God’s Compassion
For Meditation
This week, we’re diving into a moment in Christ’s ministry that tells us everything we could ever want to know about God’s heart. Just as we will only ever value salvation to the degree we are aware of what we are saved from and the promise of what we are saved into, “tasting” God’s satisfying provision is only as valuable as we can understand our hunger for it.
And we’re all hungry. No matter whether you trust God to meet you in your hunger or you are just trying to find what you need wherever you can find it, we’re all hungry in some way. The lonely are hungry for belonging. The displaced are hungry for home. The ashamed are hoping for restoration. The hurting are hungry for relief. We’re all hungry for something—and some of us have been starving for decades.
The glory of seeing God feed the hungry is not just in the transaction of food, it’s realizing the compassion of God which sees our every hunger and is eager to satisfy our needs for our sake and for his glory.
The narrative of the feeding of the four thousand may be familiar to you or this may be the first time you have a chance to hear it. My encouragement to you, as you prepare for worship, is threefold. Firstly, consider: What is a great need- socially, spiritually, emotionally, or otherwise- that you find yourself with this week? Then, how do you hope for your needs, these “hungers,” to be satisfied by God? Lastly, if hope for your situation is difficult to grasp, are you willing to hope again that God might see you in your hunger and satisfy your need?
Mark 8:1-9a
1 During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 2 “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”
4 His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”
5 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied.
6 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. 7 They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. 8 The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 9 About four thousand were present.