Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1218
“They considered not the miracle of the loaves.” Mark 6:52.
Let us, with deep attention, consider the miracle of the loaves lest we fall into the same evil as that which happened to the disciples in the text. When they saw Jesus walking on the sea, “they were sore amazed in themselves and wondered: for they considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened.” Hard hearts and painful unbeliefs spring up in the waste places where we bury our forgotten mercies. The miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ ought to be considered. They are not trifles and they ought not to be passed over as if they were the mere commonplace stories of a daily newspaper. Everything that has to do with the Son of God is a fit subject for the deepest study and all His sayings and works should be sought out by them that have pleasure therein.
Neither earth nor Heaven, time nor eternity, yield choicer gems of thought than the achievements of our Lord. Remember, since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, what He did at one time ought to be well considered, because it is the index of what He is prepared to do again should the need arise. He would still sooner feed His own sheep by a miracle than allow them to lack any good thing. His accomplished wonders have not spent His strength—He has the dew of His youth still upon Him. Our Samson’s locks are not shorn! Our Solomon has not lost His wisdom! Our Imman-uel has not ceased to be “God with us.”
If the disciples had considered the miracle of the loaves they would have observed that Christ is grand in emergencies. When there were 5,000 people to be fed and no towns and villages near enough to supply them with bread and the people must faint by the way before they could reach the markets, then Christ was ready, full-handed in time of scarcity, prompt to dispense His liberality, able to meet the emergency so perfectly that the people must have been very thankful that such an emergency had arisen and, no doubt, often wished that they could have been in such a strait, again, if they could have had the Lord near to bring them out of it.
Had they considered the miracle of the loaves, the disciples would have known that Christ is not only grand in emergencies, but that He displays His power spontaneously, without need of pressing or even prompting. Before anybody else had cared for the multitude, He began enquiring about the state of the supplies from which the famishing must be fed. He it was who thought of the way of feeding them—it was a design invented and originated by Himself. His followers had looked at their little bit of bread and fish and given up the task as hopeless. But Jesus, altogether unembarrassed, and in no perplexity, had already considered how He would feed the thousands and make the fainting sing for joy. The Lord of Hosts needed no entreaty to become the Host of Hosts of hungry men.
Remembering this, the disciples, in their new distress should have said within themselves, “Now will He display His power. We have scarcely need to cry to Him, for before we call He will answer! And while the emergency is yet pressing upon our minds He will hear.” But they forgot what He had done on that occasion and, therefore, they fell into distrust as to their new trial. Beloved, is not this a very common fault with us? Do we not too often forget what the Lord has done for us in times past? We sing so rightly—
“His love in time past forbids me to think He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink. Each sweetEbenezerI ha ve in review Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.” But do we not forget those Ebenezers? Do we not very frequently suffer our memory to let His benefits go? Is not depression of spirit occasioned by the fact that we do not well consider the miracle of the loaves or its counterpart which has taken place in our history?
How many times have I sought the Lord in sorest trouble and He has brought me through! What burdens have I carried to Him and found them vanish! What needs has He not supplied? What marvels has He not worked on my behalf? Surely, if I think of what He has done for me, I shall not, unless my heart is hardened, permit myself to be afraid. Cannot many of you say the same? Are there not oases in your pilgrimage through the desert which, as you look back upon them, are to your grateful memory very green and full of sunlight where the Lord revealed Himself to you and worked very mightily for you? Consider, then, the miracle of the loaves as it has transpired in your own life story and be not afraid, whatever your present trouble may be.
I. Come, let us think a little, first, about THE GUESTS who gathered around our Lord when He worked the miracle of the loaves. And we are struck, first, with their great number. Jesus had His feast days, when He kept open house and entertained His guests in unusual crowds. Twice, especially, He held very remarkable feasts and His banquets were distinguished for the number that came to them. Here were 5,000 men and, on another occasion, some 4,000 men, besides women and children—and I should think that is a very large “besides,” for the women and children may possibly have outnumbered the men—at least they often do so in our congregations nowadays.