Jesus is our Helper (Mark 8:1-26)

[Stephan Choe]

2025-1-10

Key Verse 23: “And he took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village, put saliva on his eyes, laid his hands on him and asked him, ”Do you see anything?”

Stephan Junior had bought a computer around 30 years ago. But the hard disk wasn't working properly, as we switched on it at home. So we took the hard disk to the store where we had bought the computer several times for repair. Some times we had to leave it there for a long time - once even for three weeks. But no avail: despite the repair, the same problem recurred. Finally, we took it to the store. One of the guys I saw for the first time said he'd found the cause and repaired it within an hour. We didn't trust him. But when we tried it at home, it was actually fine! It made me realize how important to have a professional who could help us.

To whom should we turn to when we have problems in our life?
- To Jesus! Jesus is the expert of our lives. Today we want to learn from this Bible text that Jesus knows people's practical problems and is ready to help them. This will give us confidence that Jesus knows our problems well and is happy to help us.


1. The people's food problem (1-9; John 6:47, 68-69)

Politicians say that the economy is the most important thing for the people. We now want to look at the problem of the economy or bread.
Jesus knows that the food problem is important for people. That is why he had fed five thousand people earlier.
Jesus had healed a deaf-and-mute person in the area of the Ten Cities. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus healed other sick people in addition to the deaf-and-mute.

Now four thousand people had gathered around him and stayed for three days.
Jesus' gracious words and his healings captivated the crowd so much that they had forgotten to go home. Now he wanted to send them home. But he saw that they were very hungry and had nothing to eat. He realized that they would starve on the way home if they set off without eating bread.

That is why he said to his disciples: “I am sorry for the people, because they have stayed with me for three days and have nothing to eat. And if I let them go home hungry, they would faint on the way, for some have come from afar” (2-3).

This word shows us that Jesus loves all people very much and is very interested in their spiritual and physical well-being. That is why he said in John 10:11b: “I have come that they (i.e. people) may have life and full satisfaction.”
He wants us to become God's children through faith in him and have eternal life. But it is not true that Jesus is only interested in us entering the kingdom of heaven after our physical death. Rather, he wants us to become God's children and to be well in the world also. That is why he healed many sick people and gave bread to the hungry.

When Jesus said: “The people are hungry”, and his disciples answered him: “How can anyone feed them with bread here in the desert?” (4).
Then Jesus asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” (5a).
With this question, Jesus wanted to help his disciples to think positively and do something concrete in order to feed the crowd.
If they thought positively and sought something concrete for the crowd, they would surely find something. They should then bring what they had found to him. He would bless their gift and feed the crowd with it.

In the Bible we find many examples of God blessing a small but heartfelt gift and doing something wonderful with it. One example of this was when a widow in Sarepta gave the prophet Elijah the little oil and flour she had for her and her son to eat during the time of the severe famine, God blessed her gift so that she and her son could eat and survive throughout the famine.
With his question “How many loaves do you have?”, Jesus wanted to help his disciples to think positively and do something concrete despite the seemingly impossible situation

Secondly, with his question “How many loaves do you have?”, Jesus wanted to help his disciples to remember his omnipotence at the last feeding and to believe in Jesus as the Son of God.
If the disciples remembered the last feeding of the five thousand, they would be able to understand that Jesus is God incarnate and could safely feed the crowd out of divine love and omnipotence. They can then believe that Jesus can also feed the crowd this time.

Verses 6-9 tell us that Jesus blessed the seven loaves that the disciples had brought him and fed the four thousand people with these seven loaves.
We should always remember that Jesus is Almighty God and fed the five thousand people. Then we can understand that nothing is impossible with Jesus. To do this, we should remember Jesus' heart towards the crowd and find something concrete that we have.

We are currently praying for the student mission in Bochum. There are about 50,000 students studying in Bochum. How can we give God's Word to so many students so that they will believe in Jesus Christ and have eternal life? We can lead some students who currently come to Bible study to faith in Jesus and pray to Him to feed 50,000 students. Jesus Christ will surely answer our prayer.
 

2. Warning against the Pharisees and Herod (10-21)

Jesus and his disciples went to Dalmanuta after the feeding (10). Today, we do not know where Dalmanutah was. It is only assumed that it was on the south-western coast of the Sea of Galilee.
Pharisees from the region came to Jesus and argued with him. They demanded that he prove by a sign that he was the Christ and the Son of God.

What did Jesus answer them?
Jesus answered them: “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation!” (13).

According to the account in Matthew 16:4, Jesus answered them: “An evil and apostate generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” The Old Testament tells of Jonah, who was unwilling and therefore remained in the belly of a great fish for three days to preach repentance for forgiveness to the city of Nineveh. When he did preach repentance, all the inhabitants of the city repented, so that God spared the city from judgment.

Jesus wanted to use Jonah's sign to say that he would remain in the tomb for three days and rise from the dead. All people who believe in his death and resurrection will have eternal life. We can receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life through repentance and faith in Jesus' death and resurrection.
Jesus said here that his main purpose was not to perform miracles, but to proclaim the Good News so that people could receive God's best blessings.

Jesus' disciples forgot to take bread with them when they crossed the Sea of Galilee. When Jesus said to them: “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod!”, the disciples thought that Jesus was talking about edible bread.
But by the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, Jesus meant the bad influences of the Pharisees and Herod.
The bad influence of the Pharisees was their legalism and hypocrisy. They made numerous rules of religion and looked at whether people kept all their rules. They regarded God as a strict lawgiver who closely observed people and mercilessly punished their violation of their rules. Outwardly, they appeared to be pious and liked to condemn other people. But in their hearts they had all ungodly thoughts. They were hypocrites.

The evil influence of Herod's party was their ignorance of the divine law. They were wealthy, worldly people. But the healthy principle of the life of faith is that we believe in God and his word and live humbly and gratefully before God. When we recognize that we are sinners before God and absolutely need God's forgiving grace through Jesus Christ. And God forgives us all our sins and warmly accepts us as his children. We should therefore always be humble and grateful before God. Then we can lead a sanctified life more and more effectively and give God glory. And God blesses us with the outer fruits and inner fruits. Outer fruits mean that God leads other people to faith in Jesus Christ through us. Inner fruit means that God helps us to imitate the character of Jesus Christ.
 

3 The healing of a blind man (22-26)

When Jesus and his disciples came to Bethsaida, the people brought a blind man to Jesus and asked him to touch him and heal him.
hen Jesus took him kindly and led him outside the village. He then put his saliva on his eyes, laid his hands on him and asked him, “Do you see anything?”
He replied: “I see people as if I were looking at trees.”
Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again. Then the blind man could see clearly.
Jesus healed this blind man in this way because the people had specifically asked him to touch him for healing. Jesus complied with their request and healed him in this way.
This healing shows us that Jesus gladly accepts suffering people and heals them according to the wishes of his friends.
Jesus is the merciful Christ and certainly hears our prayers. We can trust him and follow him.

 

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