SERMON TITLE: Compassion
TEXT: Mark 8:1-21 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 1-25/26-20
It’s great to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And one thing I want you to know is that God loves you and I love you too.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at different stories from the life of Jesus in the gospel of Mark. And what we’ve been seeing is that God is more concerned with what’s going on inside of us than he is with our behaviors. Yes — what we do matters to God — but our motivations — our desires — what the Bible calls our “heart” — is what God is most concerned about. Because when God has our heart — when our desires are in line with his desires — well that’s when our behaviors will please him.
So — if you have your Bible — let’s turn to our passage for today. Please turn with me to Mark chapter 8. We’ll be looking at verses 1-21.
And while you’re finding Mark chapter 8 — have you ever been driving somewhere — maybe in a city that isn’t familiar to you — and even with Google maps open — have you ever missed your turn? A few weeks ago, I was in Orlando for a meeting — and we were right in the heart of downtown Orlando — and I had one of those driving moments. Google maps was telling me to turn onto a road — but man was I hesitant. It just didn’t feel right. It felt like I was about to go the wrong way down a one way street or something. But — of course — Google maps was right.
But even with Google maps telling us where to go — we can still miss our turn — can’t we? We miss the street sign — or the “here’s what’s coming up at the next exit” sign on the Interstate — it’s so easy to miss the sign we’re looking for, isn’t it?
Well in our story — we’re going to see some people miss a different kind of sign. A sign indicating to them who Jesus is. And here’s why their story is important for us — it’s just as easy to miss a sign — that tells you something about Jesus — as it is to miss a sign on the Interstate. But I want us all to pay attention to today’s story from Mark’s gospel — so we all understand who Jesus is a bit better.
We’re in Mark chapter 8 — starting in verse 1.
“In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away." 4 And his disciples answered him, "How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?" 5 And he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven." 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." 13 And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.
14 Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." 16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." 20 "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." 21 And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"” (Mark 8:1-21 ESV)
Now what I love about stories — like these — is that we see Jesus’ compassion on full display. I’m not sure what comes to mind — when you think of Jesus — but often — and this can depend on our personality — our family background — and many other things — but most of us tend to think about certain characteristics of Jesus — and then there are other characteristics of his that we don’t think of very often.
So you may think of Jesus as a great teacher — or you may not think much at all about his teaching.
You may think of Jesus as a great healer — or you don’t think about him being someone who can heal others.
You may think of him being more of a social radical — him hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors — or you may never think about those things.
You may think of Jesus’ divinity — him being God — and not much about his humanity — that he’s fully human as well. Or vice versa.
Well — for me — his compassion is something I wish I thought about more often because his compassion floors me when I think about it. But something I’ve noticed — when it comes to compassion — is that many of us have sort of a love hate relationship with the idea. What do I mean?
Well, most of us like the idea of their being compassionate people in the world — people who help others — we’re all good with that — that’s the love part. The hate part — is that most of us don’t want to be the person who needs compassion — “I can handle this all on my own, thank you very much” — and — there’s enough selfishness in each of us — that being compassionate towards others can be exhausting — so there’s a part of us that really wishes that people — who need our ongoing compassion — would just figure out how to help themselves.
True story — one that highlights what I’m talking about.
When I was in Orlando, one of the pastors I was meeting with decided to put into practice his New Year’s resolution — to start running again. And what happened to him was comical. He’s running in downtown Orlando and there are a bunch of homeless people in the area where he’s running. And — as he tells the story — as he’s running he’s also praying for all of the homeless people he’s passing by — praying for God to care for them and to bless them and so on. And then — as he passed one homeless guy — the homeless guy yells at him, “And I thought I was ugly.” Hilarious, right? Well — my pastor friend — said that immediately he went from having a “compassionate filled prayer” kind of attitude to thinking “Why don’t you go get a job!” Now he didn’t say that out loud — he just thought it — but look at how quickly — even in our thoughts — even if you’re a pastor — look at how quickly we can go from compassion to whatever “go get a job” is.
Now — obviously — personal responsibility is a good thing. But the lie we can believe is that we’re the only ones who can help ourselves. The other angle of the lie is to think that others are solely responsible for taking care of themselves — so we don’t have to show them compassion — especially when they call us ugly. And the reason why this is dangerous is because it makes us prone to refusing the compassion that Jesus offers us and it can become an excuse to not extend compassion to others as Jesus expects us to.
But our story — from Mark’s gospel — also points out to us that compassion is more than what we might first assume it to be. For Jesus shows us that compassion does include serving others — meeting their physical needs — but it also includes more than that. So let’s go back and see the compassion of Jesus and what it means to receive his compassion and to extend his compassion to others.
Verse 1. “In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away."
Now the word compassion — in verse 2 — means that Jesus has deep sympathy and affection for the people in this crowd. He’s not surface level concerned about their well-being — he’s not just saying the right thing — he cares deeply about them.
4 And his disciples answered him, "How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?”
Now Mark makes sure we understand the setting of this story — we’re in a desolate place — we’re out in the wilderness — and this is an intriguing detail to this story. We’ll get to why this wilderness location is intriguing in a moment — but first — I’ve got to ask the obvious question. Now — if you weren’t with us last year — or if you haven’t read through Mark’s gospel in a while — this may not be obvious to you — but what’s screaming at me is this: Why in the world are the disciples asking such a ridiculous question?
And the reason why their question — seems to me — to be ridiculous — is that they’ve already seen Jesus miraculously feed 5,000 people with 5 pieces of bread and 2 fish. I mean — their question seems to be something you’d ask if you’ve never seen Jesus miraculously feed 5,000 people. But it’s not the kind of question you ask if you have seen Jesus do a miracle like that. And — yet — they’ve seen the miracle and they ask this question.
There’s a comedian (Bill Engvall) who has a joke about all of the things we wish we could say to people when we get asked ridiculous questions — and — apparently he says what we all think — or at least that’s the basis for his comedy routine. For example, he took his car to a mechanic because he had a flat tire. And the mechanic walked up, looked at the tire, and said, “Flat tire?” And the comedian replied, “Nope, I was driving around and the other three tires just filled up with air.” Another time he was moving — so he had a Uhaul in his driveway — and a neighbor came up and asked him, “You moving?” To which he replied, “Nope, we like to pack up our stuff two or three times a week just to see how many boxes it takes.”
Well — I wonder if it crossed Jesus’ mind — when the disciples asked him, “How can we feed 4,000 people out here in the wilderness with only 7 pieces of bread” — I wonder if Jesus thought about saying, “How about we do what I did with the 5 pieces of bread when we fed 5,000 people? I mean, we’ve got more bread and less people. So how about we do that?” But instead...
5 And he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven."
Like I said — they have more bread — than the last time they found themselves in this situation — and yet they’re uncertain what to do.
6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
Even though they have more food and less people — the disciples wonder what can be done about this predicament — it doesn’t make any sense, does it?
Now — because this doesn’t seem to make sense — some have tried to argue that Mark has repeated the story of the feeding of the 5,000 — that this is the same story being retold. The only problem with this theory is that John — in his gospel — which he wrote independently from Matthew, Mark and Luke — John has both the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 stories in his gospel. Also — if you’ll notice — Mark uses the word “again” in verse 1— “in those days when again a great crowd had gathered” — indicating something like this had happened before. So Jesus feeding the 5,000 and 4,000 are two separate stories.
Also — important to note — is that in the last geographic update Mark gave us — Jesus and his disciples were in the region of the Decapolis — an area dominated by Gentiles — non-Jewish people. And when Jesus fed the 5,000 people, the crowd was mainly Jewish. And — if you remember from last week — a Gentile woman came to Jesus asking him to heal her daughter — and there was a discussion about who Jesus came to feed.
And — I remind you of all of that because I don’t think it’s a coincidence that — after a Gentile woman demonstrates faith in Jesus — believing that he’s come to be compassionate to Gentiles as well as Jews — well I don’t think it should surprise us that we quickly come to a story about Jesus being compassionate to Gentiles in a way that mirrors a story that earlier demonstrated his compassion to the Jews. Like a sign on the Interstate — this is miraculous feeding is a sign showing us that Jesus came to show compassion to all kinds of people.
So Jesus is surrounded by a large crowd of Gentiles. And he has compassion for them. This is why he brings — to the attention of the disciples — the food situation. “These people have been with us for three days now and have nothing to eat.” Three days — it’s hard to hear that phrase and not think of Jesus’ death and resurrection, isn’t it? And I think there’s a reason for this. Some — in the crowd — have come from far away — from three days away. And for Jesus’ disciples — who were Jews — this wasn’t solely a geographic issue — they saw Gentiles as being spiritually far from God. Remember they’re still struggling to see — unlike the Gentile woman from last week — but James and John and Peter and Andrew and the other disciples are still figuring things out — their vision is still a bit blurry when it comes to seeing the sign — that Jesus has come to show compassion to both the Jews and the Gentiles — to all who are far from God.
So the disciples ask their seemingly illogical question, “Where will we find enough food to feed all these people?” And this is where the idea of the wilderness comes in.
Something Mark does — throughout his gospel — is he drops little hints — little echoes — of the Exodus story. And — as you may know — the wilderness plays an important part in the Exodus story. This is the story of God rescuing the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt — yet the people don’t trust that he will lead them safely into the Promised Land. And the consequence of their distrust is that they wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And — in the wilderness — an entire generation dies because they did not trust God.
So what does the Exodus story have to do with this story in Mark? Well it may help us understand why the disciples are struggling to believe that Jesus can feed this crowd — when they’ve already seen him do a similar miracle. The story of God’s people — in Exodus — is a story of miraculous rescue. There are the 10 plagues. The crossing of the Red Sea. Incredible miracles. And — then — just after they are miraculously rescued — the people complain. And what do they complain about? Food! They doubt God’s ability to sustain them in the wilderness. “Sure — God can miraculously rescue us — but maybe he can’t feed us.” Makes sense, right? No! And here — in Mark’s gospel — we’ve got the disciples essentially saying, “Sure — Jesus — we know that you can feed 5,000 Jews with less bread than we’ve got here, but maybe — because these folks are Gentiles — maybe this is beyond your ability.” Makes sense, right? No!
Oh, but how often do we do the same thing — and doubt God’s ability to do something that he’s already proven to us that he can do. And this is what happens when we forget his compassion — when we ignore the sign — that Jesus is compassionate towards us. That — not only does he feed us — but he gives us baskets full of leftovers of his compassion towards us for tomorrow.
But not everyone doubts Jesus in an “I’m struggling to trust he can do this” way — some doubt Jesus in a “We hate him — let’s attack him” kind of way. No clutch. We’re just shifting gears. Verse 11.
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." 13 And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.
Now the point — in this short interlude — isn’t to teach us that asking God for a sign is always a wicked or evil thing to do. The point is that the Pharisees have a heart problem.
They’ve already witnessed Jesus do various miracles and signs. And do you know what they did when they saw him do the miraculous? They attributed his power to the Devil. They refused to see Jesus’ compassion towards the people he heals. They ignored the signs. They refused to see his compassion towards the crowds he feeds. Because of their hearts — they hate Jesus — so his compassion is revulsive to them.
So them demanding a sign is pointless. They’re not going to believe in him — they don’t want to — they hate him. Thus Jesus calls them “this generation” — which is another echo of the wilderness story in Exodus. Where “this generation” were the people who grumbled against Moses, who died in the wilderness, who did not trust God to be compassionate towards them and provide for their every need. And — like that generation — the Pharisees will not experience God’s compassion — they will wander in a spiritual wilderness and die.
Which leads to Jesus — and his disciples — getting into a boat to go to the other side of the sea — where they have an interesting conversation. Verse 14.
14 Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
What a strange detail for Mark to record — there was only one loaf of bread. Mark’s all about moving on to the next event so we can get to the cross, so when he gives us a detail — like the fact they only had one loaf of bread — we need to stop and pay attention. Back to the Exodus story one last time. The people grumbled about being hungry and they doubted if God would be compassionate to them and feed them. But he did. He gave them manna — bread from Heaven. And Jesus — in John’s gospel — after he fed the 5,000 — Jesus said that he is the Bread of Life. And — what he was saying — is that spiritual nourishment is found by feasting on him. That those who are hungry can come to him and they will hunger no more — which is something we experience when we take the Lord’s Supper together and feast on Jesus — the Bread of Life.
But watch what Jesus does with their awareness of only having one loaf of bread.
15 And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." 16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?
Jesus asks them five questions.
Jesus repeats questions asked by the Old Testament prophets who continually called God’s people to see and hear and remember and understand what God was doing — to not hardened their hearts against his compassion towards them. And to his disciples — to Peter, and James, and John, and to the others — Jesus asks the same questions. And then — he asks...
19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." 20 "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." 21 And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"” (Mark 8:1-21 ESV)
The truth is — the disciples don’t yet understand.
But what about you — how is Jesus changing you? Is your faith in him growing — increasing — is your faith rising up like bread being baked in an oven?
People in the crowds were often amazed by Jesus’ display of compassion — but they didn’t all believe in him. And — like them — we can marvel at Jesus — marvel at what he did and taught — marvel at how socially radical he was — we can marvel at Jesus and not have faith in him. You can be fascinated and intrigued with Jesus and not be changed by him.
This happened to the Israelites who were rescued out of Egypt. They were amazed by the miracles that God did to rescue them — but — in the end — they didn’t trust him. And — similarly with Jesus — there were many in his day who were amazed by what he could do but they didn’t want anything more to do with him than that — “Amaze us, Jesus — that’s what we want.” They wanted a one man healing clinic — a never ending food pantry — or — as one writer has said, “They wanted Jesus to be useful to them…[and yes]...he cared for people’s physical pain [and needs], but he also cared about, and was even more deeply disturbed by, their unbelief.” (Kevin DeYoung, “When Jesus Had Compassion on the Crowds,” thegospelcoalition.org, April 2, 2014, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/when-jesus-had-compassion-on-the-crowds/)
And their unbelief disturbed Jesus because he was concerned about their hearts. And this reveals to us an aspect of Jesus’ compassion that we often overlook. For when we use the word “compassion” we tend to think only about meeting the physical needs of others but — for Jesus — his teaching and preaching — were also acts of compassion because — his preaching and teaching dealt with their hearts.
And this is important for us to remember — as a church — especially when we’re out in public. Yes, we need to care for the physical needs of those in our communities — and around the world — but part of what it means to be compassionate towards others — is to share with them who Jesus is, to help them have a better understanding of God’s love for them, what it means to turn to Jesus in faith and to turn away from sin. That — like the Israelites in Egypt — we need to show them that they do need to be rescued out of slavery and follow Jesus — their Savior — trusting that he will lead them into the eternal Promised Land. Being compassionate includes teaching and sharing the truth about Jesus because we must care about the spiritual hunger of their hearts as much as we care about the physical hunger of their stomachs.
For there are many people — maybe even you — who — at their very core — have a desire to experience the compassion of Jesus. You have a deep desire to be loved, but have struggled to trust others — even God — to love you. And often — what keeps us from experiencing Jesus’ compassion towards us — is our own pride. Where we hear him say, “I love you,” but don’t hear. Where we see his compassion towards us in his death on a cross, but don’t see. And we all should stop — and press pause on our thoughts and opinions — and for the sake of being loved — we should pause and ask Jesus to show us — through his Word — what our eyes should be seeing. What our ears should be hearing. What our minds should be understanding — when it comes to his compassion — Jesus help us to see the sign of your compassion.
And there are many people who are longing to be loved — a void that only the compassion of Jesus can fill — yet they try to fill it with so many things — from food and drink to the love of another person or from the purchase of a new gadget. And — sometimes — because working on our heart — our motivations — on our insides — can be such a slow process — often it’s tempting to look at others and believe they’ve really found something to fill that void. But it isn’t true. Nothing will satisfy your spiritual hunger except Jesus.
And — even then — it’s possible to believe and know that only Jesus can satisfy our spiritual hunger to be loved and cared for — and yet fear that Jesus can’t or won’t love us — that he won’t take care of us. “Sure he could rescue people out of Egypt and feed 5,000 Jews and 4,000 Gentiles — but maybe he doesn’t care about me in my wilderness.”
And if this is you — know that Jesus has promised to meet your every need. He will take care of you. He can satisfy the hunger of your soul. Why? Because he loves you. And his compassion for you runs infinitely deep. Allow his love and compassion to be a sign that shows you the way to him. So you trust him — and experience what it means to be fed — what it means to be cared for — what it means to be loved. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your unending, infinite, powerful, undeserved love for us. Your love which you put on display when you sent your Son, to live, die, defeat death for us — out of his love for us — as a sign of his compassion towards us.
Jesus thank you for being patient with us — especially when we doubt that you will be compassionate towards us today just as you have always been. How we so easily forget that you don’t change, your love for us doesn’t change, your care for us doesn’t change, your compassion for us doesn’t change. Give our fickle hearts greater confidence in you and less confidence in our doubts about you.
BENEDICTION (PRAY FOR: feel like you’re in a wilderness and want to trust Jesus)
May you go seeing, and hearing, and understanding, and remembering Jesus’ compassion towards you. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
You can find the notes for this sermon here.
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