From the Pastor – August 2025
“In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘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.’ And his disciples answered him, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?’” (Mark 8:1-4)
Mark and Matthew offer us a little glimpse into a pretty big miracle. Whereas each Gospel has the account of the Feeding of the 5000, they are the only two Gospels that include the Feeding of the 4000. It’s a little known miracle, second cousin to the better known 5000. Because of this, perhaps you aren’t all that familiar with this particular miracle so I will let you in on some of the details.
The obvious difference is the number of people that Jesus fed. Another difference is the amount of bread that is used; 5 vs. 7 loaves. Apart from that, not much else changes, except, of course, for the location; which actually proves to be an important detail.
I always wondered something about this miracle: Why are the disciples seemingly so confounded as to how Jesus was going to feed the giant crowd? Weren’t they present at the Feeding of the 5000? Didn’t Jesus hand the bread to them and they hand it out to everyone gathered? Were they just dumb? Probably not. Forgetful? Maybe, for who among us always remembers how God takes care of us, even when it sometimes seems to be miraculous? Or maybe they were just prodding Jesus a little bit, urging Him to get on with His miracle stuff. Maybe… but I think there is something bigger.
The Feeding of the 5000 took place near Bethsaida, which means that the majority of them were Jews. The 5000 also happened first, so when the disciples are confused as to where this big meal is going to come from, it is only because they had never seen Jesus do it before. But the Feeding of the 4000 took place in the area of the Decapolis, which means that the majority of the people were Gentiles. And so when the disciples asked Jesus, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? The operative words are “these” and “this”. What the disciples really seemed to be saying is, “Jesus, I know that you can miraculously feed thousands, but certainly not even you will feed thousands of Gentiles.”
And so this is where Jesus has everyone sit down in order that we might learn another important thing about Him. Jesus has compassion for everyone. His gut wrenches open for all people and He desperately wants to give them everything that they need to support this body and life. And if He wants to provide for all people’s physical needs, how much more does He want to supply for all people’s spiritual needs? Jesus isn’t a Christ just for the Jews. He isn’t a Christ for a select group of people. He is the Christ for all people, and that includes for the people that you and I don’t think He should be the Christ for. Jesus is the one and only universal Savior and He will go out of His way to make sure that we all know and understand this.
And so apart from Jesus being Jesus and having compassion on a whole mess of hungry people, the Feeding of the 4000 is one of Jesus’ many ways of saying that He is for everyone. There is no Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free; we are all just one in Christ Jesus. Meaning that in this second miracle of loaves multiplication, you can be assured that Jesus is, in fact, for you! And He is going to supply you with everything (physical and spiritual) that you need.
Rev. Eli Lietzau
