An Appointment with Christ: the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes (Mark 6:30), Part 5

We have been looking at this wonderful account, which leads us from one truth to another. In our last meeting, we spoke about the compassionate Christ who, when He saw this needy multitude that had arrived ahead of Him and His disciples, who needed some time to rest, rather than rejecting them and sending them back because they were intruding on His personal time, had compassion on them and devoted time to teaching them many things.

This is what Mark, chapter 6, verse 34, tells us: “The Lord took time,” it says here, to teach them. Then verse 35 adds: “When the hour was already very late, His disciples came to Him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is already very late. Send them away so they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy bread, for they have nothing to eat.’ But He answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’”

The contrast here between Jesus’ attitude and that of the disciples is revealing. Jesus’ attitude, as we have seen, is one of compassion. The Lord identified with the multitude’s pain and with their need to receive the Word. These people were spiritually hungry, and they knew that in Christ they would find someone who would satisfy their need. The Lord identified with the multitude; He was able to attune Himself to these people’s need and felt within His own being the anguish and need for peace that they felt. That is why He devoted time to ministering to them and speaking to them.

And I love the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ puts Himself in our place. There is a very revealing passage in Scripture where it says that a deaf man came to Christ to ask for healing. The Bible says that the Lord, in a very strange gesture, I admit, took His fingers and put them into the deaf man’s ears. The Bible says that the Lord then groaned and said, “Ephphatha,” which in Aramaic meant, “Be healed,” and it says that the deaf man was immediately healed. In that image I see something wonderful. The Lord put His fingers into this deaf man’s ears—something we could say is actually unhygienic, and the image is even unpleasant—but I see that Christ, in a very real sense, as though He connected with and physically entered into the place of this man’s illness and need, and He felt it. That groan that came from deep within Jesus—I believe that at that moment He felt the deaf man’s illness, He felt the surge of this man’s pain, and His groan was a groan of identification. When He put His fingers in, He felt the need. He did not merely transfer His power to this man; rather, this man’s weakness and illness were transferred to Jesus, and from that total union between this man and Jesus came a work of healing.

It is so important to see that Christ who identifies with us, that compassionate Christ, because when in my mind I see Jesus as a being who enters into me and walks in my own shoes, it gives me courage to come before the Lord. I am not afraid of Jesus. Quite the opposite: I know that I can come to Him and be transparent. I do not have to resort to pretenses or disguises; I do not have to pretend that I am holier or more righteous than I am. I can be perfectly transparent with Christ. I can confess my weaknesses to Him, I can confess my sins to Him, I can confess my personal limitations as a man and then ask Him to heal them. Many people do not receive healing from God; they do not receive healing in their inner being because they are presenting a facade of self-sufficiency. They are concealing their needs because they believe that they have to “put on a show” before God, when God wants us to be transparent. When we are transparent, He can identify with us, deal with us, and address the need we have. The Lord Jesus Christ is a compassionate God; He identifies with us. The Word says that He bore our afflictions and our sins in His own being; by His wound we were healed.

How wonderful it is to know that the Lord identifies with us in that compassionate way, that He walks where we walk. That is why the Lord came down from His glory, emptied Himself of His glory, and took the form of a man: because He wanted to identify with us; He wanted to feel what we feel. And now the Bible says that He is a priest perfectly suited to our lives because He knows our condition. He lived it; He experienced it within His own being. He does not know it theoretically because He is God; rather, He knows it because He was also human, and He retains the vivid memory of those experiences in which He endured thirst, hunger, temptation, pain, loneliness, sadness, fear, and rejection. He felt all those experiences common to human beings. That is why the Lord can identify with us, and that is why His Word says that we should confidently approach the throne of grace to receive help in any need we may have.

Now, unfortunately, the disciples’ position is very different; it is very superficial. Night is already approaching, the disciples are already fed up with the multitude, there is no store nearby, it is a remote place, and the disciples say, “Lord, it is already getting late. Send them away and get rid of them so that they can go buy food, because it is already very late in the day.” But here we see something: rather than getting rid of the multitude, the Lord says, “You give them something to eat.” The disciples are astonished and say, “How could we possibly feed them? No, we cannot; there are too many of them.”

Do you know that the Lord does not want you to be superficial when it comes to compassion? He wants you to have the same compassion for others that He has. He wants you to be an agent of His grace.

Many people live selfish lives, thinking only of themselves. There are so many Christians who think only of themselves and do not concern themselves with being agents of God’s blessing. God wants you to be an instrument in His hands. Unfortunately, most of us have a very self-centered attitude toward the Gospel. God blesses you; God calls you so that you may serve. God wants to dwell within you so that you may be an instrument in His hands. The Bible says that every Christian has been made a king and a priest. God has redeemed us so that we may proclaim the virtues of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. If God cleanses you, heals you, strengthens you, and redeems you, it is so that you may be an agent of His grace. God wants you to be a compassionate man or woman, full of mercy, so that you too may identify with the pain of others.

And do you know what? When you love in that way, when you are that kind of person—loving others, serving others, identifying with what others are going through—God takes care of you. Truly happy people are those who love as Christ loves. May we love one another, may we be instruments of His grace, and may we always live healing the pain of others. Many people do not find true happiness because they do not think about others. You know that when you think only of yourself, you lose the opportunity to be happy. The Lord Jesus Christ says: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loses his life will gain it, and whoever gains his life will lose it.” Many people live trying to gain their lives, preserve them, increase them, and improve their comfort and possessions each day. They have no time to care about others, and they end up unhappy, miserable, unfruitful, barren, and uncomfortable with themselves, because God has placed a law within human beings: when we concern ourselves with the well-being of others, God then takes care of us, and we are blessed. No one is happier than the person who thinks about the happiness of others. If you want to be happy, be a compassionate person, be a generous person, give yourself to others, bless others with your possessions, and do things in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ says: “Not even a cup of water that we give someone in His name will fail to receive its reward one day, on the day of judgment.” So be a compassionate person. Do not expect God to be the one who helps others; instead, you help, you give, you bless, you shepherd others, and then God will shepherd you. May God bless you!