Trinity 7
Mk
8:1-9
7/23/23
How could
they not remember? That’s the first
question that arises as we listen to our Gospel lesson this morning. It’s not as if the disciples had never faced
this before. Today’s text involves a
large crowd and the need to feed them.
But this is actually the second time they have encountered this
situation.
In chapter
six we learn that a great crowd had gathered to hear Jesus. When he saw them, he had compassion on them
because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So Jesus taught them. He taught all day long.
When it was
getting late the disciples came to Jesus. They pointed out that it was a
desolate place and the hour was late. They told Jesus to send the crowd away to
the surrounding villages to buy food. But Jesus had another idea. He told them, “You give them something to
eat.”
The
disciples protested that the cost was too much. They couldn’t possibly buy food
for this many people. So our Lord had them check and see how much food they
had. There were five loaves of bread and
two fish. Jesus took the food, blessed
it, and gave it to the disciples. They gave it to the people, and in a miracle
the food never ran out until all were fed.
Jesus used the five loaves of bread and two fish to feed more than five
thousand people.
Our text
this morning refers to that prior event as it begins, “In those days, when again a great crowd had
gathered, and they had nothing to eat.”
Mark introduces the event in a way that immediately calls to mind the
feeding of the five thousand.
While
there are similarities to the prior feeding, there are also differences. This
time Jesus initiates the conversation as he calls the disciples and says to
them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three
days and have nothing to eat. 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.” The
people had been listening to Jesus for three days and any food they had with
them was exhausted. Our Lord saw this,
and he had compassion on them.
When
Jesus raised this concern, the disciples responded, “How can one feed these
people with bread here in this desolate place?”
Instead of the cost, this time the disciples pointed out that they were
not in a location where it was possible to buy food. Apparently, it never occurred to them that
they had faced this situation before, and that Jesus was the answer.
Once
again Jesus asked how many loaves they had. He told the crowd sit down on the
ground. Then he took the seven loaves, and when he had given thanks he broke
them and gave them to the disciples. He
also blessed a few small fish and gave them as well. Once again Jesus worked a
miracle as the bread and fish satisfied the crowd which numbered four
thousand. In fact, there was such an
abundance that seven baskets of left overs were gathered up.
The obtuse response by the disciples is
actually not entirely surprising.
Immediately after feeding the five thousand, Jesus had the disciples
return across the Sea of Galilee in a boat, while he dismissed the crowd. Later when the disciples were facing a
difficult wind, Christ came to them walking on the water. He got into the boat
and the wind ceased. Then Mark tells us, “And
they were utterly astounded,
for they
did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”
Their hearts were hardened so that
they didn’t understand what the feeding miracle revealed about Jesus. Yet that
is not the end of references to their hardened heart. Immediately after our
text, the Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign from heaven in order to test him. Christ rejects their unbelief and has the
disciples get into a boat. We learn that
they brought only one loaf of bread with them.
Jesus said, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
But rather than understanding Jesus’ reference to the teaching and
influence of the Pharisees, the disciples began discussing with one another the
fact that they had no bread.
Jesus said, “Why are
you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet
perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do
you not hear? And do you not remember?” Then Jesus had them review what had
happened when they were with the five thousand and with the four thousand in
our text. He reminded them about how
many baskets of left overs had remained each time.
The disciples
didn’t recognize that Jesus was the answer because their hearts were
hardened. Although they had seen his
miracles, they did not understand who Jesus is.
Because this was so they failed to trust in Jesus to provide yet again.
The disciples’
response alerts us to the danger of forgetting who Jesus is – of forgetting
what he means for us.
When troubles and difficult
circumstances like illness strike our life, it is easy to lose sight of
Christ. It is easy to focus on the problems
and fail to trust Jesus to care and provide for us.
Jesus provided bread in a desolate place. This reminds us of how God provided manna –
bread from heaven – to Israel as he brought them through the wilderness to the
promised land. This was part of God’s
mighty action to fulfill the promise that he had made to Abraham to give his
descendants the land.
God’s saving action with Israel pointed forward to the even
greater salvation that God would provide in Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s second feeding miracle is part of
his ministry to bring the kingdom of God – the reign of God. Jesus has compassion on the people. But he does more than just feel for them. He also has the power to do something about
it. He uses seven loaves of bread and a
few fish to feed four thousand people.
All of Jesus’ miracles point to the culmination of his
ministry. In this same chapter we learn,
“And
he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things
and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be
killed, and after three days rise again.”
Jesus said that he had come to die.
He had come to give his life as a ransom for many. He had come to redeem us from sin – to free
us from its slavery.
In the
miracle in our text, Jesus uses what seems insignificant. In the face of four thousand hungry people,
he has before him seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. Yet because of
who he is, this is more than enough to feed them and have left overs remaining.
Jesus’ death
on the cross seemed to be insignificant.
It appeared to be the death of one more Jew who was crushed by the might
of the Roman Empire. The sight of a man
dying in helpless agony hardly looked like God’s mighty work. However, because we know who Jesus is, we are
able to understand what was really happening.
The One on
the cross was a man. But he was not just
a man. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and
born of the virgin Mary he is also the Son of God. He is true God and true man. As true man, Jesus stands in our place. As true God his life is a sacrifice for our
sin that provides forgiveness.
It didn’t
look that way on Good Friday. Just as
the disciples failed to understand who Jesus is in our text, so they did not
understand when Jesus died. But on the
third day God vindicated Jesus as he raised him from the dead. The risen Lord appeared to the disciples and
demonstrated that he was alive. In these
encounters they came to understand who Jesus really is. They came to understand
what Jesus means for us in the midst of every circumstance.
The
disciples hearts may have been hardened during our Lord’s ministry. They didn’t understand who Jesus was. But the
resurrection changed everything. In the
resurrection they came to understand exactly who Jesus is. And they would never forget it. They became Jesus’ witnesses who have shared him
with us.
In our text,
Jesus gives the food to the disciples and the disciples give it to the
people. As Christ’s apostles, they have
done the same thing for us. They have received the Gospel from Jesus and have
given it to us. They met the risen Lord
and shared him with us. The apostles
have acted as his authorized representatives who have revealed Jesus and the
miracles that he performed in their midst.
Through
their word Jesus has called us to faith.
In order to sustain us in faith, Christ continues to work a miracle in
our midst every Sunday. This miracle
partakes of the same character as Jesus on the cross. He uses what appears to
be insignificant means – just like the seven loaves of bread seemed to be
completely incapable of feeding the four thousand people.
In that
miracle he used bread and fish to feed a great crowd. In the Sacrament of the Altar he uses bread
and wine to give us his true body and blood.
He places into our mouth the very price he paid for our salvation – his
body and blood given and shed for us.
Though the means appear to be insignificant, Jesus’ word causes it to be
what he says. His word causes it to be
far more than it appears, just as Jesus on the cross was far more than he
appeared.
Jesus does
this to strengthen and sustain us in faith. He does this because his call to
receive the Sacrament reminds us about who he is in our life. He is the Lord
who suffered and died for us, and then rose from the dead. Because he has done this for us, we can trust
our Lord to care for us no matter what may be happening in our life. We can entrust our present to him, even as we
know that our future promises resurrection and eternal life with God.
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