Bring Out the Food
In Mark 8:1-9, Jesus is again confronted with a need to feed many people who had come to hear Him teach. In this case, Jesus pointed out that since the multitude had been with Him for three days, they had run out of any supplies they had brought with them, and He was worried many would faint as they traveled a long way back home. At least a few of the disciples were sure that being out in the wilderness with no place to buy food, it was a hopeless situation, and said so.
Jesus asked them how many loaves they had, and they told Him that they had seven. Whether this was their personal supply or whether it was what was available from the multitude, is not stated, but the question is directed to them. Jesus had the multitudes sit down, blessed the food, which included a few small fish, and everyone ate and were filled. Seven baskets of left-overs were taken up. Sounds kind of like Thanksgiving doesn't it? Around 4,000 were fed that day from the meager supplies Jesus had.
I think that the main thing to take away from this is that all too often we look at our surroundings and either get ecstatic if things look good, or depressed if things look bad. While ecstatic might not be a bad thing, being depressed about what's going on certainly is. Depression is a real problem for many. Many people have a depressed outlook, with perhaps very good reasons due to their situation. Others suffer depression on an occasional basis, again, perhaps with very good reasons.
But we need to remember who is in control of the universe in which we live. No matter what is happening with our jobs, how scarce the funds are to purchase food, pay the utilities, pay the rent, mortgage, credit card payments, loans, taxes, or whatever else you are facing financially, no matter what our health situation is, no matter how our kids, grand kids, or great grand kids are doing, God is in control. Say that as many times as you need to. God is in control.
That doesn't mean that He will magically fix everything for you. But He has promised that He knows what you need. Maybe He's trying to get you to realize what you really need and what you just want. Maybe you need to trim back on some things that are just wants and aren't really needs. Whatever the problem, there's a promise in the Bible about it. There are conditions on most all the promises, the most important being that He's only obligated to cleanse your sin. But He is a Father figure. If you had a poor father, know that God is the best. He might not fix every problem, but I feel certain that if He doesn't, when you get to heaven you'll get an explanation of why not, and it will make sense to you.
I don't fix all my kid's problems either. First, it deprives them of figuring out how to fix them themselves. Second, there's a lot of pride on the kid's part and they don't like to ask. And third, I'm not an infinitely powerful God who can create anything they need at any time, and I don't want to end up being a burden on my kids in my old age any more than my parents wanted to end up being a burden on me. So I won't sit here at my computer and tell you your life will magically get better if you become a Christian.
I can tell you that prayer helps. It may not help the way you wanted it to, but there is always some answer. Maybe it's not right now, but I heard you and love you. Maybe it's maybe later, but in the mean time you need to fix these issues. Sometimes that's even harder than no, and I've been working on some of that myself for a long while. God is patient. And sometimes the answer is just yes or no, and as I said if it's no, then at some time maybe we will know why.
In this case, Jesus had compassion on the multitude. He didn't have to. Nobody asked Him to feed everybody, at least that's recorded. He could have said like so many politicians today, "Well, they should have known better and if they die on their way home, it isn't my problem." But He had compassion on them and fed them till they were full. We need to have that compassion on everyone today as well. It doesn't matter if they are family, neighbors, fellow citizens, or foreigners. If Jesus were there instead of you, what would He do? Try to do the same. If you don't have much for means yourself, seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit like Jesus was, so that if it is God's will to do something, He can work through you so that He can get the glory.
On The Usefulness of Signs
He then took a boat ride to Dalmanutha, and the Pharisees came out looking for proof that Jesus was the Messiah they were expecting (Mark 8:10-12). Jesus replied that their generation wasn't going to get a sign, and He left.
What did Jesus mean here? How do we apply it to today?
I have just a couple of thoughts to share. The first is related to what I said at the end of the last section. All of God's works have purpose. Sometimes, we might not understand the purpose. Either we don't really know what is going on around us, or we just don't have the long term outline of God's plan which is going to win out over all the little minor variations we'd like to see happen.
The thing to realize is that God doesn't work on demand. He does listen to our prayers. He listens to all of them. He hears the ones where we ask the stock market to go up. He hears the ones where we ask to win the lottery. P.S. Have you thought how much different your life would be if you did? I'm not talking about the ability to pay off debt or buy stuff. I'm thinking about the bodyguards whenever you or your family went out to do anything to keep from getting kidnapped and held for ransom. I'm thinking about not being able to really go anywhere without being bothered. I'm thinking about people trying to injure themselves on your property so they can sue you. The list of unexpected consequences of being rich go on and on. So be careful what you pray for.
Anyway, God has a purpose in mind when He does things. Sometimes, it may be just to bless you. He is a loving Father. But I think that most times, His blessings come with an intention that either then or later in your life at the right time, you'll give a testimony as to what God has done in your life, and you'll give Him the glory.
The sign they were asking for wasn't to give God glory. It was to find a reason to tear down Jesus' ministry. They were tempting Jesus to force God to do something that wasn't in God's plan, just to make them happy or give them ammunition to use against Him. Jesus reply was that that generation wouldn't get such a sign. How many of our prayer requests are just like those of the Pharisees? James has something to say about praying just to fulfill our own desires and lusts. He says that God isn't likely to answer those sort of prayers. This was exactly what the Pharisees were asking for.
Also, it should be noted that Jesus was doing miracles wherever He went. He was proving the Old Testament prophecies true, and He'd end up fulfilling all of them that related to His time on earth in the first round. There are still many millennial prophecies in the Old Testament, but everything related to His life through the resurrection was fulfilled. So they had lots of signs they could already see if they were willing to look.
That's true of our generation as well. We've had 2,000+ years of church history, filled with miracles, healing, prophecies, words of knowledge and wisdom, and the operation of the rest of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There have been some drier seasons than others. But the Holy Spirit hasn't been silent and hasn't ever taken a vacation. He's been working on people's hearts for as long as there have been sinful people on the planet, and He'll continue to do so till the Great White Throne Judgment as far as I can read from scripture. The signs of God's work are all around us. If the church and the media and news organizations haven't been getting the word out, then it's on us and the secular media that the things have been hidden and up to us individually to fix the problem.
In Mark 8:13-21, Jesus continues on the subject when addressing His disciples. The disciples had forgotten to take any bread along, and Jesus complains about the Pharisees and Herod making a mess of the true faith. These represented the religion and the political powers of the time. Jesus was explicitly telling them they needed to keep away from other religions and politics. The religious right in America should heed this more often. He warned that these general groups, which were really large if you count all the false religions of the day and all the forms of government that were in effect.
The disciples thought He was giving them grief for forgetting to bring food, and Jesus replied by asking if they'd already forgotten about the 4,000+ and 5,000+ He just fed? He asked about how many leftovers there were after each and they replied that there were seven baskets of leftovers then, and when He fed the 5,000 there were twelve baskets. So He asked why are you fretting because there is no bread? Don't you get that God can create food out of thin air if needed?
And this passage relates back to what Jesus told the Pharisees about wanting a sign. This was literally just a few hours or maybe a day since the last feeding of the multitudes which was indeed a huge sign for everyone to see that Jesus was the Messiah. And yet, the disciples had to be reminded of it. They knew how much food had been recovered after each feeding. They hadn't really forgotten. But when it came down to a worrisome situation, they didn't think of the signs they'd seen. The looked with human eyes.
Would that all Christians could see the world through Jesus eyes all the time, and also truly understand the power of the living God that spoke everything into existence that our deepest monitoring equipment can see from orbit or far out in space. Nothing is impossible for Him. Not everything we seek is in His will. But outside of that, nothing is impossible for God unless it depends on humans doing something that they don't want to do. Free will is a bummer for accomplishing everything God wants, although I think He can be pretty persuasive if He needs to be. I'm writing this instead of reading a new book, for example. And think how boring a bunch of pre-programmed robots would be.
The sad thing is that even the brightest sign you can think of can't overcome all human free will. Those who are determined to reject Christ will still reject Him. But we still pray for signs and miracles for those who can be persuaded by something they can't explain in any way on their own. There have been many prayers I've prayed in the hopes that a miracle or healing would be something I could use to testify to others about. But I have to accept that the reality of what Christ was saying to the Pharisees is still true. Signs have a great purpose, but they can't convert every heart if the heart is unwilling to hear and the eyes are unwilling to see.
The Blind Man Two-fer
So, speaking of eyes, Mark 8:22-25 talks about another healing of blind eyes. In this case, Jesus spits on his eyes, puts His hands on him and asks what he saw. He says he sees men as trees walking. Jesus puts His hands on him again and asks him to look up, and he sees everything clearly. Some use this as an excuse when people aren't healed completely. My suspicion is that the man had more than one thing wrong with his eyes. The first time Jesus touched him, perhaps He healed the eye, and the next time maybe He healed something else leading to the brain's processing. That seems more likely to me than that Jesus couldn't do something in one shot.
But regardless of what was actually happening, we need to realize a key truth. When someone who is praying for you asks if you're all better, tell the truth. Either say - hey I don't feel any change at all, I feel something but there are still issues, or if you're completely well, say so. Don't just equivocate or walk away unsatisfied if you know the person you are with is filled with the Holy Spirit and working healing in others.
I am confident that God is in control, and will talk to the person who is full of the Spirit to let them know if there is some reason or thing that needs to be taken care of before a healing can take place. If not, trust in God and give Him the glory. Don't give up on God until you've gotten what you need, always subject to asking for something that is in the will of God in the first place.
Christ ends this passage with a statement to not go back into Bethsaida and talk about what had happened there. In Matthew 11:20-24, Bethsaida had already been taken to task for not repenting when mighty works were done around it, and Christ makes clear to the man to not bother to witness to them about what was done. Jesus didn't say the man was restricted from telling anyone else. He just said don't talk to the residents of the town about it.
When thinking about answered prayer, it seems strange not to spread the word everywhere. But Jesus clearly said, those people have had their chance and it's up to them to come back on their own, essentially. Witnessing to them is over. That might give you something to think about as you look at people who have continually turned their back on the proclamation of the Gospel Message. Have they reached a place where God says no more chances?
If you loved someone, would you listen if God said don't go try to witness to them anymore. It's up to them to come back now. That would be a tough decision to make. I pray there is nobody in our lives who falls into that category, but as I look at so much of the world which has to have known of Christ and Christianity for so long and rejected Him, I have to wonder if God has said enough and is now working on those who haven't heard and leaving the rest of the first world to wallow in their self made crap.
Who is Christ?
Finally, from Mark 8:27-38, the chapter is closed by Christ asking the disciples who both men and the disciples feel Christ was. They give several things they've heard Christ called by man and then Peter declares that He is the Christ, the Messiah. He charged them all not to speak that fact to anyone, probably because He had more work and teaching to perform and if this was bandied about, it would be impossible to perform it.
An important point here is that Christ tells them exactly what is going to happen. He prophesies about the torture He would go through both from the religious leaders and the Romans. He tells that he would be rejected by those who should have been most ready to see, killed, and that he would rise again three days later. Peter has the audacity to reject what Jesus is saying and rebukes the person He has just declared to be the Christ because He doesn't want to accept that Christ will die. Jesus rebuked Peter in return and told Peter to stop listening to Satan's words that were being put in his mind.
We need to always pray to be understanding of God's will about what is happening in our lives. Maybe we should pray that every day. There are times when what we are told will happen seems unreasonable and we want to lash out against it. Peter was this way in this instance. He didn't want Christ to day, even if he would somehow rise again three days later. None of this torture and crucifixion stuff for someone to whom he admired. But sometimes a person's future is tough, but still completely in God's will. The disciples all had rough roads ahead themselves, even though they didn't realize it yet. Accepting the will of God can be a challenge for every believer.
Mark ends with a hard passage for all of us to receive and understand. Christ warns that if a person wants to truly follow Christ, He needs to take up his cross and follow Him. Christ warns that the only thing that ultimately matters for any of us is where our soul and resurrected body live out eternity. From now to infinity, and beyond! Eternity is a long time.
We all to often worry about tomorrow and make poor decisions rather than taking up our cross and following where Jesus leads. Jesus declares that it doesn't matter how great you are on earth or how much you end up accumulating in terms of power, wealth, and stuff. If you lose your soul and end up in hell, you'd give all that you had on earth to escape, but it will be too late. Everyone is just a plain old Mark I Rev 1 human being in God's eyes, no matter how pretty they are dressed.
A final warning to Christians everywhere is in Mark 8:38. If we are ashamed of Christ and His words when we are out in the world which is described as an adulterous and sinful bunch, then Christ will likewise be ashamed of us when He returns with the Father and angels. That isn't a place we want to be.
Do we hide our testimony when we're in the world? Do we refuse to argue with the lost to try to save them? Do we hide our Bible's away? Do we post on social media to try to win the lost, but do so anonymously? Christ says to not be ashamed of Him or what He said. His words were true and were for all mankind for all time. His commands and promises haven't gone out of style. They aren't out of date either. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).