Mark 8:1-10 Jesus Feeds Us So We May Have Life

The Text

Mark 8:1–10 (CSB)
¹ In those days there was again a large crowd, and they had nothing to eat. He called the disciples and said to them,

² “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat.

³ If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a long distance.”

⁴ His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread here in this desolate place to feed these people?”

⁵ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked them. “Seven,” they said.

⁶ He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground. Taking the seven loaves, he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. So they served them to the crowd.

⁷ They also had a few small fish, and after he had blessed them, he said these were to be served as well.

⁸ They ate and were satisfied. Then they collected seven large baskets of leftover pieces.

⁹ About four thousand were there. He dismissed them.

¹⁰ And he immediately got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

The Devotion

This is so much more than Christ being able to feed and care for us.

God does do this in his perfect provision for:

Matthew 6:7-8 (CSB) When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.

and

Matthew 6:29-32 (CSB) Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

The point is that we when we are spiritually dead and we are spiritually starving. For:

Matthew 5:6 (CSB) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

and

Matthew 6:33 (CSB) But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

That righteousness that God tells you to speak? It has to be better and holier than anybody you have ever heard of:

Matthew 5:20 (CSB) For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

The fact is: no matter how holy you think you are or someone else you know, it's not enough. For:

Isaiah 64:6 (CSB) All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

and

Romans 3:23 (CSB) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

You are going to need Jesus and his righteousness in order to live forever.

John 6:32-37 (CSB) Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe. Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

and

2 Corinthians 5:21 (CSB) He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.