You don’t need me to tell you about the needs of the
world.
And in our Gospel passage, the people have obvious, overwhelming,
real and pressing needs (vv35-36).
V44 – 5000 men, + women and children: a great needy
crowd.
The disciples must have felt surrounded and swamped.
The needs of our world are great – physical, mental, social,
political, economic, moral, spiritual.
We can feel helpless in the face of such needs – and we’re
not so wrong!
This passage, is, of course, first of all, all about
Jesus.
But the disciples are mentioned at the beginning and the
end and often in between.
The disciples had a lot to learn, and so do we.
There’s lots we can learn from this passage, not only
about Jesus but about being his disciples too.
Jesus’ disciples are completely unable to meet the needs of
the crowd on their own (v37).
“200 denarii” (v37) maybe £15000 – on lunch!
In fact, Jesus’ disciples have needs of their own.
The disciples couldn’t even feed themselves (v31)!
They need a meal and a rest.
They can’t cope with the needs of all these others.
Food and rest and refreshment are real and legitimate
needs.
Sometimes it’s right to seek a break (v31-32) – even when
there are other good things you could be doing.
Jesus had decided that his disciples needed some time
alone with him, and we need time alone with Jesus too.
Jesus has compassion on people in their need (v34) – even
when it’s not convenient (vv31-33).
How must the disciples have felt (vv33-34)?
How might we have reacted?!
Jesus was graciously willing to overturn his perfect
plans when met by pressing need / striking opportunity (v34).
We need wisdom to respond to circumstances.
We should make plans but we should also be ready to
change them sometimes.
Serving Jesus won’t always be easy or convenient.
We need wisdom to take sensible care of ourselves, but we
need to put others first.
If we’re to follow Jesus, we can’t always look after
number 1.
We can’t always please ourselves.
Sometimes Jesus calls us to do what seems impossible to
us – in fact, what would be impossible on our own.
Jesus serves the people, even when he’s tired and hungry
and when he’d made other plans – and he calls his followers to do the same.
Jesus is not always what we might call “reasonable”!
(v34, vv35-36, v37, v38, v39ff).
What the disciples are saying (v35-36) is quite right and
reasonable, it just doesn’t take account of Jesus!
And, of course, Jesus makes all the difference.
The disciples know what they think is best, but Jesus has
other plans.
Jesus knows what he’s doing but he challenges his
disciples and puts them to the test here (vv37-39).
Jesus might stretch us too.
Sometimes Jesus pushes us beyond our comfort zone.
Sometimes we find ourselves doing things with Jesus that
we never imagined we could do.
Jesus’ ways can sometimes seem very odd to his disciples.
Sometimes he seems to ask the impossible (v37).
Sometimes what he asks us to do doesn’t seem to result in
success (v38).
Sometimes we might not understand what Jesus is up to or
what he gets us to do (v39).
I wonder what the disciples made of all this.
Perhaps they were worried they might have medical
emergencies or even a riot on their hands.
Wouldn’t it have been much better to have legged it at
the first sight of the crowds, or to have sent them away at a reasonable hour?
What was Jesus thinking?
But the disciples know enough to know that Jesus is in
charge!
They manage to trust Jesus’ better judgement.
Jesus is the Leader, the Master, the Teacher, the Lord, we
are the disciples, the followers, the learners, the servants.
We’re to do what Jesus says, even if we don’t completely
understand what he’s up to (v40).
We’re not to challenge his orders.
Jesus knows best.
We can trust him.
The disciples know that the people need a meal – and they’re
right, they do.
But Jesus diagnoses people’s real deeper needs (v34):
They need a Shepherd-King, they need to hear the Word of
God taught, and they need to eat.
Much of the Bible is about a search for a good king, a
king after God’s own heart.
The people need a king.
That’s who the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one would
be.
Jesus had compassion on them, v34, “so he began to teach
them many things”.
They needed Jesus’ teaching.
Jesus said: “Man cannot live by bread alone but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4).
The Word of God is real bread – hearing it is our
greatest need.
The Bible is food for the soul.
Where the disciples’ priorities are physical (v35), Jesus’
are spiritual (v34).
Jesus prioritises preaching the gospel (1:38) and the
forgiveness of sins (2:5), though he wonderfully meets all our real needs.
Jesus perfectly meets all his people’s real needs.
“They all ate and were satisfied” (v42):
Jesus can really satisfy and only Jesus can really
satisfy.
Jesus is the perfect Shepherd-King, the Messiah, a new
Moses / Joshua (Num 27:15-18).
Jesus is the perfect leader of God’s people.
He will conquer all their enemies: the enemies of sin and
death.
Jesus (Joshua) is God to the rescue – that’s what the
name “Jesus” means.
He saves the people – provides, delivers, protects, keeps
them safe.
He has the (new) creative power of God Himself.
Only God could do this kind of amazing miracle.
Jesus can give all God’s people their “daily bread” –
physical and spiritual.
Jesus is bread from heaven, Manna in the wilderness.
12 baskets (v43) recalls the OT people of God, 12 tribes
of Israel.
Here is a new people of God, a new Israel, organised
around Jesus (vv39-40, Ex 18:17-26).
Jesus is going to bring a new Exodus, a new deliverance,
like the rescue from slavery in Egypt (wilderness, v32; v39, green grass
implies springtime, Passover time).
Jesus is the true Bread of Life, he can bring them out of
slavery to sin and safely all the way to the Promised Land.
Jesus can bring us safely through our earthly pilgrimage
all the way to heaven and the New Creation.
Jesus sustains us with the Bread of his Word and of the
Lord’s Supper and will bring us at last to the Heavenly Feast.
(v41 recalls Last Supper / Lord’s Supper).
Jesus was always talking about a heavenly party, a meal,
that he invites us to.
Jesus himself is the food we need.
(We feed on his spiritually, by faith, in our hearts, as
we hear his Word and in the Supper).
We should look to Jesus to graciously feed us, trust in
him, listen to him, take him as our shepherd-king.
That is no doubt the main burden of this section of Mark,
which focusses on who Jesus is.
And yet we learn here something of what it means to
follow Jesus too.
Jesus graciously chooses to use his disciples despite
their weaknesses and inadequacies and lack of understanding and although, of
course, he doesn’t really need them.
Jesus could have fed the people all on his own, or called
on an army of angels but he deliberately involves his disciples (v37, v38, v39,
v41, v43).
Even Jesus’ miraculous work requires organisation and
team work (v39).
We should offer whatever we have to Jesus, even if it
seems pathetic and ridiculous (v38) and see what he can do with it.
When we give to Jesus we can expect to get back so much
more than we give.
The left overs here are far more than they started with
(v43)!
Will you join Jesus in what he’s doing?
Will you offer him your service and all that you have,
and see what he’ll do – perhaps to meet the needs of others in a more amazing
way than you could possibly imagine?
* * *
Cf. 2 Kings 4:42-44 – Elisha feeds 100 men with 20 loaves
and they eat and have some left over
Numbers 11 – the people are in the desert and Moses is
worried about where 6000 people are going to find food
Exodus 16:1-18
Ps 78
Is 55:10-11
Sheep without a shepherd – num 27:15-18; 1 k 22:17; ez
34:5, (22-23); zech 10:2
Loaves = more like our rolls
Moses organised the people into 1000s, 100s, 50s and 10s
– Ex 18:17-26
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