READ: Mark 8
BACKGROUND: By Verse –
8 – These were big baskets. Big enough to fit a person in. The word for basket here is the same word for the basket that was used to lower Paul down from the wall of Damascus in Acts 9:25.
11 – The Pharisees wanted a shocking miracle as proof, but they only asked because they didn’t believe in him. Not because they did.
27 – Caesarea Philippi was an area known for its wickedness and pagan worship rituals.
31 – Jesus foreshadows his death.
33 – Jesus isn’t saying Peter is Satan, but that Peter is being used by Satan to try to convince him not to complete his earthly mission by going to the cross.
34 – Take up his cross! Imagine hearing those words as a disciple. They didn’t even know Jesus would die on a cross yet. As evidenced in this passage, they didn’t fully understand his mission. And he’s telling them that following him means taking up their cross. Wow! It means death to self. It means sacrifice.
THINK: I ate breakfast the other day with a man who 60 years ago sold newspapers and shined shoes on the streets of downtown Boise, Idaho. He told me about his life in those days and how much things have changed.
“What’s changed the most?” I asked him. “People,” he said. “They don’t care anymore.”
As a case in point, he told me about his mother, who often fed hungry men who came to her house. Every day she prepared food for her family and then made several more meals because she knew homeless travelers would start to show up around mealtime. She had deep compassion for those who were in need. Once she asked a man how he happened to find his way to her door. “Your address is written on all the boxcar walls,” he said.
I wish that type of compliment could be said of all of us. In the feeding of the multitude, Jesus gave us an example of what it means to care about the physical and spiritual needs of others (Mark 8:1-9).
It would be wonderful if our homes were known as places where hungry people could find bread. But more than that, we need to pray that our homes will be known as places where spiritually hungry men, women, and children will be loved, listened to, and given the Bread of life.
Evangelism is nothing more than one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.
By: David H. Roper in Our Daily Bread, July 30, 2002
PRAY: Ask God to give you eyes to see the broken and the needy all around you. Ask him for the heart and the strength and the love it requires to step into their brokenness and meet their need.
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