A New Devotion - What Jesus Said

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Mark 8:1-9

In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for 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." His disciples replied, "How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?" He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven." Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.

What Jesus Said

Personally, I think there’s a lot going on in this passage. First, there’s the miracle itself. I mean, we’ve got 4,000 people being fed with seven loaves and a few fish. And second, there’s the symbolic importance of the numbers, you like, the seven loaves and the seven baskets of leftovers. And third, there’s all the communion imagery, you know, when Jesus blessed the bread and fish and sent his disciples to distribute them to the crowd. Now all that happens, and generally we focus on these parts to the story.

And even though that can certainly be expected, we don’t want to overlook what Jesus said to his disciples before the miracle occurred. He said, "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for 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." Of course, I think you could say this is Jesus just being Jesus. My gosh, having compassion was part of both his character and ministry.

But I think that’s something we need intentionally to remember, particularly now as we all face a pandemic no one could have predicted last year this time. You see, during this period of crisis, we need to draw together and support one another. But there are people who are at greater risk than others and some who have greater needs. And as we consider them, I think we should remember what Jesus said to his disciples. In other words, if we’re sincere about following the words Christ, we also need to have compassion for the crowd as well.