Mark 8:1-13

Once more we see our Lord feeding a great multitude with a few loaves and fish. He knew the heart of man. He saw the rise of cavillers and sceptics, who would question the reality of the wonderful works He performed. By repeating the mighty miracle here recorded, He stops the mouth of all who are not wilfully blind to evidence. Publicly, and before four thousand witnesses, He shows His almighty power a second time.

Let us observe in this passage how great is the kindness and compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ. He saw around Him a “very great multitude,” who had nothing to eat. He knew that the great majority were following Him from no other motive than idle curiosity, and had no claim whatever to be regarded as His disciples. Yet when He saw them hungry and destitute, He pitied them:–“I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat.”

The feeling heart of our Lord Jesus Christ appears in these words. He has compassion even on those who are not His people,–the faithless, the graceless, the followers of this world. He feels tenderly for them, though they know it not. He died for them, though they care little for what He did on the cross. He would receive them graciously, and pardon them freely, if they would only repent and believe on Him. Let us ever beware of measuring the love of Christ by any human measure. He has a special love, beyond doubt, for His own believing people. But He has also a general love of compassion, even for the unthankful and the evil. His love “passeth knowledge.” (Ephes. 3:19)

Let us strive to make Jesus our pattern in this, as well as in everything else. Let us be kind, and compassionate, and pitiful, and courteous to all men. Let us be ready to do good to all men, and not only to friends and the household of faith. Let us carry into practice our Lord’s injunction, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to those who hate you.” (Matt. 5:44) This is to show the mind of Christ. This is the right way to heap coals of fire on an enemy’s head, and to melt foes into friends (Rom. 12:20)

Let us observe, in the second place, from this passage, that with Christ nothing is impossible. The disciples said, “from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” They might well say so. Without the hand of Him who first made the world out of nothing, the thing could not be. But in the almighty hands of Jesus seven loaves and a few fishes were made sufficient to satisfy four thousand men. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

We must never allow ourselves to doubt Christ’s power to supply the spiritual wants of all His people. He has “bread enough and to spare” for every soul that trusts in Him. Weak, infirm, corrupt, empty as believers feel themselves, let them never despair, while Jesus lives. In Him there is a boundless store of mercy and grace, laid up for the use of all His believing members, and ready to be bestowed on all who ask in prayer. “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.” (Colos. 1:19)

Let us never doubt Christ’s providential care for the temporal wants of all His people. He knows their circumstances. He is acquainted with all their necessities. He will never allow them to lack anything that is really for their good. His heart is not changed since He ascended up on high, and sat down on the right hand of God. He still lives who had compassion on the hungry crowd in the wilderness, and supplied their need. How much more, may we suppose, will He supply the need of those who trust Him? He will supply them without fail. Their faith may occasionally be tried. They may sometimes be kept waiting, and be brought very low. But the believer shall never be left entirely destitute. “Bread shall be given him; his water shall be sure.” (Isaiah 33:16)

Let us observe, in the last place, how much sorrow unbelief occasions to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are told that when “the Pharisees began to question with Him, seeking of Him a sign from heaven, testing Him, He sighed deeply in His spirit.” There was a deep meaning in that sigh! It came from a heart which mourned over the ruin that these wicked men were bringing on their own souls. Enemies as they were, Jesus could not behold them hardening themselves in unbelief without sorrow.

The feeling which our Lord Jesus Christ here expressed, will always be the feeling of all true Christians. Grief over the sins of others is one leading evidence of true grace. The man who is really converted, will always regard the unconverted with pity and concern. This was the mind of David,–“I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved.” (Psalm 119:158) This was the mind of the godly in the days of Ezekiel: “They sighed and cried for the abominations done in the land.” (Ezek. 9:4) This was the mind of Lot: “He vexed his righteous soul with the unlawful deeds” of those around him. (2 Peter 2:8) This was the mind of Paul: “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow for my brethren.” (Rom. 9:2) In all these cases we see something of the mind of Christ. As the great Head feels, so feel the members. They all grieve when they see sin.

Let us leave the passage with solemn self-inquiry. Do we know anything of likeness to Christ, and fellow-feeling with Him? Do we feel hurt, and pained, and sorrowful, when we see men continuing in sin and unbelief? Do we feel grieved and concerned about the state of the unconverted? These are heart-searching questions, and demand serious consideration. There are few surer marks of an unconverted heart, than carelessness and indifference about the souls of others.

Finally, let us never forget that unbelief and sin are just as great a cause of grief to our Lord now, as they were eighteen hundred years ago. Let us strive and pray that we may not add to that grief by any act or deed of ours. The sin of grieving Christ is one which many commit continually without thought or reflection. He who sighed over the unbelief of the Pharisees is still unchanged. Can we doubt that when He sees some persisting in unbelief at the present day, He is grieved? From such sin may we be delivered!