He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven"

 In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar."  Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?"  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude.  They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them.  So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.  Now those who had eaten were about four thousand.  And he sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
 
- Mark 8:1-10

Yesterday we read that, after a confrontation with the Pharisees and some scribes who had come from Jerusalem, Jesus departed from His ministry's "home territory," and went to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon, north of Galilee.  And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.  For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.  The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs."  Then he said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.  Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.  Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.  Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well.  He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."  

 In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar."  Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?"  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude.  They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them.  So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.  Now those who had eaten were about four thousand.  And he sent them away, immediately got into the boat with His disciples, and came to the region of Dalmanutha.   This is a second feeding in the wilderness, and is not meant to be confused with the first, as there are significant details to note.   They are two distinct miracles.  My study bible calls the difference in the number of loaves significant.  In the first miracle, there were five, which symbolizes the Law (the Pentateuch, or Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament).  Here in this feeding in the wilderness there are seven loaves.  Seven is a number symbolizing completeness or fullness; here, my study bible says, it indicates spiritual perfection.  So, in the first feeding miracle, Christ reveals Himself as fulfilling the Law.  Here in the Decapolis, in this mixed region of Gentiles and Jews, He shows that it is He who grants spiritual perfection.  My study bible notes also that these crowds had been with Christ for three days, the same number of days He would rest in the tomb.  To participate in Christ's perfection, my study bible notes, can only come through being united to His death (see Romans 6:3-5).  Here there are four thousand, a large number symbolizing the world, as in its four directions.  We note once again the details that suggest the Eucharist, as Jesus gave thanks (the meaning of the Greek root from which we derive "Eucharist"), Himself breaking the loaves and distributing them through His disciples.  That there are seven large baskets leftover is once again significant of completion or fullness, that this is the bread that is given for the life of the entire created order, for the world (John 6:51).

As the hostility of the religious leadership begins to be manifest, and the open conflicts with Jesus begin to show as well (see this reading), Jesus withdraws into Gentile territory and seeks to get away from public attention and controversy.  First He went north into Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region north of Galilee, where He didn't want anyone to know He was there.  But He simply cannot be hidden, and we read of His encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman there in yesterday's reading, above.  He returned to Galilee by way of the Decapolis, a Greek-speaking region (its name meaning "Ten Cities" in Greek) of Greek and Roman culture, and mixed Jewish and Gentile populations.  We can see small changes in His ministry that begin here:  there is first of all the faith and persistence of the Syro-Phoenician woman, although Jesus initially refuses her, making it clear that He was sent to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel"  (Matthew 10:5-6; 15:24).  But we remember that the wind of the Holy Spirit blows where it wishes (John 3:8).   While it is the clear that salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22), the Holy Spirit of God moves among all the people of the world.   This is clearly meant not only for all the people of the world, but the Greek word "cosmos" covers the whole of the created order of things, both visible and invisible.  The sense of completeness or perfection of the  Lord of lords and King of kings (Deuteronomy 10:17; 1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14, 19:16) cannot be limited.   What may come from the Jews is meant for all of creation.  This is the working of God's Spirit in the world and the direction begun to be taken in Christ's ministry.  That mysterious wind we can't limit or control rather comes to us, and takes us along with it, if we but respond with our faith.   And faith is the real path of that Spirit and that ministry:  Christ takes root in hearts which are receptive, those who have spiritual eyes and ears, and who hunger and thirst for what He offers.  The feedings in the wilderness give us an image, in the understanding of the Gospels, of people who are like sheep having no shepherd (Mark 6:34), of those who deeply need what He offers, a world in need of  His healing and the food He gives.  The real question becomes whether or not we can recognize that need, or our own woundedness or incompletion, imperfection -- or do we grasp onto other things in our self-declared notions of perfection?  If maturity can be said to be the recognition of our own imperfection, then our response to that maturity is the courage to accept this mystery, this wind, this movement of the Holy Spirit that teaches us a path, a surprising way to go, the places we need to travel to fulfill what is possible through His name and the righteousness He offers.  We may always be surprised at what that kind of perfection looks like, the strangeness of the saints, the deep love of devotion we find in the Scriptures -- but it is meant for each of us, and to find in our own hearts.