NASB95)[2] Mark uses the word “again” to tell us that this large crowd with nothing to eat should not be confused with the earlier Jewish crowd who Jesus miraculously fed near Bethsaida. This is a different crowd, and it is not Jewish people it is Gentiles.
Mark continues and says, “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, NASB95)[3] Often the Gospel writers tell us that Jesus felt compassion toward the people to whom He was ministering. But this is the only occasion that Jesus declared this about Himself, and both Mark and Matthew record that He said that He felt compassion for the people. The word compassion comes from a Latin word meaning “to suffer with” and conveys feelings of deep sympathy, pity, and kindness toward those who are hurting. God has always been described as compassionate, even Jeremiah the prophet, after the fall and destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, declared that the compassion of God never fails as we heard in our Scripture reading this morning from Lamentations 3.
Because the Lord Jesus is God, His life was marked by divine compassion. Our Lord’s compassion was seen in His merciful care of both the spiritual needs and the physical afflictions of the people to whom He ministered. That divine compassion was extended to both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus told His disciples that He felt compassion toward the people because they had been with Him for three days and they had no food. In their eagerness to hear Jesus teach and see His miracles, the people refused to go home, even if that meant sleeping outside and missing a few meals. Awed by the Lord Jesus, this crowd put their hunger aside so that they would not miss out on His teaching or the display of His supernatural power in the miracles He performed. The Lord Jesus in His compassion recognized something that the people had not considered or realized. Jesus expressed this concern to the disciples. 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, NASB95)[4] Jesus knew that the people had not eaten while they were with Him over a three-day period, and many had traveled a great distance to see and hear Him and He feared that they might become weak or collapse from lack of food as they began the journey home. Jesus saw a need and responded with compassion.
DISCIPLES’ SHORT-SIGHTED CONFUSION (Mark 8:4-5)
Jesus voicing His concern for the people required a response from the disciples. They responded by asking Jesus a question. Mark records, “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, NASB95)[5] At a quick reading it looks like the disciples are reacting in almost the same way that they did before Jesus had fed the thousands near Bethsaida months earlier. Surely, they had not forgotten what Jesus had done there. So, why almost the same response as before? They knew that Jesus could provide food for these people, He had done so before. The response to Jesus’ compassion was a submission on their part that they did not have the means necessary to feed all these people. Their response was not to cast doubt on Jesus’ miraculous power, but rather to emphasize that if this crowd were to be fed in this desolate place, it would require Jesus to do another creation of food.
If the Twelve had any doubts about what was going to happen, it was not Jesus’ power or His ability to create food for these people, but they may have questioned His purpose. This crowd consisted of Gentiles, these people did not have the promises that the Jews had in the Abrahamic covenant, the Jews considered the Gentiles to be unclean. It was one thing for Jesus to heal them, but the creation of a meal went one step further. For Jewish people to eat with Gentiles was forbidden by rabbinic regulations. Understandably, if Jesus created a meal for them, it would likely have caused some alarm or anxiety among the disciples. All of this was training for the disciples, Jesus was teaching them an important lesson about how far the gospel would extend. Because of this, a miracle like this would be a fitting climax to the time that Jesus and His disciples spent traveling through Gentile territory.
Jesus already knew how He was going to feed this crowd, but to remind His disciples of what He had done before and to underscore the miraculous nature of what He was about to do, we read, “And He was asking them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ And they said, ‘Seven.’ ” (Mark 8:5, NASB95)[6] Mark also informs us in verse seven that they also had a few small fish. Before in the previous creation of food, the disciples had found a boy who was willing to share his five loaves and two fish with Jesus and saw it multiplied to feed thousands. On this occasion they had seven loaves and several fish. Bread and fish were a staple for people who lived near the Sea of Galilee. Seven loaves and a few fish were inadequate to feed such a massive crowd. The disciples knew that, but they also knew the power of their Creator Lord.
JESUS’ SUPERNATURAL CREATION (Mark 8:6-10)
As Jesus had done when He had previously fed the crowd, Jesus directed this crowd to sit down on the ground, unlike the previous time we are not told if they sat in groups of fifties or hundreds. After they were seated, Jesus took the seven loaves of bread and gave thanks and broke them. By giving thanks to the Father, Jesus was showing these Gentiles that all our provisions are from God and that the power behind this miracle was God’s power.
Jesus effortlessly started giving pieces of bread to the disciples and the disciples served them to the people. Then Jesus blessed the few small fish and gave them to the disciples to serve to the people. In the same way as the previous miraculous provision, no natural explanation is given, nor is it possible to give one. This was the spontaneous and continuous creation of bread and fish by the Creator of all things. The Lord kept bringing into existence out of nothing bread and fish and the disciples continued to serve it to the crowd until everyone was fed. Just as Jesus miraculously created the food, He could have supernaturally distributed it to the people as well. Instead, the Lord involved His disciples in order to allow them to participate in His display of compassion. Their role was a preview of their future role as the soul-feeding messengers of the life-giving gospel. Soon, they would be distributing the message of the bread of life to the whole world.
Mark tells us that everyone ate and were satisfied. In other words, everyone ate until they wanted no more. After everyone was done, we read that they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces. The previous time they had collected 12 baskets of food. Mark uses two different words for basket, in the feeding that took place near Bethsaida they picked us twelve baskets of fragments, the word Mark uses there refers to a basket about the size of a picnic basket. In this instance, the seven large baskets are hamper-sized baskets large enough to hold a man. The twelve smaller baskets may have represented the nation of Israel, one basket for each tribe showing God’s provision for His chosen people. The seven larger baskets represented that the gospel will be available for all people. Seven is often the number used in Scripture to symbolize completion or perfection and the baskets represent that God’s provision of salvation extends beyond the borders of Israel and is available to all the nations with plenty for all.
Mark remarks that about four thousand were there, this number only refers to the number of men that were present. In the parallel passage in Matthew 15:38 Matthew makes this clear, he writes, “And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.” (Matthew 15:38, NASB95) With four thousand households represented the number of those who ate could have easily been 8 thousand to fifteen thousand people. Neither Mark nor Matthew records the response of the people to this miracle but being satisfied they must have rejoiced and again given glory and praise to the God of Israel. With the meal ended and the leftovers picked up, Jesus dismissed the people, He sent them away to return to their homes and tell others of the great miracles of the God of Israel.
Mark ends this passage of three days of intense ministry, filled with miraculous healings and ending in a supernatural meal, by telling us that Jesus left the region of Decapolis and returned to Galilee for a short time. Mark writes, “And immediately He entered the boat with His disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha.” (Mark 8:10, NASB95)[7] Matthew tells us in the parallel passage in Matthew 15:39 that Jesus’ destination was the region of Magadan. These two different places are not contradictory but refer to the same place by two different names. The area referred to was between the towns of Magdala on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, just north of the coastal city of Tiberius, and Capernaum which is on the northwest shore of the lake. Jesus return to Galilee brought His journey into Gentile territory full circle, from Tyre to Sidon to Decapolis and back to Galilee. The cross was now less than a year away; and after this short excursion back into Galilee Jesus would move His ministry focus to Judea and Jerusalem.
CONCLUSION:
[This trip that Jesus took into Gentile territory was mainly for the purpose of an extended time of personal training and teaching for the Twelve. During this time with Jesus, the disciples received invaluable preparation in at least four areas. First, they were exposed to Jesus divine person. They witnessed His authority over demons, His power over disease and disabilities, His ability to create food instantly. The Twelve watched as Jesus immediately healed people brought to Him with incurable diseases and physical disabilities—from blindness to paralysis to deafness—they were healed immediately and completely. The disciples understood that only God could be the source of such power, which is why they confessed Jesus Christ to be God’s Son.
Second, they learned that the ultimate priority in life is worship. During their time in Gentile territory, they saw this truth modeled for them. It was a Syrophoenician woman who was commended for her great faith. It was Gentile crowds in the region of Decapolis who witnessed Jesus’ miracles and “glorified the God of Israel.” In stark contrast to this, the religious leaders of Israel had substituted coldhearted religion full of rabbinic rules and restrictions for true worship. It was essential for the disciples to recognize the difference, and for us as well.
Third, having witnessed and participated in both meals that Jesus miraculously created, the disciples began to understand the divine resources available to them. The disciples had no ability in themselves to feed hungry crowds or give spiritual life to spiritually dead souls. But Jesus did. His resources were infinite and His power limitless. They simply needed to depend on Him. By involving them in the distribution of food to the multitudes, the Lord Jesus provided them with a vivid demonstration of God’s inexhaustible care and compassion.
Fourth, the Twelve saw the Lord’s compassion dramatically displayed toward people whom first-century Jews generally treated with scorn and derision. It made sense to them that the Messiah would perform miracles for the people of Israel. But to think that He would also cast out demons, heal diseases and disabilities, and create meals for Gentiles represented a major change in basic assumptions. Yet it was a lesson the disciples desperately needed to learn, as Jesus prepared them to take the message of salvation to the ends of the earth. The trip that Jesus makes with the Twelve to the Gentile regions proves that although Gentiles were ostracized by the Jews, they are not ostracized by God. We each should learn a lesson from this, our enemies, our opponents are neither forsaken of God nor beyond the compassion of Jesus. A short time earlier Jesus had begun to conclude His Galilean ministry with thousands of Jews being miraculously fed. His journey into Gentile territory ended with the supernatural feeding of thousands of Gentiles. Both occasions were previews of the coming glories of the messianic kingdom, in which all of the redeemed, both Jew and Gentile, will participate in the marriage supper of the Lamb.
All of the miracles of Jesus demonstrated that it is God’s nature to care for those in need. Whenever Jesus healed someone, cast out a demon, raised a dead person to life, or fed a hungry crowd, He put God’s compassion on display. The merciful compassion of God reached its zenith at the cross. As the Lord Jesus said on the night before His death in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, NASB95)[8] To satisfy the crowds physical hunger after three days required compassion and miraculous creative power, but to save their souls for eternity required something far more—supernatural sacrifice. Jesus Christ willing went to the cross to bear the full penalty of sin for all who would ever put their believing faith in Him.][9]
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[9]MacArthur, John, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Mark 1-8. 2015. Chicago, IL: Moody Publisher