Deja' Vu’?

June 20

Read: Mark 8:1-10

Deja' Vu’?

“I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”

Jesus will never send you home hungry. Jesus will not leave you to go on a journey where you will faint along the way. Some people don’t realize that on two different occasions Jesus fed thousands of people with just some bread and fish. He did this twice to solidify this idea in the minds of his disciples: Jesus is willing and able to provide the very material needs that we must have to survive. Jesus will feed those who are following him. We have become so afraid to embrace this truth… to lay hold of this reality. We want to “spiritualize” all of the work of Jesus… but Jesus is truly thinking about our bellies and the journey ahead of us as well.

Look at the disciples response here: ““How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” (v.4) This is laughable isn’t it? I mean they have already experienced Jesus feeding 5000, so what is the big deal with 4000? Jesus does not rebuke them for asking, or even laugh… he simply asks them what they have. Once again… Jesus simply wants us to work with what we have…what has already been entrusted to us. He is patient in the ways that he walks us through his process.

One other thing that stands out is the way that it again says Jesus had “compassion on the crowd”. (v.2) Jesus is compassionate towards our needs… it matters to him that we are hungry. He knows we actually don’t have what we need to feed ourselves. He knows we lack the resources to feed our hunger. He is aware of the long journey “home” for each of us…Jesus is working to get us there safely. When the environment around us seems like a “desolate place” with no options for us to get what we need… Jesus will feed us. Jesus will provide.

It is not easy to believe this at times. I mean, if the disciples experience it first hand and still forget, how much more so for us? Out of a fear of the “prosperity gospel”, some of us have lost sight of the fact that Jesus does provide material needs in the material world. Are you looking at the journey ahead of you and feeling weak? Do you worry that you will “faint on the way home”? Don’t fret, Jesus won’t let that happen to you. How is he going to work? It starts with you taking inventory of what you have and handing it over to Jesus to have him “give thanks for it” and then multiply it. (v.7) Just as before - the people “ate and were satisfied”. That never gets old! May we feast on what the Lord has given us and be satisfied! May the Lord bless and multiply everything that we hand over to him. May our hearts and our stomachs be full! Love you guys. -JDP