#33 Déjà Vu All Over Again Series

#33 Déjà Vu All Over Again

Series: Mark

Chuck Sligh

November 1, 2020

NOTE: PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives

TEXT: Mark 8:1-9 – “In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, 2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: 3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. 4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? 5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. 6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. 7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. 8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. 9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.”

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – Yogi Berra was a famous New York Yankees baseball catcher, manager, coach and Hall of Famer who was known for his famous one-liners that came to be known as “Yogiisms.” Here are some of his more memorable ones:

• It was Yogi who first said, “You can observe a lot by watching.”

• He also once said about a restaurant he used to frequent, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

• Another gem: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

• But my all-time favorite was when Yogi witnessed Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit two back-to-back homeruns one season in the 1960s. – After watching this, he famously said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Well, déjà vu is the feeling that you have lived through the present situation before. So Yogi was essentially saying the same thing twice.

Play along with me for a knock-knock joke:

Knock, knock. [AWAIT “Who’s there.”]

Déjà. [AWAIT “Déjà who?”]

Knock, knock.

In today’s text, you might find yourself experiencing a little bit of déjà vu all over again. It’s about Jesus feeding a multitude of people. You may be thinking, Wait, didn’t Jesus feed a huge crowd of people a couple of chapters ago? Yep, you are correct: back in chapter 6 when He fed 5,000 men.

In fact, unbelieving Bible critics have seized on this, saying this a repeat of the original story. “Ha,” they say joyously, “A mistake in the Bible! See, the Bible isn’t inspired.”

Well, not so fast.There are definitely many similarities in both stories: Both occur in deserted settings; both emphasize Jesus’ compassion on the crowds; both have Jesus asking, “How many loaves do you have?”; the command to recline is similar in both accounts; both accounts have Jesus thanking God for the food; both involve participation from the disciples; in both it is stated that the people ate and were satisfied; leftovers were gathered after both meals; and finally, both stories end with Jesus dismissing the crowd and taking a boat trip.

But there are important differences between the two stories:

• The first time Jesus fed 5,000 MEN (no women or children were present because it was a crowed of Zealots hoping to force Jesus to militantly declare His Messiahship and defeat Roman rule); the second time, Mark tells us there were 4,000 PEOPLE, indicating a varied congregation of men, women and maybe children.

• The first feeding began with 5 loaves and 2 fish, whereas the story in today’s text mentions 7 loaves and a few small fish.

• Next, the word for fish is different in each account: one using the generic word for fish and in the other, Mark chose a Greek word that refers to little sardines.

• In the first feeding, the crowd was with Jesus only 1 day; in the second, 3 days.

• In the second feeding, people were not broken up into groups as they are in the first feeding but are simply seated on the ground.

• And lastly, the number of baskets of leftovers also differs (12 in the first and 7 in the second), as do the Greek words used for “basket” (a picnic-sized basket in the first feeding and a basket big enough for a man to be put into in the second.)