A Diverse Dinner Party, Pt. 2
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Ever hosted a gathering where the guest list made you a little nervous? Maybe a wedding or a holiday table, where people from completely different worlds ended up sitting side by side. Pastor Nick Gatzke takes a closer look at a meal Jesus hosted for a crowd that had no business sharing a table.
Mark chapter eight, starting at verse one, this is what it says. “It says, in those days when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat, 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 a far away. And his disciples answered him, how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?
And he asked them, how many loaves do you have? And they said, seven. And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to disciples to set before the people. And they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish and having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces leftover, seven baskets full. And there were about 4,000 people and he sent them away.
And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and he went to the district of Delmanutha. And the Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. And he left them, got into the boat again and went to the other side. Now they had forgotten to bring bread and they had only one loaf with them. And he cautioned them saying, watch out, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod.
And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, 12. And the seven for the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?
And they said to him, seven. And he said to them, do you not yet understand?” Food critic Paul Grinberg set out to eat at the world’s top 100 restaurants. That sounds like a project I’d like to be invited on. For those of you who are foodies, this guy is your guy. Between 2011 and 2018, he had meals at 99 out of the top 100 restaurants in the world. He traversed mountain roads, been lost in fog, snowed in, stranded. He had secured speeding tickets in Spain, France, Switzerland, and Germany. He had crisscrossed time zones and caught flights that led him to exhaustion.
And yet there was one last restaurant that remained on the list. It was a small, members-only sushi house in Tokyo, Japan. And it remained maddenly out of touch for him. He had told the Wall Street Journal in 2018, I can’t get into one restaurant in Tokyo. This is crazy. The problem was is that the restaurant called Sushi Saito was an eight-seat restaurant that had a private membership. Outsiders either had to dine with a member or had the reservation made by a member, but tracking down that connection was not easy.
So Mr. Grinberg had tapped pals at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and other investment banks. He had tried contacts at American Express and Japanese car makers and hedge funds. And yet, even among the elite, he had no luck. He said he can’t understand it. To reach his top 100 goal, other restaurants and chefs around the world had gone out of their way to accommodate him by staying open after hours or squeezing him into… Crowded and fully booked rooms. He documented the meals on Instagram, where he also begged for the hookup.
Can anybody get me in to number 100, Sushi Saito? And then in 2019, it finally happened. Paul Grinberg hit number 100. He was able to have lunch in Tokyo at Sushi Saito. But it wasn’t the connections that got him there. He couldn’t buy a pass or influence his way into the table. The restaurant owner had to come to him. Similarly, we don’t get into God’s presence by our own connections or influence. There’s no sneaking into the kingdom, no back door to the presence of God. God has to come to us. And it’s based purely on his grace in the person of Jesus Christ.
And so, when you think about the history of how God engages the world, it’s a pretty big deal at this point that this Jewish Messiah is starting to engage the Gentiles. Because it… could be, could result in good news for some and bad news from others. I mean, if Jesus is the king, but he’s only the king of the Jews, that’s not good news for you, Gentile. If Jesus is ushering in his kingdom, And it’s a kingdom where he rids the people of all demonic oppression and he heals sickness and disease and where sin is forgiven.
It’s a really depressing reality when you realize that you can’t be a citizen of that kingdom if you’re a Gentile. If Jesus actually has the power over death, but there isn’t any indication that that incredible saving power is a possibility for you, then it’s incredibly sad to be a Gentile. Those things might sound scandalous to us because we thought that Gentiles were included in the blessing all along. We thought we were entitled to God’s favor. However, we weren’t. And so here in the story, why do we have two miraculous feedings on top of each other?
Because we see that with the coming of King Jesus, he doesn’t just satisfy the Jews. And he doesn’t just give crumbs to the Gentiles. Jesus actually gives us a feast as well. He takes seven loaves and a few fish. He blesses it. It’s before the people and it says in verse eight, and they ate and were satisfied. Jesus satisfies the deepest needs of the Gentiles as well as the deepest needs of the Jews. And there’s ample supply. The number of baskets left over are seven. It would seem that seven is a number that God uses to indicate perfection or completion.
Throughout the Bible, we see that again and again. There’s six days in which God created the world and he rested on the seventh, creating a Sabbath and thus a complete week. Elisha told the man to wash his body seven times in the Jordan River to be healed in 2 Kings 5. There are seven spirits of God. Mentioned in Revelation, seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, and now seven baskets left over for the Gentiles. God’s ingathering of the nations to himself is perfect. The kingdom of God is expanding as Jesus goes throughout his mission, and it will only be complete when there are both Jews and Gentiles in the kingdom.
The provision extends to all kinds of people. And that is really good news for this Gentile. And it’s really good news for you. Jesus satisfies the greatest need of all people, even people like you. The scene shifts. Jesus gets into the boat, back into a Jewish area where the Pharisees are waiting for him. And they’re trying to trap him again. They were requesting a sign. And to be clear, he had already done plenty of signs that they had seen and heard about. But again, they were claiming that if they just see one more sign, then maybe they’ll believe.
And he sighed deeply in verse 12 in his spirit and said, “why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to them.” And he left them and he got into the boat again and he went. to the other side. Their desire for a sign is standing in direct contrast to the Gentiles. They wanna see a sign and then potentially believe. The Gentiles had believed to the point of hunger, even hunger unto passing out. And only then did Jesus actually give them the sign and fed them. One is genuine desire.
The other is cynical questioning. Their desire for the sign was actually an indicator of their hardness of heart and their unbelief. And what we see is that when people don’t respond to Jesus’s revelation of himself, he is patient, but he will ultimately turn his back on them and get in the boat and leave. And that’s a good warning for you and for me as Jesus continues to show himself to you. So they get into the boat and they go over to the other side. But as they go, we see that the dialogue points us back to all the things that just happened.
You know, when you have kids that go through growth spurts, it’s really quite comical to see the eating habits and desires and needs that they have. Many of you have kids, you know this. And parents find themselves asking themselves the question, are you hungry again? And sometimes that question comes multiple times a day. Like, I know that I’m this big and you’re this big and you have eaten twice as much food as I have today. I have no idea where it’s going. Are you hungry again? Likewise, it would be comical to see the next interaction between Jesus and his disciples about food and bread and eating again.
It would be comical, except for the reality. that the conversation reveals. Jesus is warning them about the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. He’s giving them a spiritual warning. But these guys are just thinking about food. and the material need in front of them. And so leaven in the Bible is often another word for yeast. It’s a symbol of the spreading of evil. Just as yeast affects the whole loaf of bread, so does evil spread and affect those who engage it. And so the leaven of Herod is the leaven of pride and self-sufficiency.
The leaven of the Pharisees is the cynical questioning of the heart and self-righteousness. And the cynical hardening of the heart is like a cancer. It spreads throughout the body. It’s like mold that creeps through the walls of your damp basement. It’s like a proliferation of bugs or plague that takes over fields of crops. This sort of hardened unbelief, cynical questioning of Jesus is poisonous in its nature. He’s warning them about this. But the disciples are just thinking about food. are hungry.
So it says in verse 16, they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, says, “why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Have you eyes, having eyes do not see and having ears do not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves of 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said, 12, and for the seven loaves of the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?
And they said, seven. And he said to them, do you not yet understand?” Jesus expects this type of hardness from the Pharisees, but not his own disciples. I mean, they were there. They actually ate the bread. They’d seen the provision and the satisfaction of Jesus. Not once. but twice, and not actually even just twice. They’d seen it three times, if you count the interaction with the Gentile woman, and they still don’t get it. Still don’t get the fact that Jesus is the one who satisfies the greatest need of all people, even them.
And so let’s just make three quick observations. How could they still not get it? Jesus says it’s because their hearts are hard as well. And there is a familiarity that can lead to a hardness of heart. And that’s a good warning for me and for you. In some ways, they’re like the Pharisees. They’re familiar with the things of God, just like the Pharisees are, and that led to their hardness. But they’re not like the Pharisees who are seeing new things to them and things they don’t believe. They’re the opposite.
They’re seeing… the things of Jesus and hearing him speak daily. And they’re growing comfortable in the familiarity that actually leads to a hardness of heart. There’s a good reminder for those of you who have access to spiritual things. all the time, including me. Maybe you grew up in the church and you might be tempted to think to yourself, I’ve heard this all before. You feel like you’ve got nothing left to learn. Familiarity is actually breeding hardness. Or perhaps you’ve been part of a Christian family.
Your parents were believers and you think, I’ve experienced Christianity my whole life. And now you don’t have any room left for God to do something powerful. and maybe even surprising to you. Or maybe you’re just pretty good at all the areas of your life right now, and you’ve fallen into that old, old trap of depending upon yourself instead of depending upon Christ to meet your needs. But be careful of familiarity. Your ultimate satisfaction will be found nowhere else. Jesus satisfies the greatest.
I think another observation is that spiritual nurture takes time and repetition. How do we learn something and adopt it into our daily practice? Well, we learn information. But then we usually have to experience something and often experience it multiple times before it sinks in. This is certainly the case with the disciples. Miraculous feeding in which they participated in the handing out of the food and they’re still wondering where they’re gonna get their food. They didn’t get it. But Jesus doesn’t send them away.
He teaches them. He corrects them. He nurtures them spiritually. And he will do the same for you. The third observation is that remembering is an important part of perseverance and growth. Jesus says to them in verse 18, having eyes do you not see and ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? How can you not remember what you saw, what you experienced? Remembering is the key. A key to perseverance and growth. Throughout the Old Testament, Israel was told to remember. They were told to remember all the Lord had done for them.
They were charged to remember the commands of God, the works of God, the miracles of God, the deliverance of God, and the person of God. They were called to remember. And in the book of Judges, you might remember in the Old Testament, the people strayed away from God. And it says explicitly they did so because they did not remember. And as a result, when they didn’t remember, everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And here Jesus calls his disciples to remember. Remember what you just saw the Lord do.
Remember what you experienced as he did it and let the remembrance inform the way you engage in your present reality. Friends, we’re no different. It’s so easy to forget. It’s so easy to be short-sighted. It’s so easy to live for the moment. It’s so easy to be captured by the tyranny of the urgent, to give away or give way to momentary desires or concerns. And one of the ways that you persevere is to remember. And so as we conclude this morning, I wanna charge you, remember. Remember what the Lord has done for you.
Remember. the way that he saved you. Friends, remember those unique experiences you’ve had of his provision in your life. Remember those times when his presence was manifest among you. Remember the gospel and apply it to yourself every day. And remember, that you could seek satisfaction in all kinds of places and all kinds of ways. But remember that Jesus is the one that satisfies the greatest need, not just for some types of people, but for all people. And let that remembrance bolster your faith.
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This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
