Mark 8:1-10
In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, he summoned the disciples and said, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance." His disciples answered him, "Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?" Still he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" "Seven," they replied. He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over -- seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, he summoned the disciples and said, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance." His disciples answered him, "Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?" Still he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" "Seven," they replied. He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over -- seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
This passage calls to mind my hometown and the economic hardship that has befallen this place over the past couple of years. After seeing so many tv specials, countless newspaper articles, and talking to people firsthand I developed a genuine understanding of the struggles that people experienced as a result of job loss in our community. So many people were left wondering many nights how they would put a decent dinner on the table or make their next house payment. But there are a lot of very hardworking, compassionate and faith-filled people in this town and I like to think that our town is sort of a microcosm of what on a larger scale our entire country has been facing amidst the recession. In this passage Jesus says "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days” much like I believe God has pity on anyone in need, such as the people in Wilmington. Over the past 6 months I have witnessed the ways that my hometown is pulling through, coming together and feeding its hungry people, combating a lack of jobs with a creative and caring community that has created something out of nothing. Things are not perfect and change is slow but God doesn’t promise perfection, He just promises that we will “eat and be satisfied.” Not only that but this passages reminds us that material things of this world will never truly satisfy our souls anyways and God is always the answer to our spiritual hunger.
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