Compassion was the foundation from which Jesus’ miracles came.

Here is the video link:

Compassion and Miracles – Mark 6:30-44

The audio links are to the right – Spotify and iTunes.

Here is the transcript from which this podcast was derived.

Mark 6:30-44 

Compassion and Miracles

Mark 6:30-34 Sheep need a Shepherd

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

What was it about this crowd that fueled Jesus’ compassion for them? They were

“….like sheep without a shepherd.”

What does that mean?

In an article from Ligonier.org, posted May 6, 2016, Titled “Sheep without a Shepherd” we find the following statement:

“Those who have seen sheep in person know that without a shepherd, sheep move about aimlessly, wandering here and there, getting lost, and generally paying little heed to the dangers around them.”

This was the state of affairs in Israel in the first century. Those who should have been shepherding Israel, i.e the priests, rabbis, and the teachers were not doing what they were called to do. And in that leadership vacuum, heresies along with Godless charismatic leaders would step in to fill that vacuum. These people were hungry for REAL spirituality, REAL knowledge of God, and a REAL relationship with God. So of course they would gravitate to Jesus.

We sheep need a Shepherd. Jesus is our Shepherd, yes. But our local church are the Chief Shepherd’s hands and feet. We need to be interacting with the shepherds God has provided in our churches. Otherwise, we will be aimless, and ripe to be attacked by the enemy of our soul. The church’s shepherds provide stability and direction through the Word of God. We need a shepherd.

6:35-44 The Miracle of the loaves and Fish

35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages[e]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

In the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible we read

“The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels, which signals its importance. Jesus appears as a new and greater Moses, who fed the crowds with supernatural bread in the wilderness (cf. Exod 16), and as a new and greater Elisha, who fed a hundred people with 20 hand-size loaves of bread and still had leftovers (2 Kgs 4:42–44).”

Reference: Edited by Carson, D. A. (2018). NIV, Biblical Theology Study Bible. Zondervan.

Mark does not use the Greek word that means “human being,” but a term distinguishing men from women, with perhaps the idea of “head of family” (Matt. 14:21 adds “besides women and children”). The crowd may have numbered between fifteen and twenty thousand.

Reference: Sproul, R. C. (2015). ESV Reformation Study Bible. Ligonier Ministries.

I know that when folks read this story, it seems to be too fantastical to be real. But as you see in the quote above, an event like this is not without precedent. Jesus is demonstrating a likeness to the ministry of two of Israels most renowned prophets, Moses and Elisha. In my humble opinion, if you have a problem with miracles, you have a problem with God.

Putting myself in the shoes of the disciples, I can only imagine their amazement as they watched Jesus multiply the loaves and fish. Putting myself in the shoes of the people gathered, I would only know that I was fed, having no personal knowledge of this miracle. 

It occurs to me that many times we might be the recipients of a miracle without knowing the miracle took place. I remember when I went through bankruptcy. I had no job, my unemployment benefits soon ran out, and my wife and I were scrambling like crazy to keep the mortgage paid up, the bankruptcy payment going, and food on the table. My wife had a VERY minimum wage job, and I was doing odd bits here and there, trying to build a private music instruction business from scratch. I remember our “break-even” point was approximately 21,000.00 – that’s how much we needed to meet our obligations. I also remember that between my wife and I, we made between 12 and 15k that first year. Where did the rest of that 21k “break-even” dollar amount come from? We can’t tell you. All we knew was that when a bill came due, we paid it. We never fell behind in our mortgage, the utilities were paid, and we had food. It wasn’t until approximately three years later, that in looking back, we realized that we had indeed been the recipients of a miracle. While we were in the middle of that experience, we didn’t see the miracle that fed us taking place, much like that crowd of people didn’t see that miracle that fed THEM.

Two points of view – those on the inside of the miracle (Jesus and the disciples) and those on the outside of the miracle, the 15-20,000 people present who were fed.

Another thought concerning miracles… the purpose of miracles is not to provide a show or to bolster the reputation of the “miracle-worker”.  In verse 34 of this chapter we read 

“When Jesus … saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them…”

Excerpted from an article by Karrie Hahn for Ligonier Ministries (8 Jan 2024) titled “What is Compassion?” we read:

He frequently showed compassion when He saw the crowds, responding with acts of healing (Matt. 14:14; 20:34; Mark 1:41), provision of food (Matt. 15:32), and teaching the word of God (Mark 6:34). Jesus not only modeled compassion; He also taught on the virtue of compassion, including the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:23–35), the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:29–37), and the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). In these ways, Jesus made clear that compassion is a distinguishing mark of those who belong to the God of all compassion.

How might we define compassion? The Hebrew and Greek words translated into English as “compassion” include the ideas of feeling distress over another’s ills, being moved in our innermost being (i.e., “heart of compassion,” or “bowels of mercy”), suffering with and being inwardly affected in a similar manner as the object of our compassion, and beneficence and assistance. One way we might try to capture these concepts is to define compassion as follows: 

Compassion is being moved in the affections of our inner being when we see the distress of others, coupled with a subsequent outer movement of action in which we seek to alleviate that distress out of love for God and love for neighbor.

Let’s note two specific facets of this definition as we seek to better understand this virtue: seeing and movement. In a sense, godly compassion is like a three-legged stool. All three legs must be present if the stool is to serve its intended function. Likewise, there are three elements of true, godly compassion. 

1. First, compassion starts with seeing. Over and over in the Gospels, we read something to the effect of “And Jesus saw . . .”. His compassion was always preceded by seeing someone in distress. This may seem obvious, but it raises an important point as we seek to become more compassionate people: We can’t have compassion on people when we don’t see them in the first place.
2. Second, compassion involves an inner movement of our hearts in which we take on the grief of others, weeping with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). As Christians, we of all people understand how radically sin has impacted the world and how far we are from the shalom of Eden. And so, we groan as we witness the suffering that sin has produced in the lives of those around us (see Rom. 8:18–23). To be sure, we are varied in our emotional makeups and won’t experience or express that inner movement in the same ways as one another, but as we grow into the image of Christ, our emotional lives will grow into conformity with His.
3. And finally, compassion comes to fruition in an outer movement in which we act on behalf of people in need. It can be all too easy to see someone in need, feel an inner movement of sadness or concern over his or her predicament, and stop there, patting ourselves on the back because we noticed and felt badly for someone else. But this “compassion” doesn’t actually benefit the other person, thus making it not really compassion at all. When speaking of Jesus’ compassion, the Gospel authors typically use language to the effect of, “And Jesus, moved with compassion,” followed by an action He performed that benefited the object of His compassion.

Miracles, when they occur, spring from God’s compassion. Out of His compassion, He taught them that day. Out of His compassion, He fed them. Out of His compassion, Jesus led me through that dark valley-time of bankruptcy. Out of His compassion, He fed my wife and I. God’s love for us is the foundation of His ministry to us.

God had compassion on my wife and I, and He moved and gave us a miracle. We believers have a choice – to emulate our God, and play a part in someone else’s miracle. This is no small thing, to be the hands and feet of our God’s compassion. 

My mother had an overriding life philosophy which through the years amazed me, as her life was an incredibly difficult one. Part of a broken family in the 1930’s, raised by her grandparents, mother of a daughter who was killed by one of her sons, I never saw her waiver in this regard. She always kept an eye out for anybody who needed help. She was “paying it forward” decades before that became a thing. Food, money, clothing – if she was able, she provided any or all of those things to someone down on their luck. I personally saw her provide “little miracles” to folks who never knew she was the source of the blessing they received. She told me once that she and my father were helped in times of trouble by folks they could never repay. My parents adopted the attitude that the best way to pay their benefactors back was to help someone else.

It’s all about “loving God, and loving our neighbor”. 

Be Blessed… and have compassion.

Paige