I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat

 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 scribes and Pharisees,  Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  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.  Once again, we are to understand that by now in His ministry, great multitudes follow Jesus.  This particular crowd of people has continued with Him for three days, so that they are out of whatever food they may have brought with them.   We also see expressed Jesus compassion for them.  This is yet another distinct feeding in the wilderness from the previous (see this reading).  My study bible notes the symbolic meanings hidden in this particular incident that differ from the previous:  In the first instance, there were five loaves; here there are seven.  Five symbolizes the Law; seven symbolizes completeness and here, it says, indicates spiritual perfection.  So, in the first instance, Christ revealed Himself as fulfilling the Law, and here He shows that it is He who grants spiritual perfection, an act of grace.  Telling us symbolically of the significance of this second feeding in the wilderness is the detail that the crowds have been with Him three days, the number of days He will rest in the tomb before Resurrection.   My study bible adds that participation in His perfection can only come through being united to Christ's death (see Romans 6:3-5).  The number 4,000 is an expanded version of four, which frequently symbolizes human identity and the world, here transforming what that will mean:  the four points of the Cross most notably as union of Trinity and human being in the person of Jesus.

Jesus' second feeding in the wilderness shows signs that this is a new thing that has happened in the world.  It is beyond simply Christ's fulfillment of the Law.  Something new is here, something is expanded, like the new wineskins necessary to hold the new wine (Mark 2:22).   The three days "germination" of these crowds being with Him in faith give us a portrayal of the three days Christ Himself will be in the tomb and with those in Hades before Resurrection.  As we have noted in the previous reading, Jesus has now been traveling in Gentile regions, so these crowds are possibly Jews mixed with Gentiles who follow.  His ministry has apparently taken surprising turns -- even surprising to Jesus, such as the Syro-Phoenician woman in yesterday's reading, in that place where He thought He could remain hidden in a house, and therefore withdrawn from ministry for a time.  All of these things can be taken as signs of Resurrection, signs of our spring and of Easter, these little glimmers of something new blossoming that is unexpected.  It is like the time we are in now, as we await Easter, when we begin to see the blooming of buds and bulbs underground springing up daffodils, purple crocus, lilies of every kind.  As we see signs of spring, and we are amid a worldwide quarantine, effectively asking us all to remain "underground" for this time, let us consider the signs God brings us of eventual Resurrection and Easter.  The bulbs give their flowers, emerging from underground, especially lilies which portend of Resurrection.  We, as Christians, must remember our surprising Lord and His ministry.  Who can feed those in the wilderness?  Who can multiply what we have?  Who gives us hope?  Who defies everything, every odd, every certainty of this world, even death?  Our Lord does that, and His surprising, expanding ministry full of new signs of new things.  Let us remember that this is what our prayers are for, to draw upon this surprising quality of our Lord and our faith -- this renewal and new things that will defy every odd and surprise us.  In the Revelation, the Lord says, "Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).  In the tense of the original Greek, the literal meaning of that statement is, "I am always making all things new."  This tells us something crucial, that is reflected in today's reading:  that the new is something that typifies Christ's ministry, wherever it may be.  Just as the events in the Gospels reflect the need for an expanding "wineskin" to contain all the new things that are happening and growing, so it remains true where Christ is present in our lives, and in our world.  In our own every day experience in the Church, the saints of all measure, personality, place, and origin confirm the ever-expanding nature of what we understand to be God's work in the world, and our own personal experience in prayer and personal change may also confirm the surprising reality of God's bringing newness to us as well.  Let us consider what Christ's expanding ministry fulfills for us.  How do we become fed?  What are the surprising things that feed you in your own "wilderness" today?  As we are all in some sense isolated right now through quarantine, what can you find within that place you go to pray and experience your faith today?  Are there surprising signs of spring and new growth blooming?