Another Hungry Crowd - Mark 8:1-10
Another Hungry Crowd - Mark 8:1-10
By Pastor Lee Hemen
April 18, 2010 AM
The crowd is not often long satisfied. It demands attention and food for its hunger. And when a crowd does not get fed regularly, it can quickly become very unruly. This is nothing new. We have seen what a mob mentality can do, whether it is an unruly mob at a soccer game, a hyped up political rally, or even an emotionally charged religious venue. A crowd can create huge demands that have to be met immediately by those it focuses its attention on.
Here in Mark’s gospel we find another hungry crowd. Like the words of the old rock tune by The Rolling Stones, the hungry crowd of the world “can’t get no satisfaction.” The crowd found in Mark is representative of the sin-lost crowd of the world. It has a mob mentality that continually searches for satisfaction, but finds little. Sadly, we as believers hold in our hearts what the hungry world longs for, the good news of Jesus Christ. I say, “Sadly,” because like greedy street urchins who hide their daily ration of bread away only for themselves, Christians are guilty of the very same thing. Greedily hiding the gospel and keeping it only for our sated selves. As we look into Mark’s gospel, we discover the compassion of Christ in handling another hungry crowd.
READ: Mark 8:1-10
Recently, a young girl in Florida wandered off into the swamp. She was miraculously found several days later. Cold, mosquito-bitten, and hungry she was glad to be rescued. That’s the way it is when most folks are lost in the wilderness. They come out overexposed, tired, and hungry. However, a much deeper hunger exists in the world today, a spiritual hunger that will not go away. We learn from Mark’s account that…
I. The hungry crowd of the world is starving in the wilderness!
1. We can have more of everything and still have nothing! We live in a world of abundance, yet people all around us are starving to death both physically and spiritually! Notice the entire focus of the crowd was trying to get out of Jesus anything free they could. Crowds have not changed much. People still want something for nothing. And, like the grasshopper from Aesop’s Fables, there are those who think the rest of the world owes them a living. They wanted to be healed, they wanted to be fed, and they wanted Jesus to confront the authorities and be their earthly king. It wasn’t because there was a lack of food, water for crops, or land to grow them on that people went hungry during Jesus’ day. It was a society where everyone, rich or poor had to go out each day, earn a wage, and find food. As soon as you stepped out your door, you were in a veritable wilderness on your own. Life was cheap. Yet the crowds also followed Jesus because they were spiritually malnourished. They had the Law of Moses piled on them from birth by the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. Every waking moment was dictated by their adherence to a written code that had over time become perverted. No one measured up. All fell “short of the glory of God” and there was “none righteous.” Then Jesus came offering a new way, a new contract, a new testament. When a spiritually starving person finds food for their weary soul, they long for nothing else. Nothing has changed. The hungry crowd of the world is still starving in the wilderness.
EXAMPLE: Notice Jesus asks his disciples how they will provide for the crowd. “How many loaves do you have?” he asks. The physical provision was pathetic by the world’s standard, but with God, nothing is impossible. They should have known better after being challenged before. Seven loaves and a few small fish was all there was. The same meager meal as before, yet, when a crowd is hungry, anything is a feast. You may think you have little to offer the world in the way of spiritual comfort, but you have everything God has provided. The hungry crowd of the world is starving in the wilderness of sin, are you willing to allow God to use the provisions he has supplied you with to feed them? A hungry crowd is starving in the wilderness for the bread of life.
The earthquakes in Haiti and Chile have brought about an outpouring of compassion from the entire world. True to form, the United States has borne the brunt of all the aid given. In fact, because of the USA’s giving in the past, it has the rest of the world nervously wondering what will happen when the US citizens no longer give. Higher taxes, unemployment, and our horrendous national debt have caused cutbacks in people’s giving. Yet, we learn from Mark’s description that…
II. The hungry crowd of the world needs our compassion!
1. Compassion is not measured by the words one uses, but by their actions! The disciples had not been concerned by the crowds until Jesus makes them aware of their need. Jesus tells them, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.” (Mark 8:2-3) Jesus understands the crowd’s basic need is sustenance. Matthew, in relating the same incident states that the number of people “was four thousand, besides women and children.” How could Jesus allow them to starve? He could not. We live in a day and age and in a nation whereby no one needs to go to bed hungry. Certainly, there are those who do, but that is usually because of a history of making bad choices, ignorance, or pride. In Jesus’ day, food was prepared for that day, excepting for the Sabbath, and completely consumed. It was the height of luxury to have enough food left over for the following day. Hunger followed a person from sunup to sundown, as did the threat of disease, enslavement, or death from any multitude of reasons. Compassion was a luxury that few could afford, and the world had lost its ability to have compassion. Perhaps Christians suffer from the same cynicism today in that we have lost our compassion for a dying world. While the sin of the world is to be avoided, the people caught in sin are not. The hungry crowd will only be fed when we have the broken-hearted compassion to give them Jesus. The hungry crowd of the world needs our compassion!
EXAMPLE: I think I have shared with you before that John Stossel interviewed a medical researcher who has invented a means by which folks who suffer from macular degeneration can have a special chip implanted at the back of their eye that will restore their eyesight. It is extremely effective, but did not go past the second of three stages for FDA approval. The reason -- Cost vs. profitability. The inventor related the frustration he felt because he had the cure but could not get his product to market in order to heal folks. How awful to know you have something that could effectively help people, but because of governmental restrictions by the FDA, you could not heal them! How sad is it then when Christians have the eternal answer for people’s sin condition, yet due to their lack of compassion, folks will suffer for eternity! It is time for believers to be brokenhearted for the lost. The hungry crowd of the world needs our compassion!
After decades of touting how wonderful vitamins are, we are now being bombarded with how awful and ineffective they are. I remember when the debate was between manmade and natural vitamins. Isn’t that the way it is for almost everything. Some things that are too good to be true usually are, and there are always those who want to convince you that they have exactly what you need. However, we know as believers and from Jesus’ example here in Mark’s gospel that…
III. We have what the hungry crowd of the world needs!
1. If ignorance is bliss, then the world is merrily spiritually starving to death! Without realizing it, the disciples had exactly what the hungry crowd needed. You would have thought that after the experience of feeding 5,000 people, that feeding 4,000 now would have been a snap. Or, that the disciples would have immediately come and said, “Jesus, we fed 5,000 before with a few fish and loaves, we believe God can do it again!” However, we find no such expression of faith from his followers. In fact, “His disciples answered, ‘But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?’” It makes me wonder why. Yes, it was “remote,” but again they had fed 5,000 folks before. I believe the disciples were just the same as many of us are this morning. Here is what I mean: We only see what is right in front of our eyes and fail to focus our spiritual sight with faith. Right here, right now, we have everything God has provided us to reach our community for Jesus Christ, yet we fail to see that we do. Perhaps we suffer from a lack of spiritual sustenance. The Apostle Paul finishes his letter to the Philippians by confidently telling them that, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) How could Paul say that? Paul knew what it meant to have plenty and to be in need, but he had “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Philippians 4:12) Paul had learned, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) Many of us have what the hungry crowd needs, because we have Jesus, but we have not yet learned that we can do everything through him. If you have Jesus, you not only have what you need; you have what the hungry crowd needs.
EXAMPLE: Amazingly, the disciples had Jesus standing right there in front of them and they still forgot who he was and what he could do! We might argue that if we had been there it would have been different, but I doubt it. I say this because we are guilty of looking into the face of Jesus, realizing our sin, having our heart broken, coming to him by faith, and then forgetting the image of Christ in our lives. We are “like a man, who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:23-24) However, there is hope for the hungry world and for us as well, because “the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom (Jesus), and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does!” There will always be another hungry crowd.
Conclusion:
The hungry crowd of the world is starving in the wilderness! The hungry crowd of the world needs our compassion! We have what the hungry crowd of the world needs!
----
Pastor Lee Hemen has been the outspoken pastor of the same church for 25 years in Vancouver, WA. He writes regularly on spirituality and conservative causes and maintains several web blogs. This article is copyrighted © 2010 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission. You now have my permission...
By Pastor Lee Hemen
April 18, 2010 AM
The crowd is not often long satisfied. It demands attention and food for its hunger. And when a crowd does not get fed regularly, it can quickly become very unruly. This is nothing new. We have seen what a mob mentality can do, whether it is an unruly mob at a soccer game, a hyped up political rally, or even an emotionally charged religious venue. A crowd can create huge demands that have to be met immediately by those it focuses its attention on.
Here in Mark’s gospel we find another hungry crowd. Like the words of the old rock tune by The Rolling Stones, the hungry crowd of the world “can’t get no satisfaction.” The crowd found in Mark is representative of the sin-lost crowd of the world. It has a mob mentality that continually searches for satisfaction, but finds little. Sadly, we as believers hold in our hearts what the hungry world longs for, the good news of Jesus Christ. I say, “Sadly,” because like greedy street urchins who hide their daily ration of bread away only for themselves, Christians are guilty of the very same thing. Greedily hiding the gospel and keeping it only for our sated selves. As we look into Mark’s gospel, we discover the compassion of Christ in handling another hungry crowd.
READ: Mark 8:1-10
Recently, a young girl in Florida wandered off into the swamp. She was miraculously found several days later. Cold, mosquito-bitten, and hungry she was glad to be rescued. That’s the way it is when most folks are lost in the wilderness. They come out overexposed, tired, and hungry. However, a much deeper hunger exists in the world today, a spiritual hunger that will not go away. We learn from Mark’s account that…
I. The hungry crowd of the world is starving in the wilderness!
1. We can have more of everything and still have nothing! We live in a world of abundance, yet people all around us are starving to death both physically and spiritually! Notice the entire focus of the crowd was trying to get out of Jesus anything free they could. Crowds have not changed much. People still want something for nothing. And, like the grasshopper from Aesop’s Fables, there are those who think the rest of the world owes them a living. They wanted to be healed, they wanted to be fed, and they wanted Jesus to confront the authorities and be their earthly king. It wasn’t because there was a lack of food, water for crops, or land to grow them on that people went hungry during Jesus’ day. It was a society where everyone, rich or poor had to go out each day, earn a wage, and find food. As soon as you stepped out your door, you were in a veritable wilderness on your own. Life was cheap. Yet the crowds also followed Jesus because they were spiritually malnourished. They had the Law of Moses piled on them from birth by the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. Every waking moment was dictated by their adherence to a written code that had over time become perverted. No one measured up. All fell “short of the glory of God” and there was “none righteous.” Then Jesus came offering a new way, a new contract, a new testament. When a spiritually starving person finds food for their weary soul, they long for nothing else. Nothing has changed. The hungry crowd of the world is still starving in the wilderness.
EXAMPLE: Notice Jesus asks his disciples how they will provide for the crowd. “How many loaves do you have?” he asks. The physical provision was pathetic by the world’s standard, but with God, nothing is impossible. They should have known better after being challenged before. Seven loaves and a few small fish was all there was. The same meager meal as before, yet, when a crowd is hungry, anything is a feast. You may think you have little to offer the world in the way of spiritual comfort, but you have everything God has provided. The hungry crowd of the world is starving in the wilderness of sin, are you willing to allow God to use the provisions he has supplied you with to feed them? A hungry crowd is starving in the wilderness for the bread of life.
The earthquakes in Haiti and Chile have brought about an outpouring of compassion from the entire world. True to form, the United States has borne the brunt of all the aid given. In fact, because of the USA’s giving in the past, it has the rest of the world nervously wondering what will happen when the US citizens no longer give. Higher taxes, unemployment, and our horrendous national debt have caused cutbacks in people’s giving. Yet, we learn from Mark’s description that…
II. The hungry crowd of the world needs our compassion!
1. Compassion is not measured by the words one uses, but by their actions! The disciples had not been concerned by the crowds until Jesus makes them aware of their need. Jesus tells them, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.” (Mark 8:2-3) Jesus understands the crowd’s basic need is sustenance. Matthew, in relating the same incident states that the number of people “was four thousand, besides women and children.” How could Jesus allow them to starve? He could not. We live in a day and age and in a nation whereby no one needs to go to bed hungry. Certainly, there are those who do, but that is usually because of a history of making bad choices, ignorance, or pride. In Jesus’ day, food was prepared for that day, excepting for the Sabbath, and completely consumed. It was the height of luxury to have enough food left over for the following day. Hunger followed a person from sunup to sundown, as did the threat of disease, enslavement, or death from any multitude of reasons. Compassion was a luxury that few could afford, and the world had lost its ability to have compassion. Perhaps Christians suffer from the same cynicism today in that we have lost our compassion for a dying world. While the sin of the world is to be avoided, the people caught in sin are not. The hungry crowd will only be fed when we have the broken-hearted compassion to give them Jesus. The hungry crowd of the world needs our compassion!
EXAMPLE: I think I have shared with you before that John Stossel interviewed a medical researcher who has invented a means by which folks who suffer from macular degeneration can have a special chip implanted at the back of their eye that will restore their eyesight. It is extremely effective, but did not go past the second of three stages for FDA approval. The reason -- Cost vs. profitability. The inventor related the frustration he felt because he had the cure but could not get his product to market in order to heal folks. How awful to know you have something that could effectively help people, but because of governmental restrictions by the FDA, you could not heal them! How sad is it then when Christians have the eternal answer for people’s sin condition, yet due to their lack of compassion, folks will suffer for eternity! It is time for believers to be brokenhearted for the lost. The hungry crowd of the world needs our compassion!
After decades of touting how wonderful vitamins are, we are now being bombarded with how awful and ineffective they are. I remember when the debate was between manmade and natural vitamins. Isn’t that the way it is for almost everything. Some things that are too good to be true usually are, and there are always those who want to convince you that they have exactly what you need. However, we know as believers and from Jesus’ example here in Mark’s gospel that…
III. We have what the hungry crowd of the world needs!
1. If ignorance is bliss, then the world is merrily spiritually starving to death! Without realizing it, the disciples had exactly what the hungry crowd needed. You would have thought that after the experience of feeding 5,000 people, that feeding 4,000 now would have been a snap. Or, that the disciples would have immediately come and said, “Jesus, we fed 5,000 before with a few fish and loaves, we believe God can do it again!” However, we find no such expression of faith from his followers. In fact, “His disciples answered, ‘But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?’” It makes me wonder why. Yes, it was “remote,” but again they had fed 5,000 folks before. I believe the disciples were just the same as many of us are this morning. Here is what I mean: We only see what is right in front of our eyes and fail to focus our spiritual sight with faith. Right here, right now, we have everything God has provided us to reach our community for Jesus Christ, yet we fail to see that we do. Perhaps we suffer from a lack of spiritual sustenance. The Apostle Paul finishes his letter to the Philippians by confidently telling them that, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) How could Paul say that? Paul knew what it meant to have plenty and to be in need, but he had “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Philippians 4:12) Paul had learned, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) Many of us have what the hungry crowd needs, because we have Jesus, but we have not yet learned that we can do everything through him. If you have Jesus, you not only have what you need; you have what the hungry crowd needs.
EXAMPLE: Amazingly, the disciples had Jesus standing right there in front of them and they still forgot who he was and what he could do! We might argue that if we had been there it would have been different, but I doubt it. I say this because we are guilty of looking into the face of Jesus, realizing our sin, having our heart broken, coming to him by faith, and then forgetting the image of Christ in our lives. We are “like a man, who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:23-24) However, there is hope for the hungry world and for us as well, because “the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom (Jesus), and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does!” There will always be another hungry crowd.
Conclusion:
The hungry crowd of the world is starving in the wilderness! The hungry crowd of the world needs our compassion! We have what the hungry crowd of the world needs!
----
Pastor Lee Hemen has been the outspoken pastor of the same church for 25 years in Vancouver, WA. He writes regularly on spirituality and conservative causes and maintains several web blogs. This article is copyrighted © 2010 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission. You now have my permission...
Comments