- Psalmody: Psalm 47:1; 3; Psalm 34:11, 5; Psalm 59:1; Prayer of Azariah 1:17; Psalm 31:2a
- Lection: Isaiah 62:6–12; Romans 6:19–23; Mark 8:1–9
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What do we make of this multitude who follow Jesus into the wilderness and nearly starve themselves to death? What do we make of this Jesus Who knew it, still led them there, and fed them by a small catch of fish miraculously multiplied with seven loaves of bread to be a satisfying meal for thousands to then send them all on their way? Hopefully we make much of Him and see how this Jesus is bountifully considerate of the multitude who follow Him into life’s wilderness.
This was not the first time the Lord had led a great multitude into the wilderness. In a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, He led them out of bondage, a bondage that the children of Israel soon desired and grumbled to return to just because of all the dainties that came along with it sitting by the pots of meat, eating bread to the full. Oh, how man will give up so much lasting good for temporary pleasure, relief, and luxury! Therefore, the Lord’s anger burned against them, but for the sake of His Holy Name and the promises that He made by it rebuked His children and provided them miraculous bread from heaven in the wilderness.
A millennium and a half later, from heaven above to earth He came healing, teaching, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God to every creature. From a journey into Gentile Tyre and Sidon, Jesus made His way to the Greek Decapolis and from there out into the wilderness with a multitude of people in tow. He knew where He was headed. He knew where He was leading them. They knew of Whom they wanted to hear more. That is devotion; devotion to a great Master Who demands trust from us regardless of where He leads us in His devotion to bless us and keep us always.
Here, we enter Mark eight with the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat out there in the wilderness. We later learn this very great multitude to be numbered, according to just the men, at about four thousand, plus the few thousand wives and children who were also sure to be in attendance. Indeed, a great catch by this mighty Lord Who makes His disciples fishers of men, seeing to it that the people are served by His called servants. But He caught them out into the wilderness, for to be a beloved slave of God is not all rainbow and butterflies. This great multitude, regardless of whatever preparations had been packed and brought along, now had nothing to eat, a basic life need, not even a luxury. They had left the luxuries, they had left the world behind in how it provides, and they followed Jesus. What shall they eat? What shall they drink? The heightened food situation was observed by His disciples in the words, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?” Many can’t. Most can’t, but the One Who came in blessing can. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, From whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, Which made heaven and earth.
The Good Shepherd, the Mighty Creator, desires His flock to pray and believe Psalm 121, for help truly cometh from Him, a lesson often needing to be taught and retaught to sheep who are prone not to wander into the wilderness at the sound of their Savior’s voice, trusting wherever He may lead, but to wander back into the clutches of the world that echoes the temptations and lies of the serpent of old. The easy life that it promises is rather easy. It’s easy to hop the current of the great, very great multitude that walks the way of the ungodly, more concerned and anxious for the riches and pleasures of life, for clutching onto them even amidst a warning of a great deluge, for pressing on to the eternal lake of fiery death swifter than the mighty flooding Mississippi surges for the Gulf. It is easy to just give in to it all, to just give up, to just stop resisting what the world, what the flesh so desperately wants and champions, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it…narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. The Christian life is not easy, but difficult, difficult by truly meet, right, and salutary necessity. All valuable things in this life come with needed devotion and dedication to fight the current, to walk on the narrow way for our good and for what is given into our care: spouses, children, homes, friends, vehicles, animals, government, congregations, life with Jesus. His life, in which we walk, demands much to be struggled against, much to be left behind for His sake as we take up our crosses and follow Him, yea, even into a wilderness.
Thus we discover how considerate the Lord Jesus is in this place. See it in how He looks upon this multitude who have followed Him into the wilderness. They have not only followed Him, but stuck it out with Him. Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.” He knows what it means to follow Him. He knows what it costs. He knows the devotion it takes to do constant battle against doubt, against illness, against age, against pain of all sorts, against the lazy, grumbling flesh, against sin, against the devil, against the world. Above all others, He knows the sacrifice it takes to walk in the way of the righteous, to grow like a tree planted by the rivers of water that delights in the law of the Lord. This multitude had nothing to eat because they were seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and we know His promise to add unto us all things needed when that happens. Where Christ demands much devotion, He is sure to give much grace to see us through. Look deep into the compassion of His heart and see there is no bottom to that well of divine grace. By it, He shall sustain us in all places and at all times.
His compassion continues, “And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.” There is a beautiful word play in the Scriptures here in which all dear Christians may rejoice. The faithful people of God give up much of this world, at times painfully even friends and family members who do not believe or blaspheme our dear Lord’s Name. Such was the common case for the early Church in the book of Acts as the Good News of Christ continued to spread and many came to believe in His Name unto salvation. The beginning of chapter nine reveals a particular early nickname for Christianity, as it is written, “Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” The cost of discipleship in Christ is high, no exceptions, requiring the whole heart and at times much more. Jesus takes notice. Nothing escapes His watchful eye. “If I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way.” Life in the wilderness, life on the Way that goes where Christ leads no matter the cost, may only be endured through the compassionate Lord never sending us away hungry. From Him, of Him, we must take eat and drink, lest we faint, lest we fall.
Thus, we see in the feeding of the 4,000 that, indeed, this Jesus is compassionate, not minimally compassionate. He is bountifully compassionate to the multitude who follow Him into the wilderness. So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude. They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them. So they ate and were filled. The Lord Jesus’ bountiful compassion is multiplied where He has gathered you so that His called Disciples, His pastors, His celebrants of His divine Word and blessed Sacrament, may take in hand the Lord’s grace and distribute it to you that you can endure all to which He brings you out to. He takes a scanty meal, seven loaves and a few small fish, a scanty meal, a small gathering of bread and a little cruet of wine, and makes out of it priceless treasure that strengthens and preserves you in body and soul in the one true faith unto life everlasting. This deluge, the wide road, has no such promise nor hope, even with all the meat pots and bread in the world. This is the bounty upon which Jesus desires His flock to depend, to trust, to live, to hope. No matter where He leads, following Christ is to travel in the narrow, difficult way of the righteous which leads to life. May we ever fear not that into which He leads us or brings upon us, but seek Him first in all things, trusting that His bountiful consideration, compassion, goodness, and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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