He called His disciples to Him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd …” Mark 8:1b-2a ESV1
Read Matthew 15:29-39 & Mark 7:31-8:10
Jesus may have been refreshed by pulling away from the busyness of His ministry, and encouraged by the faith of the Syrophoenician woman, but He wasn’t quite ready to head back to Israel just yet. Jesus had another stop to make first. When they realized where He was headed, His disciples probably wished they were going back to Israel, but God had plans for His Son to bring light to a very dark place.
“He returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis” (Mark 7:31). “The Decapolis [was a] … largely pagan league of cities to the east of the Sea of Galilee … Many of the cities are familiar to the New Testament reader: Damascus, Philadelphia (modern Amman), Scythopolis (Beth Shean), Gadara (Gadarenes), Pella, and Gerasa (Geresenes) …These cities, while joined as a league by the Romans to control the trade route that went from Arabia to Damascus and to provide protection for the eastern frontier, had a large measure of local autonomy. They minted their own coins, had jurisdiction over a large area, and ruled their own affairs. The culture of these prosperous cities was Hellenistic in all its Roman glory … Hellenistic cities had stadiums for the public display of athletic contests. Temples were built to honor local gods, and festivals were held to celebrate pagan holidays … The latest architecture and artistic designs made the Hellenized cities of the Decapolis seem very attractive and modern … [with] marble streets, mosaic floors, running water, and fountains … At its core, Hellenism was humanism. It glorified human beings above all other creatures and portrayed the human body as the ultimate in physical beauty. Truth could be known only through the human mind, and pleasure was a crucial goal in life. Hellenism’s values permeated the gymnasium and its excellent system of education, the theater, … the games in the arena … [, and] its temples [which] glorified the excesses of pleasure … It is clear from ancient records that the religious Jews of Jesus’ day opposed the values and practices of Hellenism … The area [was] offensive and off-limits to those who followed Torah.”2
As the sinless Son of God, Jesus was the purest of all Jews, but He wasn’t afraid to enter this pagan area. He knew who He was, and He knew why He had come—to bring good news and liberty to all humanity (see Luke 4:18-19). So, “Jesus [came right in and] walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And He went up on the mountain and sat down there” (Matthew 15:29). He didn’t announce His arrival; He just came in and sat down and waited for the people to come to Him. And come they did, because the area had been prepared for His visit.
Do you remember the man “with an unclean spirit” (Mark 5:1-2), “so fierce that no one could pass that way” (Matthew 8:28)? Who “lived among the tombs” (Mark 5:3a)? And “for a long time, … had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house” (Luke 8:27)? Do you recall how “he was kept under guard” (Luke 8:29), “and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces [and how] no one had the strength to subdue him, [but] night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones” (Mark 5:3b-5)? Do you remember how Jesus freed this man from the Legion of demons who had taken control of him? And do you recall how, in gratefulness, “the man who had been possessed with demons begged [Jesus] that he might be with Him. And He did not permit him but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.’ (Mark 5:18-19)? Do you remember, how “he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled” (Mark 5:20). Well, the people of the Decapolis now came to Jesus because of the testimony of that man! What great fruit came from his obedience and his labor!
Some of the people of the area who had heard about what Jesus could do “brought to Him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged Him to lay His hand on him” (Mark 7:32). Jesus fulfilled their request, but He did so by “taking [the man] aside from the crowd privately; He put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to Heaven, He sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly” (Mark 7:33-35). Jesus met this man’s need both physically and emotionally. In a society where human perfection was idolized, I imagine this man had been repeatedly ridiculed. He probably didn’t feel comfortable in the limelight; an intimate, personal moment away from people was what he needed; Jesus knew this and obliged. Likewise, “Jesus charged [those who had brought the man] to tell no one” (Mark 7:36a). I believe this request to not speak of this miracle was for the privacy of the one receiving the healing. Clearly, Jesus permitted the testimony of His power being proclaimed in the area. Otherwise, He would have never given the man who had been severely demon possessed the instruction to share his story.
“But the more He charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak’” (Mark 7:36b-37). They were too awe-filled to be silent. Therefore, news of what Jesus had done quickly spread across the region.
“And great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at His feet, and He healed them” (Matthew 15:30). Remember, Jesus was sitting on the side of a mountain. “The Sea of Galilee is nearly 700 feet below sea level, … and the mountains of the Golan Heights (called the Decapolis in Jesus’ time) reach more than 2,500 feet.”3 I am sure Jesus wasn’t sitting at the very top of the mountain, but this was no insignificant hill. These people likely crawled over rocks, trekked up steep stretches, squeezed through crevices, and made their way through a throng of others to lead, carry, or drag their ailing loved ones to Jesus! Talk about commitment and desperation.
Jesus rewarded the loving labor of every one of these needy people. At the same time, He put their pagan gods to shame “so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:31). It was obvious that their gods were no match for the true God. They had experienced something totally different than that which they had previously known. Many of the members of the amazed crowd weren’t in a hurry to get back home.
Several of those who had received healing probably stuck around to watch and listen. Others who awaited their personal miracles likely eagerly watched as Jesus tenderly and effectively healed everyone set before Him. With each subsequent miracle, all gloried God and wondered what would happen next. I imagine Jesus took advantage of the fact that He had such a great crowd giving Him their full attention, and, as would have been characteristic of Him, He began to teach as He healed. Perhaps He shared a with them another Sermon on the Mount applicable to them. Regardless of what He did or said, a large crowd stayed with Him for a long time absorbing everything they could from Him.
Finally, “He called His disciples to Him and said to them, ‘I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away” (Mark 8:1b-3). Scripture doesn’t tell us to which of His disciples Jesus directed this question. It probably wasn’t Phillip, because Jesus had recently tested him in a similar situation in a way Phillip would likely not forget (see John 6:5-7).
Perhaps, Jesus asked this question to Simon the Zealot. “[T]he Zealots resisted Hellenism … violently.”2 Simon, as well as others of Jesus’ disciples, might have had a hard time with the fact that Jesus was being so kind to these pagan people. Whatever the case, the disciples answered Jesus, “‘Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?’ [But] Jesus said to them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’” (Matthew 15:33-34a). Some of His disciples, who must have remembered what Jesus did in a similar situation just days before, piped up and “said, ‘Seven, and a few small fish.’ And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, He took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. And after sending away the crowds, He got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan” (Matthew 15:34b-39), “to the district of Dalmanutha” (Mark 8:10b), back in the territory of Israel where a whole new adventure awaited.
Cute story, right? But what does it have to do with us? A great deal. This account illustrates very important truths and gives us direction as to how we can effectively minister in our dark world.
This narrative reminds us:
Jesus came for everyone, even those who are currently far from Him. It doesn’t matter who someone is or what has happened in his/her past. No one is too bad for Jesus to save. No one is too good to not need Jesus’ saving. We are all sinners. Through His death on the cross, Jesus conquered sin and death, and opened the door to salvation for anyone who wants it. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
God has a plan for reaching everyone. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people” (Titus 2:11). Just like He prepared the way for those in this event to come to Him, He is even now busy working in the circumstances of those who are lost “to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in [Jesus Christ]” (Acts 26:18).
We can simultaneously be right with God and rub shoulders with the rough and tumble of the world. I dare say, “We must!” “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching” (Romans 10:14)? Because God has opened our eyes, He has given us the answers to the questions the lost are asking. “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
The necessity of being in the world is nothing to fear. “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). Without fear, Jesus “went up on the mountain and sat down there” (Matthew 15:29). Elsewhere, Jesus taught, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move” (Matthew 17:20). The act of climbing this mountain may have symbolized His intention to move a great “mountain” of darkness over the area of the Decapolis. His sitting down may have symbolized His power over the area; a king who is secure in his rule doesn’t pace the floor, he sits on his throne.
The necessity of being in the world is nothing to be taken lightly. Before Jesus ministered to anyone, He “look[ed] up to Heaven, [and] He sighed” (Mark 7:34a). The same Greek word for sighed in this verse, anastenazo, is translated signed deeply in His spirit in Mark 8:12. It has the connotation of an intense prayer for the filling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit provides protection; He is the one who gives the power and the wisdom to best reach the needy. In this land filled with evil, Jesus made sure He had a strong connection with the rest of the God-head before He proceeded to do that which He was called to do. How much more should we be praying for the filling of the Holy Spirit before we go out into the world?
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Jesus didn’t go into the Decapolis ready to pick a fight. He didn’t confront the beliefs of the people until He ministered to their needs. After He helped them, they stayed around to see what He had to say. Change in this pagan society happened eventually as these people considered the truths Jesus had taught in light of the kindness He had shown them. “[T]here is evidence of Jewish communities in these cities (most had synagogues, although these were constructed long after Jesus’ time).2
Likewise, when we go out in the world, we don’t have to announce our position. And we don’t need to hide who we are or what we believe. We can be ourselves and do our jobs all without causing chaos. God will bring to us those He wants us to reach. He will give us what we need to meet their needs. Through compassion and the meeting of those needs, God will bring the people to whom we minister closer to Him. It might take time, but God is always working. Let’s make sure we are joining Him in His work not working against Him. “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:23-26).
There is more to the Gospel than, “Jesus loves you.” Oh, Jesus, without a doubt, loves humans, but when we stop our message with this truth, we are only sharing part of the Gospel. Yes, God loves people, but He loves people so much that He doesn’t want them to stay where they are. God hates sin. Because He loves, Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we don’t have to continue in sin, so that we can have the power to be free from sin. Jesus didn’t only physically heal and feed the people of the Decapolis, He gave Himself so that they could be eternally spiritually healed and fed. Through the granting of compassion and the gentle sharing of truth, let us also love people enough to not leave them wallowing in darkness.
The Name of God will be glorified. Wherever God is at work through His people, amazing things happen which can only be attributed to God. Whenever God is glorified, people benefit. We were made to glorify God. May we get to doing that for which we were made.
1 Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.
2 https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/a-far-country-decapolis
3 https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/sea-of-galilee-geography