FEEDING THE 4000, LOAVES & FISHES 2.0

(K, this turned out to be MUCH longer than I originally thought, so… might want to top off your coffee.)

Matthew and Mark are the only Gospels that record this miracle.

Jesus seems to be in Decapolis when this takes place as it’s the last location mentioned by Mark in chapter 7, and also because after it happens, Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee from east to west and lands at an area called both Magadan and Dalmanutha.

If Jesus feeds 4000 people in Decapolis, it’s probably a VERY racially diverse group. Decapolis means ten-cities.

Deca = 10

Polis = city

The cities were semi-autonomous, Greco-Roman in culture, and very much a melting pot of ethnicities. There were 4 main categories of people:

• Greeks & Macedonians – there were colonists and descendants of Alexander the Great’s army which had settled down in the area.
• Indigenous Arameans and other Semitic tribal groups. These would be the intermarried remains of kingdoms like Moab, Ammon, and Edom among others.
• Nabataean Arabs – they were nomadic and had pushed into the area from the east after Jerusalem and Edom fell to the Babylonians.
• Jews & Syro-Phoenicians – they were minority groups. The Jews probably (mostly) formed their own communities outside the cities and kept more to themselves but they would’ve been forced to interact with their Gentile neighbors more than the Jews in Judea or Galilee.

Jesus has been camped out there teaching for 3 days!

☝️🤓 It’s like the first Church Camp.

Except that there is generally lots of food at Church Camp and a whole lot more games and leisure time. Oh, and you usually don’t sleep under the stars. In the desert. With no electricity. Or running water. Or indoor plumbing. And fast for 3 days while listening to Bible teaching all day.

😐 Oh. So… not like Church Camp at all.

Nope.

🤓 It sounds like a Survivor Man Retreat.

Interesting idea for a Men’s Ministry somewhere.

Jesus feels sorry to send everyone home hungry.

😏 That’s the way my Granny is. If you leave hungry it won’t be her fault.

It’s only been a few weeks since Jesus fed 5000 people. I feel like the disciples should be saying something like, “Rabbi, everybody is hungry. Can you do that loaves and fish thing again? That was really cool! Here, I found this raisin in my pocket. And Thomas has a cracker. Will that work?”

Instead they ask…

“How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭8‬:‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

😏 Maybe they were asking it in a way like a hint. Ironically. Like… “Gee… I wonder where we could find enough food to feed ALL these people out here in the wilderness. Hmm… Got any ideas, Jesus? 😉

Maybe. And maybe Jesus grinned when He asked how many loaves of bread they were able to rustle up.

Just as before, Jesus asks everyone to sit down in orderly groups, then He gives thanks for the food and begins breaking it apart and the disciples distribute it.

In this miracle they had 7 loaves instead of 5 and “a few” small fish.

And instead of 12 baskets of leftovers, there were 7. Still plenty.

It’s very likely that there were quite a few Gentiles mixed in this crowd in Decapolis. This miracle with the “mixed multitude” makes me think of another angle of the Exodus story and the manna. There was a “mixed multitude” that went with Israel out of Egypt. It’s not like Hebrews were the only slaves in the land. I bet there were slaves of many races that joined the Israelites as well as Egyptians who saw that their gods were wildly inferior to Yahweh. And while some may have “peeled off” from the group at Sinai, many stayed and became part of Israel. And God fed them with manna too.

God’s heart has always been open to the Gentile nations.

I find it interesting that Jesus had everyone sit down in groups. I’m sure there were practical considerations in making sure each group was served. But I wonder if we might – without mishandling the text – draw an application for ourselves from that simple detail.

Jesus didn’t do either of the food-multiplying miracles willy-nilly. The miracle did not happen until the crowd got themselves into a state of order and stillness (can’t move about when you’re sitting).

God doesn’t ONLY do miracles when there is chaos and emergency. That’s usually when we think about needing a miracle. Jesus prepares for this miracle by taking attendance and setting up a plan and structure. For those of us who sometimes do not function well without a plan, this is a comforting thought.

If we should find ourselves in need of miraculous aid in our provision and resources, perhaps we would do well to sit down and be still and trust Jesus to multiply our loaves and fish.

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BEWARE THE LEAVEN

So, after the 2nd Loaves & Fishes Picnic, Jesus and Co cross the lake to the western shore to a place Mark called Dalmanutha, which Matthew 15:39 calls Magadan (KJV Magdala). The precise location is unknown but archeologists believe it to have been about half way between Genneseret and Magdala (the home town of Mary the Magdalene).

And who should come out of the woodwork but the Pharisees and Sadducees (Mt. 16:1).

Remember that the Pharisees and Sadducees were opposing parties. They had even fought a war about 200 years prior. For them to “join forces” is like saying that the Right-wing Conservatives and Far—left Liberals formed a coalition to see Jesus.

🤓 I’d vote for that. 🗳️

😐 Yup. They both need Jesus.

My point is, these are strange bedfellows. But Jesus is becoming a threat to both groups. He is completely side-stepping their political rivalry and introducing a new kingdom, completely separate from this world, that they cannot infiltrate or manipulate in any way. And people are abandoning them and flocking to Jesus.

So they demand a miraculous sign “from Heaven” as a test; meaning, to prove His Divine authority.

It would be like if a guy showed up and began to tell people he was a world-class concert pianist. You could test this claim by having him sit down at a grand piano and give him an Etude by Chopin [pronounced like show-pan] or Liszt [which sounds like list] and see if he can play it. A performance would either prove or disprove his claim.

But Jesus has been giving virtuosic demonstrations of His power for about 3 years now. There are plenty of eyewitnesses. There is already PLENTY of proof.

But for the hard heart,

no amount of proof is enough proof.

It’s no different today. There is a mountain of legitimate, verifiable, evidence – biblical, historic, philosophic, experiential – that Jesus Of Nazareth was in fact the Creator of the Universe in a human body, Who died on a Roman cross and rose from the dead 3 days later, and that faith in Him transforms a person. But someone who does not want to give up his rights and bow to his Creator will always need “more proof.”

I’ve talked ad nauseam to people like this. They’re not just skeptics. (I respect an honest skeptic more than I do a person who believes whatever they hear without evidence.) A skeptic will listen to evidence and seek to verify or disprove claims. But a proud, stubborn person will take the evidence you offer, cast it aside immediately, and bring up another “well what about…”

• Well what about the dinosaurs?
• Well what about God commanding the Israelites to kill people in the Old Testament?
• Well what about slavery?
• Well what about the Crusades?
• Well what about corrupt pastors of megachurches?
• Well what about the flat earth debate?
• Well what about aliens? 👽

I think these people tell themselves that if they just perfectly understood everything in the universe and why God does what He does, then they could trust Him. (Which is an impossible expectation)

It’s like they have to be able to approve of God and His actions before He is found worthy of their trust. Think about that.

The Creator of space, time, and matter has to meet their standards.

A person. On this floating dust mote. Is demanding that the infinite Creator must prove Himself to him, and answer questions to his satisfaction before He can be trusted.

🪑☕️

This, boys and girls, is what is called PRIDE.

And it clearly shows how humans have set up for themselves a rogue kingdom; even if its borders extend no further than their own 4 walls, bank account, and heart. It’s not just an equal and independent kingdom either. Withholding trust until God meets one’s demands suggests a kingdom believed to be superior to God.

(I recommend going back up to the Etc Etc Etc picture and re-reading – slowly – everything from there down.)

While we may not be guilty of such stubbornness on a whole-life scale, we would do well to examine our hearts and minds for little pockets of such resistance.

Jesus wouldn’t jump through the hoops demanded by the Pharisees and Sadducees. Of course He could have. But Jesus knows the hard, rebellious heart. He knew that if He had performed some sign for them, they would’ve demanded another.

“Well, what about Rome?”

“Well, what about the Temple?”

“Well, what about the Law of Moses?”

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Before Jesus responds to them, He does something that only happens once in the whole of His ministry. He does this:

It’s a compound word. Stenazo means to “groan” and appears several times in the NT. The prefix ana is an intensifyer.

The Pharisees and Sadducees ask for a sign, and Jesus (without the cigarette of course) basically does the Ben Affleck meme:

Jesus tells them they’ve gotten nearly all the signs they’re going to get. They’re going to get only one more: The Sign of the Prophet Jonah. Jesus has already told them about this and even explained what it is:

“For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭40‬ ‭LEB‬‬

Jesus walks away from this fruitless conversation, gets in a boat with the disciples, and they set sail for Bethsaida.

While Jesus is alone with the disciples on the lake, He warns them to “beware of the leaven” of these political factions.

In typical fashion, the disciples immediately begins responding in terms of physical leaven: bread (of which they had none). Jesus is using a spiritual metaphor.

“Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in?”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭8‬:‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus isn’t worried about physical bread. He has recently fed upwards of 10,000 people with the equivalent of this:

“Then at last they understood that he wasn’t speaking about the yeast in bread, but about the deceptive teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Leavening is the thing that makes bread rise. It puffs it up. And deceptive teaching does the same. It puffs people up. I sometimes find it easier to spot deceptive teaching from the result than the cause. When I encounter a person who thinks they have “special knowledge” that other, normal Christians don’t have, or who puts on airs of superiority, my “leaven alert” goes off. I know I’m probably dealing with some amount of false teaching somewhere that has puffed them up. And I have generally found Jesus’ response to be the best. Just walk away. Proud people cannot be debated into humility.

Before Jesus leaves the region again, they stop in Bethsaida, probably to get provisions for the upcoming trip. Mark’s Gospel is the only one to record the unique miracle that Jesus does there.

“When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?” The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.” Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly. Jesus sent him away, saying, “Don’t go back into the village on your way home.””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭8‬:‭22‬-‭26‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This is the first of two miracles that involve Jesus spitting. When the Sepik Iwam people of Papua New Guinea heard about Jesus spitting as part of a healing, they were not surprised. Their word for doctor or medicine man is “spitter” because of how their healers would chew up medicinal herbs and spit the blend on the affected area. In fact, when they heard these stories they exclaimed, “Jesus is the most powerful Spitter in the world!”

This particular healing is poignant because it happened in stages, and some healings today – both physical and emotional – are like that. They don’t happen all at once. Jesus first led the man out of the village. He avoided doing healing miracles in front of curious onlookers whenever possible. Jesus spit on his eyes. The man could see a little but not clearly.

Tell me, are there any people in the photo above? If they moved, would they not look like “walking trees”?

K. We’re gonna switch gears ⚙️ from physical to spiritual. Ready? Here we go.

Many children of God need healing so we can see the world and the people around us clearly. And I’m not talking about cataract or Lasik eye surgery. I’m talking about how we perceive others and the world around us. Jesus’ first touch certainly does a lot. The darkness is gone and we’re now in the light. But it may be that we need another healing touch to our souls to bring clarity. We cannot see ourselves or others as we truly are.

Like I’ve said, I’m not a real Greek scholar but I think that the KJV has the right of it here:

“After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭8‬:‭25‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Put your hands on your eyes.

Now look up.

What do you see?

Hands? Fingers? Perhaps even a rosy glow as the light illuminates the blood in your skin?

Jesus told him to “look up.”

Lift up your eyes, Friend. Look up.

Before he saw anyone or anything else, the man saw the hands of Christ and His blood.

Only after THAT was he “restored and saw every man clearly.”