The Multitude Fed in the Wilderness
C. Bradley, M. A. Mark 6:35-44 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed:… I. THE MIRACLE. 1. Power over the material world. This to material beings like ourselves is a concern of no small moment. Have the things around us any Master? If so, who is He? "The Lord Christ," answers the gospel. It follows that He can never be at a loss for an instant to punish us; also that the stores of nature are to us just what He pleases to make them. In the material world, as in the spiritual, His people are safe. 2. Notice also in this miracle the little value which Christ puts on sensual gratifications, on luxuries and what we call comforts. We have seen His power; it was evidently boundless. A word from His lips could have spread before this multitude all the delicacies of the East. But in calling His omnipotence into exercise for them, the only food He provides is the mean fare of the humblest fisherman. II. Let us pass on now TO THE FEELINGS WITH WHICH THIS MIRACLE WAS WROUGHT. 1. One of these was evidently a consciousness of power. Not that it was wrought ostentatiously, for the purpose of exciting astonishment or applause; it was a work of pure compassion, with no vain show whatever in it; nay, with a concealment of power, rather than a display of it. 2. We have thus looked at the author of this miracle as God; but He is as really man as He is God, and he feels and acts here like a dependent man; for mark further the spirit of devotion He manifests. "When He had taken the five loaves and the two fishes," the evangelist says, "He looked up to heaven and blessed." Why this bringing of devotion to bear upon the trifles of life? Because God is in all these trifles. True religion is not an act, but a habit; not an impulse or emotion, but a principle; not a sudden torrent, produced by the snows of winter or the thunderstorm of summer; it is a stream ever running, varying indeed in its breadth and depth, but from the moment of its rise, ever flowing on till it reaches the ocean of everlasting life. Banish God from your meals, or habitually from anything, and you might as well banish Him from everything. 3. Notice also the munificence, the liberality, with which our Lord spread this wide board for this vast multitude. "The two fishes divided He among them all; and they did all eat and were filled." None were excluded, none were controlled, none went away dissatisfied. There was enough and to spare. And think not, brethren, that you can ever exhaust the grace, or diminish the fulness, of your Almighty Saviour. III. THE TIME CHOSEN FOR THIS MIRACLE — "When the day was now far passed." The disciples were thus taught that they could do nothing for the hungry crowd. This mode of proceeding runs through all his dealings with us, whether in providence or in grace. He humbles us "under His mighty hand," before He exalts us; He breaks our hearts, before He heals. IV. And this is nearly the same truth that our fourth subject will suggest to us — THE PLACE WHERE THIS MIRACLE WAS PERFORMED. You discover then at once, brethren, the lesson we have to learn here — our richest supplies, our best comforts, are not the growth of our worldly prosperity, nor often the companions of our worldly ease; they come to us in situations and under circumstances, which seem to cut us off from every comfort and supply. Think of the deserts in which you have wandered. Outward affliction has been one of these. Spiritual sorrow, too, conviction of sin, is another wilderness; a dark and fearful one; none on earth more fearful. O never let us fear the desert, as long as we are there with the Lord Jesus Christ. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: WEB: When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him, and said, "This place is deserted, and it is late in the day.