Sermon on Mark 8:1-9 by Rev. Jeff Hendrix.
With seven loaves of bread, Jesus feeds over 4,000 people. Jesus’ miracle isn’t just to show His power. In this second miraculous feeding, Jesus wants to show His compassion.
Mark records this not to show another miracle to induce awe and wonder, but a miracle of comfort. Tremendous comfort. The difference is this: If the miracle happened today, a show of Jesus’ power would be that if you came to church, ate the Lord’s Body, and drank from the Cup of the Lord in the Lord’s Supper, that nothing physically bad would happen to you. You wouldn’t get sick, you would get coronavirus, and you wouldn’t die. That would show God’s power, and God could of course do that. But God doesn’t – in fact, there is risk involved with all of these. But is a miracle of power what we really need?
The truth is, Jesus does perform a miracle today. The same sort of miracle. A Miracle of compassion. And we’ve been just as guilty as the disciples for not seeing it. Jesus provides His people with the Bread of Eternal Life, every week, all over the world. Jesus sees us struggling in our daily lives and He shows compassion on us.
