Provider (Who Is Jesus)

In this podcast episode, Ash and Raquel discuss the story of Jesus feeding a large crowd with just a few loaves of bread and fish. They highlight the significance of Jesus caring about people's physical needs as well as their spiritual needs. They also discuss the disciples' lack of faith and how Jesus involves them in the miracle. The story serves as a reminder to trust in God's provision and to actively participate in his work. The hosts also touch on the symbolism of the number seven and the importance of giving what we have to God. Welcome to the Avenue podcast, where we're passionate about unleashing your God-given potential through the life-transforming power of the Gospel. I'm Ash and I'm Raquel, and today we're going to be continuing our series on Who is Jesus, as we look at Jesus as Provider. So, Raquel, today we'll be looking at Mark chapter 8, verses 1 to 21. Would you like to start us off by reading the text? Yes, I can do that. About this time, another large crowd had gathered, and the people ran out of food again. Jesus called his disciples and told them, I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way, for some of them have come a long distance. His disciples replied, how are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness? Jesus asked, how much bread do you have? Seven loaves, they replied. So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces. He gave them to his disciples, who distributed the bread to the crowd. A few small fish were found too, so Jesus also blessed these, and told the disciples to distribute them. They ate as much as they wanted. Afterwards, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. There were about 4,000 men in the crowd that day, and Jesus sent them home after they had eaten. Immediately after this, he got into a boat with his disciples, and crossed over to the region of Damanusa. When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign. So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake. But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They only had one loaf of bread with them in the boat. As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, watch out, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod. At this, they began to argue with each other because they hadn't brought any bread. Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, why are you arguing about having no bread? Don't you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? You have eyes, can't you see? You have ears, can't you hear? Don't you remember anything at all? When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterwards? Twelve, they said. And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up? Seven, they said. Don't you understand yet? He asked them. Thanks, Raquel. I'm not going to lie, this story's a bit triggering for me because I've recently become a gluten free and I really miss bread. Oh, no. And I'm too scared to try gluten free bread thus far. It doesn't look good. Fair enough. But it is still a great story. Absolutely. Yeah, what was your main takeaway from this story? Well, I guess from a surface level, it's a great illustration of Jesus's miraculous powers and how he uses them to bless people. We often talk about food being a good way to bless people, a good facilitator of community and fellowship. And I think this story really epitomizes that. Jesus blessing people through food and giving them the opportunity to eat together and bless one another. So that's something that stands out to me. But I'm really keen to delve deeper into the various imagery and symbols. How about you? Do you have any standouts? Absolutely. I think overall, we sort of see the pattern of the disciples' belief continue along this passage, despite the fact that Jesus says at the end, like, don't you remember all the things I did, like the miracles? It's kind of this miracle here is the same, pretty much the same as the miracle that he's done for the 5000, which happened just before. But yeah, I find it so interesting in here. Like Jesus has compassion on these people. They've been following him for three days, and they now have no more food left. Like they've been so dedicated to hearing him talk and speak, and they just want to get closer to him. But he cares about their needs. Like he not only wants to fulfill them spiritually, but also physically, like he cares about sort of the small things as well, other than their salvation. Yeah, that's a great point. Yes, I love that image of Jesus caring about all our needs. And yeah, not diminishing any need, even if it feels more trivial to us. And I love what you raised about this being essentially the same miracle as what has happened previously with Jesus feeding the 5000. And yet the disciples still having this doubt before the miracles performed that Jesus is capable. And I was reading that some people wonder whether this feeding of the 4000 is indeed a different miracle to the feeding of the 5000, or whether it's just a retelling. Because they're so surprised that the disciples don't have that faith that Jesus can do this when he's clearly done it previously. But it did make me wonder whether I can be like this in my own life. I study at uni, and at the moment it's week 10. So I'm starting to feel the pre-exam stress. And this happens to me every semester. It's my sixth semester or something. And every time I experience this same amount of stress and this doubt, wondering whether I'm going to get through. Yet every time I do. And so I think in the same way, the disciples are like us in that we can forget the miracles that God has done, the faithfulness of God in the past, the provision of God in the past so easily. And yeah, I think we probably can't underestimate that. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's a really great analogy. Even though exam season and this season of stress is something that you've gone through so many times before, and you know you'll be okay, and you know that you've done all the study that you need to beforehand, you still feel that stress and that pressure and that worry of, oh, what if? What if? And I think it's the exact same for the disciples here. They're human. And in this passage, Jesus rebukes them for that and for that lack of faith because he's like, well, you've seen me do this. Like you've seen me, you've been with me through this whole journey, but you've also seen me do this exact same miracle. Why would you doubt that I could do it again? And I think it's almost a reminder for us, you know, when we go through our lives and we're putting our trust in Jesus. And I like what you said about the fact that there's some people who think that they withheld the fish or they sort of gave the bread, but, you know, wanted to keep the fish just in case, you know, that didn't happen. But then at the end, like it's only sort of once they've given God everything they had that he's able to do this miracle and to supply them with so much more than they need. Yeah, that is something that resonates with me a lot. Something else related to that point is the fact that Jesus is the one who does the miracle of multiplying the bread and fish, right? But it's the disciples that are entrusted with distributing the multiplied goods. And I think this is quite powerful in that Jesus will ask us to partner with him in our ministry. It's not Jesus doing the miracle single-handedly, but we have a really material role to play. And that is such a blessing and a joy to be able to partner with God. And he will do what only he can, but then he wants us to have that active role in distributing. So that's something that stood out to me as well. Yeah, I love that. Like, even though Jesus did the miracle, he involved the disciples in the process. And I think that's the exact same of what he asked us to do as well. Yeah, absolutely. God is working on people's hearts and yet, and he is the one who has the power to do that. He could do it all on his own, but he invites us to be a part of that process and actually be involved in that. Yeah. Another thing that might be worth discussing is that there is a slight difference between this miracle, the feeding of the 4,000 and the feeding of the 5,000, other than the numerical value. The fact that in this miracle, it's the disciples who are the ones to give the bread and the fish to Jesus, whereas in the other story, it's a little boy who's the one to volunteer his bread and fish. So I think we sort of see the development of the disciples in that now it is them that has to give up their own food rather than call upon someone else. I just thought that's something maybe worth mentioning. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it can be sort of easier to see a miracle that someone else has been involved and when someone else is giving up their food or whatever it is that's important to them, it's easy to do that. I think it would have been easy for the disciples to see if anyone had offered food and then gone and grabbed that food, whereas for this, yeah, as you said, it is their own food. And so it's sort of asking them to rely on their faith in a different way. Yeah. Yes, and maybe calling us as readers to give things up ourselves. And yeah, this isn't just a story for us to read and be wowed by Jesus, but it can be a call to action in a way to give over what we have to God and recognize that he can do far more with it than we ever could in our own strength. Yeah, there is that need for faith and the need for giving up, which sometimes can be painful in the moment when we don't see the full picture straight away. But I think that's the beauty of giving what you have to God. Afterwards they had these seven leftover baskets, and we know from other passages in the Bible that seven is sort of the perfect number. There's seven days of creation, and God uses the number seven to sort of show, I guess, perfection or completion. And yeah, I think this is why this is so incredible, because God provided more than they could have asked for, but that was sort of also the perfect amount. Yes, I did want to talk about the significance of the number seven because it comes up twice. We have the seven loaves and then the seven large baskets of leftover food. So it definitely feels like we're meant to notice that number seven. And yes, exactly, there are seven days of creation. Seven is seen as that number of completeness and is a significant number throughout the Bible. I think it comes up a bit in Revelation as well. So that definitely stood out to me. It is also my favorite number. Unrelatedly, I just always liked the number seven as a child. Yeah, I love that. What do you think about the Pharisees? What are your thoughts on the way that they react to this and to Jesus sort of arriving? Yes, so this is the second part of the passage where we have Jesus interacting with the Pharisees. And they are quite argumentative with Jesus, demanding a miraculous sign. And equally, Jesus challenges them. He says, or he sighs deeply in his spirit and then later warns his disciples to watch out, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod. And yeast is a continuation of this bread imagery. And interestingly, bread is an image that pops up a lot throughout the Bible. Jesus compares himself to the bread of life. So it is possible that the bread that fed the 4,000 is a bit of a symbol for Jesus. But yes, this yeast that Jesus talks about I think could be seen as a representation of sin. And yeah, Jesus is really warning his disciples to stay clear of the sin. And perhaps even the conceptions that the Pharisees had about what the Messiah would look like. They were expecting the Messiah to come and free them from the Romans and to be a military genius. But Jesus, as we know, is a very different Messiah. So I think, yeah, Jesus is really challenging what the Pharisees stand for here. Yeah, and I think the way that the Pharisees sort of respond to Jesus is very similar to the way that the prophets of Baal responded to Elijah in 1 Kings, I think it's 18, where they sort of ask him for a sign like from heaven, basically. And in this passage, it says, you know, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. And so they don't believe in Jesus and Jesus is well aware of that. And I think he sort of refuses them. And he says, I will not give this generation any such sign because his miracles and what he was doing this for wasn't to sort of prove who he was to people who were so set against the idea and who had no belief in that. But people who were actively searching for the Messiah and who, you know, were open to him. He wasn't going to waste energy trying to prove this one thing to a bunch of people who had no intention of believing that he was who he said he was. And yeah, I liked what you said about the yeast. Different versions say different things where using the NLT version, but other versions also describe like this yeast as leaven. And leaven was basically a pinch of dough from the previous batch of bread that they would sort of take off and then use in the new batch of bread to allow the dough to rise. So basically what yeast does in bread today. But yeah, I really liked what you said about this illustration of sort of sin and pride. And it was used by the Jews as an illustration of that to demonstrate how the presence of a little could change the whole. Yeah, like yeast rising. Yeah, absolutely. Like you only need a little bit of yeast and it makes the whole bread rise. And similarly, you only need a little bit of sin, a little bit of pride to sort of, you know, corrupt everything. And so Jesus is sort of saying here, you know, beware of the sin, the pride of the Pharisees and of Herod. Because, yeah, as you said, they wanted this general, this leader who was going to free them from the Romans and from their control. But Jesus is saying, no, I'm bigger than this. I've come not for, you know, not for sort of a short time salvation that will only end when I die, but actually long term salvation. And yet the disciples do take this literally and they don't understand. And they're like, oh, but we it's because we haven't had any bread. And they're thinking still very physically. But Jesus is saying, no, this is spiritually like I'm actually trying to fulfill you spiritually as well. Absolutely. It is an interesting concept, asking for a miraculous sign. What are your opinions on asking for signs from God? I think that definitely we can ask for signs from God. There's been a lot of examples in the Bible where people do ask for signs for God, either to sort of make a decision one way or the other. I think the difference here is that the Pharisees are asking because they don't believe. And, you know, they they ask when he arrives in this new place, despite all the miracles that Jesus has done in the past. So they're well aware like they are. He is not what they are looking for and what they are wanting. And so they disregard who he is. But it's sort of the case, I think, all across the Bible as well. When people harden their hearts to God and they they don't believe and they refuse to believe despite signs that God has given, because God does give signs like he does sort of show who he is. And all along this series, we've been, you know, seeing different stories and different examples of the fact that Jesus is who he says he is. And he is all these different things. Yeah. Yeah. He doesn't hide it. Yeah. So what would be your takeaway from this from this passage and from what we've talked about? A takeaway for me is trusting Jesus more and recognizing that he has provided for me in the past. I talked about my uni example earlier, but Jesus has been so faithful to me as a provider throughout my life. Yet I still encounter lots of periods of doubt. And I can really relate to the disciples who were doubting whether Jesus could feed all of these people when they'd seen Jesus do this before. And Jesus does really challenge the disciples at the end for this lack of understanding and lack of faith. And so I think this challenges me to trust in Jesus more as my provider. So that's probably the main takeaway for me. How about you, Raquel? Yeah, I agree. I think it's pretty similar for me to be able to trust in Jesus as provider. And I think as well, this is not necessarily a warning, but more of a reminder for us to sort of, yeah, trust in Jesus. Like, he has proved who he is in the past. And similarly to what Jesus said to his disciples, like, do you not hear? Can you not see? Like, Jesus is working in our lives. And yet if we do like harden our hearts or if we start to forget that, we won't see that. But when we do like open our hearts and open our minds to the possibilities of what he is doing, then I think we begin to see his sort of his presence in our lives so much more. And so I think for me, yeah, that would be the most important thing to just remind myself of what he's done and that he does provide for us. Like he does care for us and look out for us. And, you know, he cares about all our needs. Yeah, he does. And he will satisfy them even more fully than we imagine or need. And that's, yeah, quite beautiful. Well, thank you for listening. Tune in next week as we continue our series, Who is Jesus?