NOTES for Mar 8:1-10

As we can see, the story of the miraculous feeding of many people with a small amount of food is repeated during the days of the Savior's earthly ministry at least twice. On the one hand, the mention of two similar events is certainly not accidental: the evangelist evidently considers it important enough that he finds it necessary to describe in detail two very similar events. On the other hand, the very repetition of the situation of the miraculous feeding of a great multitude testifies to its importance: in the Savior's earthly ministry there were no accidental events.

Of course, every miracle, whether healing, feeding, resurrection, or walking on the water, is nothing other than a manifestation of the Kingdom that Jesus brought into the world. But each time it manifests itself a little differently, even when it seems that there are no noticeable differences between, for example, two different healings. Here we have before us an event outwardly very similar to what had happened shortly before, when Jesus also fed a huge crowd with an amount of food that, according to the laws of the untransformed world, could not possibly have been enough for everyone.

Only between these two miraculous feedings another remarkable event took place: walking on the water. It was an event in which the power of the Kingdom was manifested primarily as authority over the elements of the untransformed world. And it was manifested in this way largely because another way in which the power of the Kingdom is manifested, a power revealed to those who seek it as the action of love, had not been adequately received even by the apostles. Yet it is God's love, not His power, that the breath of the Kingdom communicates to us first of all.

Feeding hungry people is a higher-priority task for the inhabitants of the Kingdom than subduing a raging element. The apostles absolutely had to remember this, and remember it well. Perhaps that is why the miracle of feeding many people with a few loaves and a few fish is repeated. And the evangelist probably tells again of an event so similar to the one he had already described for precisely this reason. For what Jesus wants to tell the apostles about the Kingdom concerns us too.

The multiplication of the loaves is one of Jesus' most striking miracles, because several thousand people witnessed it at the same time. Reading these lines closely, it is easy to imagine some illusionist or magician showing his supernatural abilities before a huge crowd of grateful spectators. But the motives that moved Christ were completely different. The only reason He performed this greatest miracle was compassion for people who were hungry and could grow weak on the way. The Lord had pity on them and proposed feeding them with the little His disciples had, even though that was complete madness. "And they ate and were satisfied; and they took up seven baskets of leftover pieces."

There is an opinion that, seeing how the Savior was distributing what had been His own food, people began taking out the supplies they had and sharing them with those who had nothing at all. This may be the Savior's miracle itself: He succeeded in opening the eyes of thousands of people and showing them the needs of their neighbors.

For eight chapters in a row now we have been reading about the glorious passage of the Son of God over the earth. Have we recognized Him? Have we learned to trust Him? To believe His word? Or do we still need signs? Have we "understood" everything, or have we remained blind? What is there more of in us: the leaven of the Pharisees, or the faith of the hungry and the sick? Does the one who was hungry and was fed, who was sick and was healed, who was blind and received sight, still need signs?

The disciples witnessed the feeding of the people. They were at that feast and even distributed the bread. But in everyday life they remain in doubt and are not sure that they will be fed, although Jesus is with them and they see Him with their eyes. But with the heart? Do we feel God's presence in everyday life, on Monday, in the boat in which we are crossing the week? Or do we "still not understand"? For the second time Mark gives a passage about feeding a large crowd with a few loaves. It is important to understand that if bread is given from God's hands, then it is not just bread. People are fed by God's blessing, by God's love. And this is truly real nourishment.

It is hard to understand what is happening to others when everything is all right with you, when you have nothing to plead for tearfully. When there is no real need, there is no need for hope, and no need for the Healer. When we do not thirst for an encounter with truth and love, when we have not been worn down in this world by our weakness and infirmity while seeking truth, it is hard to be satisfied with what God gives us. Such are the Pharisees: Jesus does not even speak with them. "He left them."

The disciples remain beside Jesus, see Him with earthly eyes, share a meal with Him, and see many healings, but still remain outside the mystery of God. They have received sight for the first time, like that blind man from Bethsaida. After the first laying on of hands, the blind man began to see like everyone else. He saw people outwardly. A person was able to "see everything clearly" only in the presence of Jesus, when he "looked intently."

God gives spiritual sight to those who thirst for it. For this, the "hardened heart" must be "softened." Then it will become clear what the spirit of Pharisaism is; then the spiritual life of people and of God will be visible. Then signs will no longer be needed. What, then, have we managed to "understand" over these seven and a half chapters? What have we really understood, what have we "seen clearly," how have we changed?

Jesus performs healings a little differently each time. As in this case, when He touches the eyes of the man He heals twice. At first glance this may seem strange: after all, this is God's power, which can heal a person in a single instant, while here there is clearly a certain process, certain stages, and for some reason the healing does not happen all at once. It may seem that Jesus is, as it were, testing things out, trying His power before the full and final healing.

In part that is true - only the issue is not His power, but the person's readiness. Healing looks simple and instantaneous only on paper, while in reality behind it stands a complex and intense process in which the one being healed takes part. In such cases we usually speak of faith: whoever believes receives healing. But faith, even understood as trust rather than as certain convictions, is a process, not only a single momentary decision. In healing a person, Jesus draws him into relationship with Himself and into the life of the Kingdom He has brought into the world, drawing him in to the extent that the person is ready to follow Him.

Such involvement always begins with a person's readiness to follow Jesus; without it nothing will work. That readiness, however, must be constantly confirmed, both because its measure differs and because at each next stage of the path that measure changes. In a certain sense one could say that at each successive stage of the path God asks the person again whether he is ready to move farther, and each time the person is free to answer God yes or no. The same is true in relationship with the Savior: each next step on the Christian path means a greater measure of a person's involvement in relationship with Christ, and that greater measure presupposes the person's consent to the next step.

It would seem that this is merely a matter of healing, of bringing it to completion. Yet for the person himself, "merely" means a very great deal, a huge step forward on the path of relationship with God and with Christ. No wonder the person overcomes it not in one step, but in two. Jesus treats everyone with whom He comes into contact with the utmost care, neither hurrying him nor pushing him from behind; but if a person is ready, the next step will certainly follow.