James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Mark 8:5
HUMAN AGENCY AND GOD’S WORK
‘He asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.’
Why did Christ ask that question? He Who could change the water into wine by a wave of His hand, by a whisper of His voice might have created and spread a banquet upon that grassy slope! But He would not. Why? Because a great solemn lesson would have been lost for all time.
I. God Himself depends upon human resources.—God will not save men by a miracle independently of themselves; He says to every single soul to-day, ‘What have you got? Bring what you have got, and I will stretch out My hand of blessing upon it.’ Do not we forget that this is God’s message?
(a) We go to God in prayer, and we forget that the first thing God says to us as we kneel down to pray is, ‘How many loaves have ye?’ What have you brought to those prayers of yours? What earnestness, what faith, what trust in God, what patience that can help you to wait for an answer? ‘How many loaves have ye?’
(b) We come to Holy Communion, and the same voice meets us there. We ask to be fed with the Divine food, but first God says, ‘How many loaves have ye?’ What faith, what repentance, what love and charity, what preparation for the Holy Feast? ‘How many loaves have ye?’
(c) And so through all life it runs: God always asks that question first. He will save no man independently of that man’s own personal effort.
II. The spirit of the miracle.—What was that spirit? for it speaks straight to the Christian to-day.
(a) The spirit of a wonderful tenderheartedness. ‘I have compassion on the multitude.’ That voice of God has never ceased to sound; there is not a single human being, at this moment, of whom He is not saying it. ‘I am so sorry for you in your sorrow, in your sin, in your struggles with temptations, in your home trials and burdens; I know them all, I have compassion still.’
(b) The spirit of hopefulness. The hopefulness of Christ was the very inspiration of the ministry of Christ. He never despaired of His task; He never despaired of a single soul, however dark that soul might be. The whole world might turn away from it, the whole world might condemn it, but Christ rose, from that glorious, beautiful hopefulness of His, above the darkest things of the world, and He saw in each one the possibility of rescue.
(c) There is the message of consecration: ‘Bring them hither to Me.’ That voice, too, has never ceased to sound; there is not one of you over whom it is not sounding: ‘Bring him—bring her to Me.’
—Bishop F. E. Ridgeway.
Illustration
‘There are many people who are holding themselves back from the service of God because they will not hear the Saviour’s voice. “I have so little faith, so little holiness, I have so little time for service, I have so little money for alms, it is not worth my giving the time, the service, the money that I have.” And all the time the voice of Christ is rebuking us. Bring what you have got, don’t stop to think of how much more you might have; bring what you have got—your tiny fragment of faith, and repentance, and love, and desire for service, and prayer, and sacrifice—bring what you have, for God depends upon human resources. “How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.” ’