I think it was the last time I visited my mother before she passed away, she recited to me the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2. I think Nick did a great job of presenting that the other night at the Luau. I think it’s a great tradition to have with your family, to read the familiar story of the birth of Jesus on Christmas morning. If nothing else, it gives pause to the mad rush to open presents, and gives us a moment to reflect upon the real reason for all of the traditions that we have during this season.
But I was thinking later after Nick’s reading that the Christmas back story actually starts with John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The Christmas story is the story of salvation. “Unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” And the reason for the Savior coming to earth is because of the love of God for the world. The world that lay in darkness, lost and condemned to death saw a great light. God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son to be the light of the world. The love of God, and the compassion of God towards us is what we really should be celebrating, not only at Christmas, but throughout the year.
Today in this passage we are looking at, we get a glimpse of the compassion of Christ, the Son of God, for the world. In vs.2, Jesus says, “I feel compassion for the multitude…” Compassion is from a Greek word I can’t pronounce, maybe Nick can, but I’ll try to sound it out, splagchnizomai, (splänkh-nē’-zo-mī). In those days, your bowels, not your heart, was considered to be the source of your emotions. So love and pity were expressed as felt in your “gut”. That’s maybe where we get the phrase, “gut-wrenching.” Something that really moves you so deeply, practically making your stomach turn over.
I think what they are trying to say is that the compassion that Jesus felt for the multitude came out of a deep seated love for them, which moved Him into action. The other night after the party, Joe Bartell stayed around and talked with Susie and I for a bit, and we were talking about David being a man after God’s own heart, and Joe was talking about how much David loved the Lord, how passionate he was towards God and the things of God. And I said, that is true, but the Bible says that David was a man after God’s own heart. That indicates not just the love of David for God, but the love of God towards David. God passionately loved David, so that He restored him and sought him even when David sinned so egregiously against the Lord.
God’s love for us is an amazing love, a passionate, pursuing love, that doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered, but suffers all things for our sakes. And so we see in this passage today the love of Christ for the world. The compassion of Christ for the multitude who were hungry, who were faint, and who if left to themselves would faint on the way. The love of Christ compels Him to help them, to give them what was necessary for life. It’s interesting too that these people were from the region of Decapolis, 10 Greek cities. And therefore it is likely that they were a mixed race at best, and probably there were many Gentiles there. And proper Jews would never eat with a Gentile. Yet Jesus not only wants to eat with them, but to provide a banquet. Jesus loves sinners, He has compassion on the lost sheep of the world. And this miracle is an illustration of God’s love for the world, who as the Bread of Life which came down from heaven is able to give life to those who are in fear of death.
But note also that Jesus wants to share this love and compassion with the disciples. If you are going to follow Christ, then you must share in His love for the lost, share in His compassion for the lost. So Jesus turns to the disciples. And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?” In the previous feeding of the multitudes the disciples begged the question how could they afford to feed the multitude. Now in this situation, they say that the place is so desolate there is no where to buy food, even if they could. And Jesus temporarily overlooks their ignorance. The lesson they should have learned from the last feeding was that He is the source of life, therefore, He is able to provide all that is necessary for life.
That is the real lesson to be learned in this text, by the way. As I said the other night at the luau, Christianity is not a religion, but a way of life, in fact, it’s new life which is given to us by God on the basis of our faith in Christ. And just as there is a beginning and a maturation process and an end to physical life, there is a beginning, and a maturation process and an end to the spiritual life. And nothing less than Jesus Christ is the author and the sustainer and the finisher of our faith. That is the lesson to be learned. It is a completely new way of living, of thinking, of acting, that is wrought about in our lives by an act of God’s grace. It is the light of God which shines in our hearts and in that light we live and have a fruitful life. As Peter said in 2Peter 1:19 “So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”
Now notice the phrase in the disciples question in vs4, where can you get enough bread “to satisfy these people?” The disciples have hit upon the key and they don’t even realize it. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “if you drink of this water, you will thirst again. But if you drink of the living water which I have, then you will never thirst again.” The same equation must be enacted here as well; Jesus said after the first miraculous feeding in John 6:35 "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst." The point being that the way of life through Christ satisfies. The way of the world never satisfies. The things of this world promises satisfaction, but they can never produce satisfaction. The only thing that satisfies is the bread from heaven, which is Jesus Christ. Nothing in this world can satisfy.
If that is ever seen at any time, it is seen most clearly at Christmas, isn’t it? People rushing around and buying and buying and getting and getting, in this insane materialistic, commercial endeavor we have substituted for the true Christmas, and yet nothing satisfies. The busiest times in the department stores are after Christmas, when they go and exchange what they were just given in hopes of finding something else that will satisfy. But nothing satisfies life the way life in Christ satisfies. The source of true satisfaction was standing right in front of them, and yet the disciples ask what can satisfy these people?
Well, Jesus is moved by compassion for the multitudes, and He wants to get the disciples involved in that same compassion for the lost, and so He asks, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said “Seven.” They have more than they had last time. Last time they had 5 loaves for 5000 people and they had 12 baskets left over. This time they should have realized that they had 7 loaves for 4000. More than enough for Jesus to work with. More than last time. But they had not learned that simple lesson yet. Mark doesn’t say that Jesus rolled His eyes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if He did.
But Jesus is compassionate to the multitudes and the disciples, and so He gets them to be seated on the ground, and then blesses the bread and breaks it and starts handing it to the disciples to hand out to the crowd. And as He breaks the bread, more bread appears in His hands. And I suspect that when they saw this miraculous multiplication, someone who had been hoarding a few little fish was moved to share them as well, realizing that He could multiply the fish. Vs 7 “They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well. And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces.”
So take note, Jesus does virtually the same miracle, with a few minor variations, twice. The feeding of the 5000 a few months before, and now the feeding of the 4000. And by the way, Matthew indicates in both accounts that those numbers were only the men, not including the women and children. Possibly you could triple those numbers in each case. But the point is Jesus is giving the same lesson twice to the disciples. Because the Lord is compassionate, and realizes that sometimes we need to repeat a lesson before we really learn it. Some of us seem to be learning the same lessons over and over again as we go through life. But thank God He is merciful and patient towards us and willing to teach us again and again.
But notice that there are some people who cannot learn, because they don’t want to learn. They have hardened their hearts. Such were the Pharisees. After Jesus sent away the multiudes, He and the disciples got back into the boat and came to the district of Dalmanutha. And the Pharisees, who had undoubtedly been hearing of all that Jesus was doing in Galilee, came out to argue with Jesus, and demand a sign from Him. He’s healed hundreds, if not thousands of people by this time, He has raised the dead, He has feed tens of thousands from just a handful of loaves and fishes, He has done so many miracles and yet the Pharisees seek for a sign. What they were demanding was that He produce a sign from heaven on demand, such as fire from heaven, or the sun standing still, or some celestial event, but purely so that they might see it as some sort of proof that He was the Son of God. They want Him to perform for their benefit, not out of compassion for the sick, or in-firmed, or for those that were needing to be fed, but out of a selfish desire for Him to prove Himself to them, according to their standards and timing. Verse 11 says that it was to test Him. It’s the same idea that Satan tried on Jesus during His 40 days of testing in the wilderness. To get Him to act out of pride, out of a sense of self validation. And that would have been a sin. It would have been an act of pride on Jesus’s part. But He did not come to serve Himself, but to serve us. He was humble.
And so Jesus denied their request. It says He sighed deeply in His Spirit. Jesus could have sighed out of exasperation, but I tend to think it was a sigh of grief. I think His Spirit was grieved at the hardness of their heart. It is the response of love and compassion deep within Him, that His love is rejected and repulsed. Jesus knew their hearts, that they hated Him without a cause and wanted to find a way to put Him to death.
So sighing deeply in His spirit, He *said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” I want to comment about this phrase “this generation” for a moment. I’m reminded of the similarity to the song by the Who, called “My Generation.” You remember the lyrics; “People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we g-g-get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
My my my generation.
That was a very popular song of my generation. And probably most of us here today are a part of that generation. I think it goes without saying that our generation was one of the most ego centric, self absorbed generations that ever walked the planet. And a lot of the problems of this present culture can be laid at the feet of my generation. My generation claimed to be seeking enlightenment, and yet they settled for an illusion. And I will tell you something that I was thinking about a lot this week. The church changed drastically in my generation. The local church is patterned after the synagogue of the Jews. There was one on every street corner, less than a Sabbath Day’s journey from it’s congregation. And in Jewish culture it was the cultural, religious and educational hub of the community. All religious, educational and social life was centered in the synagogue.
The same could be said about the local church in the generation of my father. It was the hub of Christian life. We went to church 4 or 5 times a week. We couldn’t live at the church, as they did right after Pentecost, but we pretty much were there all the time for one reason or another. Sunday’s we were there by 10 for Sunday School, and didn’t get out of church till 12:30. Then back that night at 6:30 until 8:30. Back again on Wednesday night. The men had visitation on Tuesday nights. Youth group was on Saturday nights. And every other month it seemed we had some sort of revival or mission’s conference or something that had us in church every night of the week. If you were a Christian, then church was at the center of your life.
But when my generation came up, we began to f-f-f-fade away. Sunday school fell away, Sunday night services fell away, Wednesday nights faded away. Church now is an hour long presentation on Sunday morning, which you attend occasionally only if it doesn’t conflict with family get togethers or sports or something, and then the rest of the week we live fully engaged in the world and the church is put on the back burner until we get into some sort of crisis. And even at our best, our attitude concerning the Lord is not far from those demanding, hard hearted Pharisees, who want to see something exciting, we want to see God answer our demands, when we want and how we want Him to respond. And yet, like the Pharisees, we make such demands without committing to follow Him completely and daily as His disciples. We show up when we want to show up, and make demands that He performs for our benefit.
Well, Jesus doesn’t work that way. He won’t dance to their tune. He says you’re not going to be given a sign, and He left them and got in the boat again and went to the other side of the lake. God has given you enough light to believe by faith. But if you reject that light, then He is under no compulsion to give you more. In fact, in Mark 4:25 Jesus says what you have will be taken away. But to him who has faith, then he will be given more light, culminating one day in the glory of Christ being revealed face to face.
As they were going away on the boat, the disciples begin to realize that they had forgotten to eat again, and they had only one loaf between all twelve of them. And Jesus begins to say, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” So they are trying to figure out what He is talking about, and they come to the conclusion that it must be that He is saying this because He is aware that they don’t have bread, and He doesn’t want them to get bread from the Pharisees or from the Herodians.
Vs17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? "HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?" They said to Him, "Twelve." "When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?" And they said to Him, "Seven." And He was saying to them, "Do you not yet understand?”
The point Jesus makes with them is two fold, but one depends upon the other. The first point that Jesus makes is that they say they have no bread, but the Bread of Life is their Master who is with them in the boat. He took 5 loaves and made bread for 5000, leaving 12 baskets left over. He took 7 loaves and made bread for 4000 and had 7 baskets left over. How could they not see that He could take one loaf and make enough to feed just 12 of them, and still have plenty left over? Jesus want’s them to see that He is not only the source of life, but the supply of life. The Lord has promised to supply our needs according to His riches in glory. Phil. 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” And yet how often do we worry about whether or not God will supply our needs?
The Lord supplies all our needs, not just financial needs. Not just physical needs. But He will supply our spiritual needs. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is the One who saves, who sanctifies, and who will glorify us.
And that leads us to the next point the Lord was making, that though the disciples had physical eyes, they could not see spiritual truths. Though they had physical ears, they could not hear spiritual truths. Their hearts were dull. Their spiritual senses were dulled because they were attuned to the physical, rather than the spiritual. They were so concerned about the physical, they could not understand the spiritual significance of what He was teaching them.
So what was He trying to teach them when He spoke about the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of the Herodians? Well, yeast in the Bible is always a picture of sin. In this case it might be the sin of false teaching. And Jesus was telling them to beware of it, because it is a deceptive doctrine and a damning one as well.
Yeast was taught in the unleavened bread of the Passover meal, that it represented sin. And to explain how that works, I was reminded of Donna’s sourdough bread. She shared her recipe for sourdough bread with Susie, but Susie couldn’t make it unless Donna first gave her some of her yeast left from the last batch of bread she had made. Then Susie took that starter yeast and added it to her dough and let the yeast activate her dough. And when Susie made her bread, she saves some of the dough to be the starter for the next time she makes it. Now yeast makes for some tasty bread, but it is a picture of sin in that it is a holdover from the past. It’s a picture of holding over or carrying over something from the past that corrupts the next batch.
And in this instance, Jesus is saying, I’m teaching you the doctrines of everlasting life, the abundant life that God has sent Me to declare to you and to provide for you. But beware of trying to carry over the traditions of the Pharisees which are not founded upon the word of God. And beware of trying to carry over the secularism from the Herodians in which they wanted to compartmentalize the sacred from the secular. They believed that they could have the benefits of being a child of God, and still enjoy the benefits as a citizen of the world, i.e., Herod.
And finally to the disciples, Jesus is saying, beware of the leaven of materialism. It’s the danger of wanting to hang on to the culture and attitudes of the world, and yet claim the benefits of Christianity. The nature of man to look at things physically and not see the unseen spiritual truth of life which is behind it. As Paul said in 2Cor. 5:7, “for we walk by faith and not by sight.” And again in 2Cor. 4:18 “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The admonition is to take care not to hold onto the things of this world, the cultural things, the material things, the physical things and try to add Christianity to it. True Christianity must be a new way, a new life. 2Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Jesus is the source of life, and the supply of life, He is the bread of life which has come down from heaven, that we who eat of it might live. But to live this life in Christ, we must have eyes to see that which is spiritual, and ears to hear that which is spiritual, that we might have new life more abundantly, even the life which satisfies our hearts. This is the life that Jesus came to earth to provide for us. I pray that you accept that gift of God, and that you may know the love of God which satisfies every restless heart.
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