The Feeding of the Four Thousand

In the world of classical concerts it is considered poor etiquette to clap between movements of a symphony, even though the orchestra stops playing for a few moments. The reason for that is that the entire symphony with its different movements is considered one piece, creating a mood that is supposed to be unbroken by applause.

The gospel accounts often contains sections – movements if you will, that the author did not intend to have broken up because they flow together as one piece conveying the truth and spiritual lessons far more clearly together than they do broken up. Mark 8:1-21 contains three stories that could mistakenly be broken up from each other because they each have their own heading (at least in my Bible) but should really be considered together as three sections of one story, or, to carry the analogy, three movements in one symphony. So let’s unpack them one section at a time and then consider them together and some lessons the Lord has for us to learn. Let’s pray and then read vv. 1-10.

I. First movement: Jesus feeds the four thousand (vv. 1-10)

This story sounds a lot like the feeding of the five thousand that Matt preached on just a couple of weeks ago, but there are some significant differences. First of all, in chapter six Jesus is in the Jewish region of Galilee on the western side of the Sea of Galilee, but here he is in the highly Gentile region of the Decapolis on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. So there’s a good chance that this crowd is a mix of Jews and Gentiles, which continues to foreshadow the good news that Jesus isn’t just a localized Savior meant for Israel alone, but he is the Savior of the world, and the bread of life for all hungry souls.

Jesus has compassion for the crowd’s physical need

Another interesting difference is that in chapter six, Jesus’ compassion is stirred, not for their hunger, but for their lostness – they are sheep without a shepherd – and so he teaches them. But look with me here at verse 2: “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 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.” This crowd has been listening to Jesus teach for three days and now they are physically hungry – and Jesus has compassion on their hunger.

As followers of Jesus, while our greatest concern should always be for people’s eternal state – after all we are eternal beings locked in temporal physical bodies and our lives are like a mist that is here and then gone so quickly, and because of sin we will be separated from God for eternity in a place called hell. The terrible truth is that hell is a place of torment and anguish and it is forever and ever. So the driving concern of compassion must be for men’s eternal souls – Jesus came to save us from hell by dying in our place on the cross, and all those who believe in him will be saved. That’s the most compassionate message in the world and it must always be our message and the focus of our compassion. But as followers of Jesus we should also seek to have the same compassion for people’s physical and emotional needs as well.

All around us, and all around the world, there are people who are physically in need – whether its being hungry, or being physically disabled, or oppressed, or lonely, or grieving, or scared, or whatever it is, there are physical needs pressing on them and we should have the same compassion for them that Jesus had. But we can wonder how – how do we cultivate compassion for people in our hearts? Jesus looked at the crowds and had compassion, we can see the crowds and feel numb. How do we stir compassion?

Author Wayne Jacobsen writes about an experience he had in an airport terminal that hit home with me and I think helps us to understand how we can grow in compassion for those around us. Jacobsen was trying read a book while waiting for his flight, but before long the concourse got filled up with people waiting for friends and loved ones to deplane. Here’s what he writes:

Why can’t they be quieter? I asked myself…the commotion continued to grow until I found it impossible to concentrate. I looked up in contempt as I prepared to move my things to a quieter gate, and a little girl, no older than five, caught my eye. She gazed longingly out the window and then looked up briefly at her mom and smiled as their eyes met.

A burst of laughter pulled my eyes to a young Japanese family and behind them a young man stood quietly with a single rose in hand. I found myself captured in the human dramas unfolding around me…

Soon people began to come through the jetway. The little girl being held by her mother above the crowd suddenly screamed, “Daddy!” as a man in military uniform came through the door. As her mom put her down, she barged through the crowd and into his arms. The mother joined them in an embrace, nearly crushing the little girl between them. Tears pooled in my eyes.

The Japanese family began to shout greetings in their native language as an elderly couple emerged from the jetway. I wondered if they were the parents of recent immigrants, finally able to see their children’s new homeland. Their joy, expressed in tears, deeply hit me, and I tucked my head lest anyone see mine.

I looked at the young man with the rose. He stared intently up the jetway, and with each passenger emerging his face grew more concerned. When the trickle of people finally stopped, his tension was visible. Had she missed her flight? “Oh no, let her be there.” I muttered half in prayer. Seconds later she walked out and his face lit up. He ran to her, and [they] embraced.

Here’s what he concludes:

…In just a few moments, my contempt for the annoying crowd had been transformed into deep affection. I had ceased to view the crowd as a faceless mass of humanity and instead saw them as individuals with unfolding stories. That is how Jesus loved…

And I submit that is how Jesus showed compassion. Throughout the gospels we see Jesus entering people’s stories. Touching the leper, pressing the faith of the Gentile woman, weeping at Lazarus’ tomb. He didn’t stand at a distance unaffected, he entered their story and he brought God into their story. It’s hard for us to have compassion if we aren’t willing to see people’s story and enter into it. I am all too often like Jacobsen in the terminal – bothered by the interruption people can be to my agenda. But we should slow down and see their drama unfolding and allow Jesus to fill our hearts with his compassion for them. This is an important lesson that can be learned from this story, but the big point in this miracle is what it tells us about who Jesus is!

Jesus is the bread of life

As Matt mentioned, there is a deep OT fulfillment pictured in Jesus feeding the crowds with bread. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness, when they were hungry God provided “manna” which sounds like the Hebrew for “what is it?” – it was bread from heaven that arrived every morning. But in the gospel of John Jesus interprets the spiritual meaning behind the manna God provided the Israelites and the bread that Jesus provided these crowds when he says, “I am the bread of life.”

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Every human being has a deep inner hunger and thirst. Bruce Springsteen wrote about the inner restlessness we all feel in his song, “Everybody’s got a hungry heart”. We all have a deep hunger for something that this world can’t provide. We try to fill it with popularity or money or possessions or entertainment or sex, or fame or position, or so many other things. But we’re still hungry.

Jesus is the bread of life. He came to give us living water. Bread and water – basic and simple. Jesus isn’t a black tie, escargot and champagne Savior. He came to bring us life, life that meets our deepest hunger and deepest thirst. Rich or poor, if we are to come to Jesus at all, we are to come to Jesus hungry and thirsty. Hungry for life, hungry for God, thirsty for mercy and salvation. I think that’s why Jesus said it was so difficult for a rich person to enter heaven, because while they have the same hunger, they also have the means to keep filling it with worldly substitutes and deceive themselves into thinking that hunger isn’t there. Jesus rebukes the church in Laodicea because they say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing…” but really they are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Their riches simply masked their poverty in everything that matters.

Before we move on to the next section, this miracle of the feeding of four thousands calls to us this morning. If you aren’t a Christian, it calls you to come to Jesus and receive freely the bread of life and living water that he alone can give. Come with your hunger. Come with your thirst. Come.

And it calls to Christians as well: are we hungering for God? Are we thirsting for God? It is through coming to Christ, feeding on him daily through his word, through prayer, through fellowship, through communion, that our spiritual life is sustained. Calls us to come too.

II. Second movement: The Pharisees demand a sign (vv. 11-13)

The first movement over the score gets darker as immediately upon their entering Galilee Jesus is confronted by Pharisees who demand that he give them a sign from heaven. Now this might seem like an odd request after all the miracles Jesus has already performed – including the feeding of the four thousand – isn’t that sign enough? But the Pharisees aren’t asking for a miraculous sign – they’ve already written Jesus’ miracles off as works of the devil (chap 3). The sign they are asking for is some definitive proof that God is with him and that his teaching is legitimate.

When Mark says they are testing him, it harkens back to Deut. 13 that says, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut. 13:1-3

They’ve already hardened their hearts to Jesus, this is just a way to cloak that hardness in religious piety as if by testing Jesus they are loving the Lord with all their heart and soul. It is the sheer hypocrisy that has Jesus sigh deeply in anger and frustration. They are using their proclamation of loving God with all their hearts and souls as a way of NOT loving the Lord with any of their hearts and souls. Jesus’ response is in the OT formula of an oath, as if to say “may God do so and more to me if ever a sign is given to this generation!” There is nothing more to say to these Pharisees and Jesus leaves, bringing this movement to an end.

That is the end of this movement – but like a concert audience, there should be silence, because the symphony isn’t over, the mood of this scene is meant to carry over into the next scene.

III. Movement three: Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod (vv. 14-21)

There is a humorous aspect to this last scene. Jesus has the Pharisees and his encounter with them on his mind but the disciples have bread on their minds – namely that they didn’t bring enough of it. So when Jesus warns them about the “leaven of the Pharisees and Herod”, the disciples are sure he’s rebuking them for not stocking up on bread. Jesus is amazed at their dullness and reminds them – he has no problem supplying them with all the bread they need. That’s not what he’s concerned about.

Leaven is a lump of old dough in a state of fermentation that, when added to new dough leavens the new dough and causes the bread to rise. In the Bible leaven was always a symbol of sin and evil – a symbol of corruption that quickly contaminates the whole lump. Paul says a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

So we come full circle: in this unity of stories we have the true bread of life, Jesus, and the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod – the bread-contaminator of their religious hypocrisy and cynicism and hunger for power. That’s what Jesus is warning his disciples – and us today – about. So powerful is the leaven of cynicism and hypocrisy in them that they can even use the scriptures in a way that advances their evil designs. They can use scriptures about loving God will all their hearts to justify their rejection and hatred of God in the person of Jesus Christ. They can demand a test of Jesus ostensibly to prove their fidelity to God when in fact their motives are to protect and preserve their unfaithfulness to God. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.

Conclusion

This story taken together offers us a warning that contrasts the bread of life with the corrupting leaven of hypocritical, cynical religious life. When the leaven of cynicism creeps into religion it’s a hard, cold, and proud religion that is quick to judge others but slow to love others, and doesn’t see a problem with that. When the leaven of hypocrisy creeps into religion, a person becomes a master at hiding behind masks that aren’t real. They act this way but think that way, they say this publicly, they say something very different privately, they have two faces: one for public and one for real. As Mark Twain is said to have said, “Sincerity is everything, if you can fake that you’ve got it made.” But there have been times when my heart has been tempted (is tempted) to fake sincerity – to pretend to greater devotion, greater spirituality, greater sincerity than is really there. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.

There is a simplicity, an honesty, that not only is to characterize the genuine disciple of Christ but that we are to guard carefully. The disciples were clueless to the point that at times they were blind – but it was a sincere blindness and Jesus can work with that. We may be dull or spiritually hard of hearing or focused on temporal things like bread too much – but sincerely following Jesus and Jesus can work with that. He never abandoned his disciples and he will never abandon us.

But the blindness of the Pharisees was a different kind of blindness – it was a chosen blindness, a selective blindness, and cynically-choosing-to-be-blind-blindness. Jesus can’t work with that. He can only leave.

So I think we beware that leaven by monitoring our own hearts – not using the gauges of our own perspective, but the plumbline of God’s word. We guard our religion by fearing the leaven of fake sincerity, fake devotion. We guard our faith by refusing to allow our hearts to grow cynical – a kind of “prove it to me” attitude. Those who have been hurt by a church or a Christian need to especially be on guard because understandably you don’t want that to happen to you again. But cynicism is a corrupting influence on faith – it is a leaven that will eventually leave your heart cold and hard. Faith and cynicism can’t exist in the same container for long.

And we guard against that leaven by feeding on the bread of life, who is Christ, and by drinking of the living water, which is the Holy Spirit within us. Bread and water – simple, basic stuff that keeps us alive. Not sophisticated, not elegant, basic. But life sustaining. Hunger filling, thirst satisfying.

• Are we hungry for Christ? Are we hungering for God? Do we thirst for the Spirit to fill us and overflow from our lives and use us for His work?

Let’s pray.