Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
August 9, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis:   The response of the disciples to Jesus' self-description is Mark's way of describing the enormity of the task to which God had committed His Beloved Son.

Introduction:   In our last study, as we began to look into this second round of a large crowd needing to eat, we saw that Jesus describes Himself as "compassionate" even down to the level of the need for food. That He did not display that "compassion" for three days in the face of hunger did not mean that He did not feel compassion when the people first began to suffer the "problem" of physical hunger. That He waited until the latter end of the third day to display that compassion meant that there was something significantly needful in the minds/hearts of the people that restrained Him. That "something" was the question of whether, or not, the people were at least beginning to align themselves with the true values of the "Love" of The God; sacrificing the physical for the greater gain of the "soul" and the "spirit" that is found in the words of the wisdom of God.

Now, in this study, we are going to consider the response of "His disciples".

• I. The Response Was Focused Upon The Disciples' Lack Of Understanding Of The Identity Of This "Compassionate Shepherd".
  • A. "Compassion" is a very admirable characteristic, but it is useless if there is nothing that can be done.
  • B. At the heart of the disciples' response are the words, "Where is anyone who can (dunamai) 'fatten these' with bread in a desolate place?"
    • 1. The core of the question is "dunamis".
      • a. "Dunamis" is the Greek word for "resultant ability"; the "ability" that arises out of the existence of available resources coupled to the skill to arrange those resources in the most effective way".
      • b. The disciples, clearly, do not "believe" that there is "anyone" who has the resultant power to address "these 4,000 people" in their need for food in the setting of a total absence of visible resources.
        • 1) In the first go-around, the feeding of the 5,000 men, there were, at least, a number of villages and towns in the vicinity that could possibly meet the demands of providing "bread" for the multiplied thousands of people that were present.
          • a) But, in that "slightly possible" setting, there was yet the "problem" of having a sufficient amount of money to buy what was available (200 denarii).
          • b) The disciples are in bondage to "hopelessness" even though there might actually be a way to meet the need.
        • 2) But in this go-around, there are no available resources: no surrounding villages even if there was enough money to make the purchases (and there probably wasn't).
      • c. The disciples, also clearly, magnify the nature of the "problem" by their use of the word translated "satisfy".
        • 1) The word in use here typically means "to fatten", i.e., "to provide an abundance".
        • 2) The disciples are deliberately discounting the reality of the need: a sufficiency to meet the need, not an overabundance to gratify the lusts.
      • d. And the disciples, also clearly, are, in their "hopelessness", blind to the significance of the earlier episode where Jesus did NOT take advantage of the surrounding villages or whatever number of denarii that Judas might have had in his "bag".
    • 2. Mark's obvious intention.
      • a. At the very beginning of his record, Mark used The Baptizer's choice of words to identify the person he was commissioned to precede.
        • 1) Those words of The Baptizer settled upon the word "iscuros"; the Greek word for "inherent resources".
        • 2) This choice of "iscuros" signals the enduring presence of "inherent" resources that may, or may not, be visible to the physical eyes.
      • b. Thus, Mark is, in this text, clearly "upping the ante" by erasing every visible resource.
      • c. Thus, Mark is, also clearly, revealing just how "tied" (in bondage) the disciples are in respect to their "knee-jerk" default of not being able to "believe" unless they can conjure up some kind of "vision" of "possibility" (they simply cannot accept the words of God as believable unless they can see some kind of possibilities they can depend upon).
      • d. And in this, Mark is actually presenting the magnitude of the Servant's task of effectually dealing with man's condition in his legacy of Sin.
        • 1) Consider King Asa in 2 Chronicles 14:9-18.
        • 2) Then consider King Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:1-9.
        • 3) And then ponder King Asa's "result" in 2 Chronicles 16:10 and 16:12.
        • 4) And, finally, consider Paul's words in Romans 5:20.

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This is article #330.
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