MARK 6:30-37
30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. 33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. 35 When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. 36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.” 37 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
Have you ever been in a conflict with someone, and a friend said to you, “Don’t take it personally? He treats everyone like that.” Or you are in the same situation, perhaps at work, and the person who has been rude or too frank with you says, “Don’t take it personally. It’s just business.” Those are challenging encounters, aren’t they?
Well, this morning I want you to take everything I say personally. That is why I have chosen this title for the sermon. “You Give Them Something To Eat.” Now before you and I have a problem, smile with me, I am just repeating what Jesus said to the disciples. So don’t shoot the messenger.
My point is this: all of us who are believers and followers of Jesus Christ have been called to have compassion and to serve people in need. It’s not a special gift. It is not a command for a few. It is not a suggestion. Scripture is filled with this call to meet the needs of the poor, the homeless, the orphan, the widow, anyone who has a life essential need.
Now, let me begin by giving you the background for this incredible story.
I. SO MUCH IS HAPPENING
In what is evidently a short period of time, Jesus has faced rejection, the disciples have been incredibly busy, and they have received word about a significant lose. Jesus went to His hometown of Nazareth to preach and minister to those in need. But he did not receive a warm welcome. The Bible tells us that the people took offense at him. As a result of their lack of faith, Jesus could not perform many miracles. This of course is the passage where we hear Jesus saying that a prophet is not without honor except in his own house.
The disciples have been very busy. Jesus sent them out in pairs. They were to go from village to village preaching a message of repentance and meeting the needs of those who were ill. Jesus told them in advance that they may not always be received well. Likely, they were not. But they have been busy and now they are weary from their labors.
The word they received about a significant loss was the word that John the Baptist had been killed. He was one of their dearest friends and co-laborer in the ministry. You can imagine how they felt when they learned of his death. In Matthew’s account, he tells us that the reason they were going to a quiet place was, in part, because of the news about John.
So, they are tired. They are grieving the loss of their friend. They need to rest. They get in a boat, but thousands of people are following them. When they land the crowd is there. Verse 34 tells us that Jesus had compassion on them. But it was getting late. That’s when we get a glimpse of the disciple’s mindset.
II. LET THEM FEED THEMSELVES
Look at verses 35 and 36. The disciples say to Jesus, this is my colloquial version, “It’s late. We are out in the middle of nowhere. These people need to eat. Tell them to go into town and feed themselves.” Now, I don’t want to read between the lines too much, but I think that their comments were more about them than the crowd. I think they were actually saying, “Look Lord. We’re exhausted. We’ve been on the road. We need to get some rest. We don’t have time to take care of these people.”
But there is another issue. Look at the second part of verse 37. When Jesus tells them to feed the people, their first reaction is about the cost of doing that. Evidently, someone had quickly calculated just how much a meal for several thousand people would cost. “Lord, that would take eight months of wages.” Then they ask Jesus, “If that’s what you want to do, are we the ones who are going to have to go into town and buy the food?
But that brings us to the point where Jesus redirects their focus, and we see the main truth of the story.
III. YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT
Jesus says, “You give them something to eat. Can you imagine what went through their minds? Is Jesus asking us to pay for the food. Does he really expect us to feed all these people? But then Jesus asks them a pointed question. How much food do you have? That was probably as perplexing to them as His command to feed the people.
This is where John tells us about the little boy with the loaves and the fishes. Evidently, he was the only one who brought some food with him. He was prepared. A smart little boy don’t you think? Yes. Remember the little boy. I’m sure that some of the disciples were saying, “Well this isn’t going to do any good. We’re wasting our time. It's getting dark and we haven’t even eaten ourselves.” Can’t you just hear them complaining?
When the disciples present the little boy’s food to Jesus, the Lord instructs them to have the people sit down in groups of hundreds and fifties. He then prays over the food and tells the disciples to distribute it to the people. I’m sure that when the disciples started handing out the food that they were still complaining. But at some point, the miracle happens. The food is multiplied, so much so that everyone has enough to eat and there are even leftovers for later. Wow! Incredible, isn’t it?
IV. LESSONS FOR YOU AND ME
What do you and I need to learn about compassion and serving people from this story? For one thing we need to see if we are not just like the disciples were. Do you know what their main problem was? They were too practical. They were too conventional in their thinking. It just didn’t make sense to try and feed all those people. That’s the way we are at times. We don’t think outside the realm of the possible. We don’t trust that God can do something above and beyond.
We look at the enormity of the problem, the shear numbers of those in need and we say to ourselves, “We really can’t make a difference here.” So, we do nothing. Too many hungry children. Too many poor families. Too many homeless people. We really can’t make a difference.
Then, their second problem; selfishness. They were ready to quit for the day. They wanted to have their time. You know we are the same way. We guard our time for ourselves, and we do that by saying, “Well, I just don’t have the time.” They didn’t want to spend their own resources to feed the people either. “This is my hard-earned money. I’m going to spend it on myself.” Those poor people will probably waste what I give them anyway.”
All those statements, all of them, are excuses not reasons. And they show the condition of our hearts. You see, the one crucial factor in service of any kind is compassion. Do we really care about hurting people? Does their condition break our hearts? When we see little children wearing shoes that are two sizes too small does that move us inside? Then does it move us to get them some new shoes? That’s Christian compassion. That’s the heart of Jesus.
But let me tell you the most important lesson we learn from this story. If we do all we can, God will do the rest. What our offering cannot accomplish, His power can. Can you imagine the amazement of the disciples as they passed the food out to the first one hundred people.? Can you imagine what was going through their minds as they fed the first one thousand people? I think that they were in shock. I think that it shook them to their core. Oh, they had seen Jesus help one here and one here, but they had never seen anything like this.
My friends if we would get busy doing what we can we’d see God doing what only He can do. We’d see lives changed, communities changed, cities changed, and perhaps even our nation and world changed. I truly believe that.
So many of us have been praying for another great move of God across our country and our world, where people come by the thousands and tens of thousands to accept Christ as Savior. That has not happened.
Maybe God is waiting for us to feed the hungry, to take the homeless in, to provide clothes for little children, to take God’s love to those in prison. Some of you know where I’m getting that from. Jesus said in Matthew 25, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Is it possible that the next great move of God could come as the result of a large-scale servant ministry movement? I believe it is possible. It will take the church falling on its knees and asking for God’s forgiveness because we have not had the compassion we should have had. It will take us getting up off our knees and going where hurting people are and spending our time and our resources to meet their needs.
But I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that if we would move, God would move. John tells us that after the people saw the miracle, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet of God.” They recognized Jesus as the Messiah. That’s what can happen when we meet needs in Jesus’ name. Lives are changed forever.
CONCLUSION
Let me just talk with you as I close. This has been on my mind and on my heart for a long time. For me, it started when I visited a public housing development in New Orleans. I was serving on the faculty of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. My wife and I went to the community center and offered to do some tutoring for the children. I had never seen poverty like that up close and personal. In the next couple of years, God kept sending us to places, showing us the need of people who were living in helpless and hopeless situations. We saw the toll that poverty was taking on the lives of single mothers with children and others.
I knew this. The government was never designed to meet their real needs. Secular and corporate entities were never tasked with meeting their real needs. Only the church of Jesus Christ has been commissioned to meet those needs. Only the church has the resources to bring the help and healing they need.
Can the government feed them? Yes. Can secular and corporate groups give them clothing and shelter? Sure. But only the church can love them. Only the church can help them know how valuable they are to God. Only the church can point them to their real source of strength. Only the church can lead them to Jesus. This is OUR calling. This is OUR purpose. This is OUR assignment. God help us to see that. Lord help us to accept it and move to accomplish it.
YOU show them the love of God. YOU give them something to wear. YOU give them something to eat. YOU point them to Jesus. Start today. Don’t quit until you die. Do it with all your heart and all your strength and watch God miraculously change lives forever.
