Mark 8:4

Mark 8:4

Bread in the Wilderness.

I. The question of the disciples has been, as all will admit, the natural question of all who have had any time or mind to think from the beginning of the world. There is perhaps no animal that has to spend so large a part of his time in procuring the food he needs as man. And when he has got it, it will not satisfy him as their daily food will satisfy the other creatures. No sooner is he filled than he finds out that man cannot live by bread alone, that he cannot be satisfied from any earthly stores, that he wants something more and has another kind of hunger. The hunger of the soul awakes, and it demands to be satisfied with something it knows not what, perhaps. And how is this hunger to be satisfied here in the wilderness in this place of exile, of desolation far from God and home and rest? There is nothing outwardly and visibly belonging to this life on which the immortal soul can feed. Whence, then, is the necessary food to be fetched? Who is to go for it?

II. Men often talk about this life as being a wilderness, and they are right; but do you know why and in what sense? The wilderness is not a.desert, nor a howling expanse of sand, nor a land of the shadow of death, except at certain times. We are specially told by the Evangelists that there was much grass in the place where Jesus was; in all probability there were plenty of low shrubs as well, and thousands of the brightest flowers; for it was spring time, and the early rains had transformed the earth. Now our life is just like the wilderness in this sense: very often it is full of beauty, of grace, of life, of promise. There are times when every element of hope and contentment seems present in abundance. But all this beauty and promise will not satisfy the soul of man, however much it may please his fancy and his taste. Hence the force of the question, How shall a man satisfy these men here in the wilderness? It is easy enough to please people in the wilderness, if you go at the right time. The beauty of the landscape, the buoyancy of the air, the exhilarating sense of freedom and expanse all these are delightful. But to satisfy them, that is what we cannot do; that can only be done, in the wilderness, by the Divine power of Christ. He can and will feed them; and it makes no difference to Him how many the people, how few the loaves; they shall all be satisfied, and go home in the strength of that food.

R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions,p. 173.

References: Mark 8:4. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxii., No. 1885.Mark 8:4. C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons,p. 250.