"In those days again, when there was a great multitude and they had nothing to eat, He summoned His disciples and said to them, 'I feel compassion for the multitude because they have remained with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and if I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a distance.' And His disciples answered Him, 'Where will anyone be able to find enough to satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?' And He was asking them, 'How many loaves do you have?' And they said, 'Seven." And He directed the multitude to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and began giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the multitude. 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 full baskets of what was left over of the broken pieces. And 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.
And the Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him. And sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, 'Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.' And leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side.
And they had forgotten to take bread; and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. And He was giving orders to them, saying, 'Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.' And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, 'Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?' And they said to Him, 'Twelve.' 'And when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?' They said to Him, 'Seven.' And He was saying to them, 'Do you not yet understand?'" (Mark 8:1-21)
Most of us have probably heard the story of the four blind men who were asked to describe an elephant. Each of them walked to the elephant and began to feel the animal. However, each went to a different part of the elephant. One felt his trunk and proclaimed that elephant was like a big snake. Another felt his leg and declared that the elephant was like a tree. Still another felt the elephant's side. He exclaimed that the elephant was like a massive wall. The last man felt the elephant's tail and speculated that the elephant was like a rope. Each man had felt the elephant. But each came to a radically different conclusion based on the limited facts they had. It has been said that sometimes we fail to see the forest for the trees. At times, that is true. Because of our perspective, the conclusions we draw about certain events in our lives can be either accurate or wholly off-base.
Unfortunately, we, at times, fail to understand exactly what God is doing in our lives. It could be that perhaps we are analyzing the wrong elements. It could be that, not knowing what the entire puzzle ought to look like, we are wasting great time and energy attempting to fit each piece into place. We need to see the big picture. In his book called America on Six Rubles a Day, comedian Yakov Smirnoff writes: Coming from the Soviet Union, I was not prepared for the incredible variety of products available in American grocery stores. While on my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk -- you just add water, and you get milk. Then I saw powdered orange juice -- you just add water, and you get orange juice. And then I saw baby powder -- I thought to myself, "What a country!" If we only look at each component part we may draw the wrong conclusion. We must see the big picture. To understand what God is doing in our lives, we must first understand what God is after. In most of what God is doing, He is trying to teach us a lesson of faith. He desires that we learn to live by faith in the daily affairs of life. God wants us to learn how to trust Him. If we can begin to see things from that perspective, I believe we will begin to understand why God is doing what He is doing in our lives.
In our text today, we see Jesus trying to teach His disciples to walk by faith, but they missed the point. We, like His disciples, at times can be spiritually insensitive. But if we are, Jesus will be faithful to take us back through those lessons of faith in order to teach us to trust Him. Through these lessons of faith, Jesus will teach us to repudiate all self-reliance and trust in the God who alone can truly meet our needs.
In the feeding of the four thousand, we have here a revelation of the Savior. As you recall, He had already performed the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6. But this is an entirely different incident. In fact, Jesus Himself refers to it as separate from the first. In the first case, there were five thousand Jews fed with five loaves and two fish. In this case, there were four thousand, probably Gentiles (because they were in the region of the Decapolis) and they were fed with seven loaves and a few small fish. In the case of the five thousand, twelve small baskets of fragments were picked up. And in the case of the four thousand, seven large baskets of broken pieces were picked up. What we have here is a different miracle similar to the first, but repeated for the sake of teaching the disciples an important object lesson.
In these empty stomachs, we see a revelation of the Savior in terms of His character and His ministry. During the ministry of Jesus, all He did contained an important truth about Himself. Not only did His disciples need to come to an understanding of who Jesus was, but so do we.
In both these miracles of the feeding of the multitudes, we see, in Jesus, a tender ministry. Jesus was truly concerned about the needs of people. He had not come to simply set up a kingdom. But He had come, rather, to meet the needs of people. As these Gentile multitudes gathered, Jesus felt compassion for them. He had been with them three days without eating any food. When they came to Him, they were hungry for spiritual nourishment. Because He had taught them, they were willing to stay with Him for these three days. But now it was time to move on, and He would have to send them home. First, He wanted to give them something to eat. And so, He declared this to His disciples. Here we see the compassionate ministry of Christ, reaching out to meet people's needs in every way.
This is a self-revelation of the kind of God we serve. God is a God who gives. He gives because He cares about our needs. His care extends to every need we might have. Man is basically a tri-partite being. We are composed of spirit, soul and body. In each of these areas, we can have needs. We are most aware of those physical needs we have. The empty stomachs here were certainly a physical need. Jesus is concerned with our physical needs. And just as He met the need here for physical food, so He will meet our physical and material needs as well. But we also have a soul. In this area, we find our mental and emotional needs. Again, Jesus desires to meet those needs as well. Finally, we are also a spirit. And the most important needs a person can have are spiritual needs. Of course, our Lord delights to meet those needs. In fact, at times, He may meet our other needs just to enable Him to meet those deep spiritual needs of our lives.
In this miracle, Jesus is involved in teaching His disciples something. In fact, this is a teaching miracle itself. So was the feeding of the five thousand. In fact, Jesus uses a very familiar teaching technique here, the technique of repetition. In both these miracles, Jesus is seeking to teach His disciples that they can trust Him instead of relying on their own human resources, or lack thereof.
Just what was Jesus trying to say through these miracles? If you look closely, several important truths emerge. The first is that Jesus is the bread of life. After the first feeding of the multitude, Jesus declares Himself to be the bread of life. So we know for sure that this was one of the implications of the feeding of the multitude. Jesus wanted His disciples to see that they could depend on Him for their spiritual nourishment. The hungry soul of man may search for spiritual nourishment through many means. But only Jesus can satisfy the empty soul. It says of these people that when they ate of the multiplied bread, they were satisfied. I believe they were satisfied with more than physical nourishment. After all, Jesus had taught them for three days. He had broken the bread of life to them. Now He had given them bread for their empty stomachs. They came with empty souls. They stayed until they had empty stomachs. But Jesus filled both their empty souls and their empty stomachs. Their empty stomachs He filled with physical bread; their empty souls He filled with the bread of life, Himself.
But Jesus also wanted His disciples to understand another equally important truth. It is the truth that when He provides, there is more than enough. In the first miracle, you might recall that twelve baskets full of fragments were gathered. In this case, seven large, hamper-type baskets were filled with the leftovers. In both cases, there was a multitude to be fed: five thousand in the first, and four thousand in the second. In each case, there was only a limited amount of human resources. But Jesus multiplied those resources until there was not only enough to feed the multitude, but more than enough. In fact, there was plenty left over after everyone had his fill. The lesson here is that God's provision is not only enough, it is more than enough. We can trust Him with our lives. He will more than meet our needs.
These were the lessons Jesus sought to teach His disciples. Would they understand or would they miss the point? There had certainly been others who had missed the point. In fact, there were some who did not want to believe.
The Pharisees always had trouble with Jesus. They were the religious leaders of their day. It is ironic that while the common people heard Jesus gladly, the religious leaders looked at Him through skeptical eyes. In verses 11 through 13, we see here a picture of the blind eyes of these religious leaders. And we see a rejection of the skeptic in Jesus' response.
Look at these Pharisees' demanding request. They wanted a sign from heaven. But these were not honest seekers, desiring to see God work in their lives. Notice in verse 11 that it says that these Pharisees "began to argue with Him." They were argumentative. They were skeptical. They were cynical in their approach to Jesus. The entire reason they wanted a sign was "to test Him." Far from being open to the grace and power of God through Jesus, they were closed. All they wanted to do was trap Him. And so they came to Him with this demanding request, "Give us a sign. Then we'll know who You really are, and if You are who You claim to be."
If you think about it, this is much the same request that Satan made of Jesus in the wilderness temptation. "Turn these stones into bread," he said, "if You are truly who You say you are." This was Satan's request. "If you are the Son of God, show me a sign." But neither Satan nor these Pharisees intended to do anything about what they had seen or what they would see. They came to Jesus with blind eyes, with skeptical hearts. They did not want to see.
We see a discouraged response in Jesus. He was grieved in His spirit. Verse 12 says that He was "sighing deeply in His spirit." I'm sure Jesus hurt over the fact that there were those who refused to receive. Here were eyes which could see physically, but could not perceive the spiritual world. They were blind eyes that would not be healed.
Jesus told them that no sign would be given to this generation. And with that He rejected these Pharisees. It says in verse 13, that He left them. It is as if Jesus turned on His heel and walked away. What a tragic thing, to be rejected by God. But notice that Jesus only rejected those who would not believe. The Bible teaches us that all who call upon the name of the Lord are saved. It teaches us that if any one comes to Jesus, he will not be cast out. You will only be rejected if you reject the Savior. Really, the rejection is on your part, not His. We see here that Jesus does everything to cause people to believe. It is only when they stubbornly refuse to replace skepticism with faith that they are turned away.
Unfortunately, the disciples had not become particularly adept at getting the point of what Jesus was trying to teach them. In fact, the disciples had dull hearts when it came to perceiving spiritual truth. The preferred, rather, to rely upon their own resources rather than trust God's resources by faith.
Notice the insensitivity of the disciples. As Jesus left the Pharisees, He and His disciples got into a boat to go across the lake. Seeking to teach them another spiritual lesson, He said in verse 15, "Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." Leaven, in Scripture, is generally symbolic of evil. Jesus was trying to tell them to be careful of the evil tendencies of the Pharisees and Herod. But while He was trying to teach them a spiritual truth, they were too busy thinking on the material level.
Verse 14 tells us that they had forgotten to take bread on their journey. This is really laughable when you think that they had just gathered up seven large baskets full of bread. In any event, verse 16 tells us that "they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread." The picture we get here is of these disciples trying to find out who was to blame because they had no bread. As they were busily arguing among themselves, it became apparent to Jesus that they had missed the point. Even though they had seen this miracle of God's provision now twice, they were so spiritually insensitive that they had failed to understand what Jesus was trying to teach them.
Jesus was incredulous. What was the matter with these disciples? What would it take for them to understand? Why did they keep missing the point?
We get a picture of Jesus almost being beside Himself because of the dullness of these disciples. We see this in the series of rapid-fire questions with which He challenged these disciples. His cross-examination begins in verse 17,
"Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They said to Him, "Twelve." "And when I broke the seven for the four thousands, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they said to Him, "Seven." And He was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?" (vv. 17-21)
Jesus could not believe that His disciples could be so dull. The problem was their self-reliance. In both of these miracles, we see His disciples looking first to their human resources. Even after Jesus had fed the first multitude, the disciples kept looking to their own human resources. It seems to me that on the occasion of the second hungry multitude, the disciples ought to have known something was up. It seems to me that they should have reasoned that if Jesus could feed five thousand with five loaves, He could certainly feed four thousand with seven. But they were too self-reliant for that. Perhaps they considered themselves too pragmatic, too practical. Perhaps they fancied themselves as realists. Unfortunately, being overly pragmatic can keep you from stepping out in faith. Faith is not sight and never can be. The Bible says we are to walk by faith, not by sight. In every step of faith, there is an element of risk involved. Sadly, too many of us would prefer to stay on the seemingly safe shores of self-reliance rather than launch out into the deep. When we do, we miss the great things God can do.
In Jesus' encounter with the disciples we have a rebuke of the self-reliant in man. Jesus wanted them to cease trusting in themselves and begin to trust in what He could do. And that is precisely the same lesson we need to learn. All too often, we, like these disciples, try to depend on our resources when what we need to do is abandon ourselves totally to God. Only as we cast ourselves into His hands will we find the strength and power and grace to live by faith. We need to heed the lesson Jesus was trying to teach His disciples that "Man does not live by bread alone." What we need is not physical bread, but the bread of life, which He can provide. What we need is trust in the God who alone can provide for our needs.
God makes it so simple, while we make it complicated. The Wall Street Journal once paraphrased "Give us this day our daily bread" in legal contract language: "We respectively petition, request, and entreat that due and adequate provision be made, this day and the date hereinafter subscribed, for the organizing fo such methods of allocation and distribution as may be deemed necessary and proper to assure the reception by and for said petitioners of such quantities of baked cereal products as shall, in the judgment of the aforesaid petitioners, constitute a sufficient supply thereof." Thank God they didn't write the entire Lord's Prayer. Jesus makes it simple. He says, "Just tell Me what you need. I'll be there for you." And if we will trust Him, He will not only provide what we need, He will provide more than enough.
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