Sign #4 - Feeding the 5,000
Of course, this story is known to all Christians, because it is one of the ones taught to Sunday School children that emphasizes the presence of a young boy. Children tend to perk up when other children are of importance, you know, and this particular story tells the happenings of a single boy with a modest lunch, and how he was instrumental in feeding 5,000 men (with unnumbered women and children). It's amazing!
"And a huge crowd was following Him because they saw the signs that He was performing on the sick."
John 6:2, HCSB
The passage is titled "Feeding the 5,000," and many have agreed that the 5,000 listed are the men that were counted. As I mentioned above, these men had their families with them, so the actual number of people present is much larger, and we need to keep that in mind. (However, even if it were exactly 5,000 and not a person more, this is just amazing!) Christ has just crossed the Sea of Galilee with His disciples, and the masses are following closely.
We are nearing the festival of the Passover, which, of course, dates back to the Exodus from Egypt. Every Jewish follower during this time headed toward Jerusalem to visit the temple there for this festival... it was a big deal. However, this crowd has seen many Signs and wonders performed, and they have adopted the position of being unwilling to miss out on anything else that might happen. Add to that the possibility that each of them is waiting their turn to be healed or seek healing for someone they know and care for, and you have the makings of a true grassroots mob of followers.
In the Gospel of Mark, it points out that Jesus looked upon the crowd, "and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34, HCSB)." The first thing I would like to point out about this Sign is precisely that... He had compassion on them.
Please notice something here, friend, in that it does not distinguish which of the group He had compassion for. It points out plainly that He had compassion upon THEM, referring to every single man, woman, and child within the gathered crowd. There was no wrong too great, and no pain too massive... no understanding was too little, and no need was too vast. He had compassion on them all.
This brings up some thoughts to pose before us all. First, Jesus is the One we are to model, and we are charged to love as He loved (later in John 13:34-35). Second, if we are to model that love, then we must also model His compassion, as well as His modesty and His faithfulness, etc. Third, if we model all those traits, and we see someone in the grocery store or on the news or at the mall that we would judge by our "Church Standards" as being lost or uninformed or not worthy or whatever other designation you would want to give it (and we all do it, including myself, so let's be accountable and honest here for a moment), then we should consciously and overtly remind ourselves that we are to have compassion upon that person or those people, because they, too, might be sheep without a shepherd... and we can show them the true Shepherd to follow.
Had these people been sent away by the 12, we would not have seen this Sign. However, that will be our next focal point. For now, think on the level of compassion you portray to those around you. Realize that some in this crowd were following from belief and worship, but some were following hoping to see another healing, as though Christ was a simple street magician. Yet He had compassion on all of them, regardless, and showed them all the exact same level of grace... do we do the same?
God bless you all!!!
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