Mark

By Joyce Webb 2022

Chapter 8       Vs. 1-13

Verse 1-9 Where Jesus was—-people gathered around.
Many people, large crowds of people. They wanted to be healed, they wanted to see other people being healed. They wanted to hear Jesus teach.
This is one of those times when there is a very large crowd of people.
Jesus called his disciples to come near him.
Jesus said that he was beginning to feel sorry for the people—because they had been with him for 3 days, and they have had nothing to eat.
Jesus said,– “If I send them away—to travel back home—-since they have not eaten—they may be too weak and faint on the way.” Some of the people had come from far away.
The disciples said, “Where can we get bread for all these people? We are out here in the wilderness where there is nothing.”
Jesus said, “How many loaves of bread do you have?” The disciples said, “We have 7 loaves.”
Jesus told the people to sit down. He took the 7 loaves and gave thanks—-then he began to break the bread.
He gave the bread to the disciples to pass out to the people.
They also had a few small fish. Jesus blessed the fish and told the disciples to pass those out, too.
All the people ate the bread and fish. They ate as much as they wanted.
The disciples gathered up what food was left over. There were 7 baskets of food left over.
The number of people that were there —were about 4,000.
After they had eaten —Jesus sent them home.
Verse 10 Jesus got into a ship with his disciples. They came to a place called Dalmanutha.

Vs. 11 Some of the Jewish church leaders were there—the Pharisees. They began to ask Jesus questions. They were testing him. They wanted a sign from heaven.
Jesus said he was God’s Son–they wanted proof.

Vs. 12 Jesus sighed—gave a deep breath and let it out. The questions of the Pharisees made him tired in his spirit.
Jesus said to them, “You will not be given a sign.”
(The Pharisees probably heard of all the miracles Jesus did. Even the one he just did—feeding 4,000 people ! Who does that ? Only God !
The Pharisees do not want to believe that Jesus is God’s son. They have this picture in their mind of what God’s Son should be—and how he would come. Jesus did not fit their idea.
No matter how many miracles Jesus did—-they would not believe that Jesus was God’s son.
More miracles would not have changed their mind.
At some point—you just have to believe.)

Verse 13 Jesus left them and got into the ship again and went across the water to the other side.