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 His confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes who'd come from Jerusalem to test Him, Jesus left Galilee and 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.   My study bible remarks that we should not confuse this second feeding of a multitude with the first (see this reading).  There are a number of elements which distinguish them from one another, and therefore we must approach it as significant to the Gospels that these are two separate miracles.  There is first of all a significance of the number of loves.  In the first feeding miracle, there were five loaves, which symbolize the Law (as in the first five books of the Old Testament, or Torah).  Here there are seven.  The number seven symbolizes completeness; here it is an indication of spiritual perfection.  So, if we are to understand the language and poetry of the Gospels, in the first instance Christ revealed Himself as fulfilling the Law (see Matthew 5:17).  But here Christ shows that it is He who grants spiritual perfection.  My study bible also notes a significance in that the crowds had been with Christ for three days.  These are the number of days that Christ will rest in the tomb.  It says that participation in Christ's perfection can only come through being united to His death (see Romans 6:3-5). 

 

 Apparently this second feeding miracle takes place in the region of the Decapolis.  The name Decapolis means "ten cities" in Greek, and this was a region of cities first established during the Hellenistic Period (by the ruling Ptolemaic dynasty which followed Alexander the Great).  Its development continued through the Roman period.  They were therefore cities of Greek and Roman culture, and a region with a mixed population of Jews and Gentiles.  So this is one possible way to look at this second miracle.  In this context, it's noteworthy that Jesus has just healed a Gentile woman's daughter, and the significance of His dialogue with the Syro-Phoenician woman (in yesterday's reading, above) becomes deeper.  If for no other reason, we can look at this second feeding miracle as a portent of the direction of the Church to come and an expansion of Christ's ministry.  With its symbolism of spiritual perfection, and also the symbolic focus on aspects of Christ Himself -- including the three days in the tomb before Resurrection -- it seems to suggest a focus meant for the world of both Jew and Gentile, in which Christ Himself is the means of salvation.  The number four (as in four thousand) is also a symbol of all the world, such as in the four directions of North, South, East, and West.  It also suggests the four points of the Cross, another addition to the suggestion that it is the communion of humankind and Christ that will become the focus of this saving ministry in the world.  If we take a look at a map of the region, we might understand that Christ is still avoiding the territory in which He had His confrontation with the Pharisees who'd come from Jerusalem to question Him.  Mark's text tells us that "departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee" (Mark 7:31 NKJV).  But if we look closely at the Greek, it suggests He left Tyre and went through Sidon (therefore going north, away from Galilee), and came east through the Decapolis, a clearly roundabout way of returning toward the Sea of Galilee, and avoiding the familiar ground of His ministry.  So, these people who follow Him in today's reading are an indication of the spread of His fame into areas of mixed populations, beyond the Galilean focus of His ministry so far.  His renown has not only spread to Jerusalem (from which the Pharisees and scribes came to question Him) but also into these other regions.  Whether or not the crowds here consist only of Jews, or if they are a mix of Jews and Gentiles, little matters in terms of the suggestions of expansion both in terms of geography and in terms of the symbolism contained in the miracle itself.  It is as if we are symbolically watching the expansion of the "new wineskins" Jesus spoke of to the Pharisees on an earlier occasion (Mark 2:18-22).  And here we come to an important realization about change and transformation through the work of grace:  it does not come noticeably and with great fanfare.  For those always searching for symbols and signs, explosions of vast social change, the Gospel message here is that they are looking in the wrong place.  Transformation is not advertised, because it comes in an organic fashion, and mystically, from the "inside out" so to speak.  Christ ostensibly goes to where the Pharisees cannot pursue Him, retreating away from conflict for the time being.  But the shift in ministry is already beginning through the happenstance of encounter -- through the Syro-Phoenician woman who approaches Him to cure her daughter, through these people who've followed Him into the wilderness although outside His home region in Galilee.  God's work transforms in mysterious ways, and so often the "signs and symbols" can only be read clearly in hindsight.  Our faith has developed in its traditions as an "organic" kind of faith.  That is, God's work happens within us and among us.  In Luke 17 we read:  "Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, 'The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, "See here!" or "See there!"  For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you' " (Luke 17:20-21).  If we are looking for grand signs, we are likely to miss the boat, because the signs come after the seeds start to sprout, and frequently they are small and meek in stature (1 Corinthians 4:9-13).  Our prayer practices, our worship traditions, our constant study of the Scriptures, repetitions of the Psalms, and all manner of the historical development of practices in the Church teach us one thing:  that life in Christ begins in the heart, is shaped through the soul, and reaches into our lives in both distinct and myriad ways that start small.  One day we respond to another with a gesture of kindness we might not have considered before, another day we pray with a saint we'd never thought relevant to our lives.  Through our experience, we repent of our ignorance and past behavior we want to change.  We don't judge by signs and wonders, we live a life in Christ.  As He did, we leave God's plan for salvation to unfold, for it's not ours to put into our terms and on our own level of understanding or craft (Isaiah 55:8).