Loaves and Fishes

(Part 1)

“During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way because some of them have come a long distance.”

                                                                                                            Mark 8:1-3

The story of Jesus feeding the multitudes with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish is iconic to our Christian faith; it was a miraculous event that took place, not just once, but twice in Jesus’ ministry resulting in thousands being fed each time.

It is hard to calculate the number of times that we have heard these stories preached, written about, or taught in countless Sunday school classrooms. Often the focus of those teachings tends to gravitate to Jesus’ ability to multiply the little to meet the greater need.  As Christians we use the phrase ‘loaves and fishes’ as a declaration of faith in those moments we need God to stretch out something we are using until we are finished with our project or multiply the food at our fellowship dinners so there will be enough to feed everyone.

However, when we focus on Jesus’ ability to multiply our resources something gets lost in translation: Compassion!

Compassion is the emotion that we feel in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help. It is this motivation to act that differentiates compassion from sympathy and empathy. Sympathy is simply feeling sorry for what a person is going through. Empathy understands what a person is going through because you have been in a similar situation. Compassion moves us to action.

Jesus was moved by the need of the people. He was not moved because of the apparent lack of food nor was he moved by the tremendous amount of people. He was moved by their need. Unfortunately, too often, when faced with humanities’ needs we become discouraged or disillusioned. We begin focusing on the obstacles to meeting the need:

“His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”

                                                                                    Mark 8:4

The disciples, in the face of what seemed to be an impossible need to manage, began focusing on the obstacles. They focused on the remote location they were in, the obvious lack of food, and the tremendous number of people. We see this same pattern in Mark 6:34-37. Jesus looked on the multitudes and had compassion; the disciples looked and saw obstacles.

Often times the greatest obstacle to compassion is our own reluctance!

Pastor Scott Burr                                                                    

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/