“I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. Mark 8:2 NASB
According to Matthew's account of this story in Matthew 15:29-31, this crowd of people were gathered to receive healing from Christ from all sorts of infirmities. But the people don't leave after receiving healing but instead stay with Jesus for 3 whole days. Three days where they did not have anything to eat. Jesus says that these crowds of people have “remained with Me”. These three words are actually one word in Greek. The Greek word means to “remain in place, with a person, persevere in, abide, be with, cleave unto, and remain faithful to.” Acts 11:23 uses the same word when Barnabas is sent to Antioch to see the Greek people who are believing in Jesus. Barnabas encouraged the church at Antioch by telling them: “Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. The word "remain" that Barnabas uses there means to abide with the Lord. This crowd of predominantly Gentile people could have received their healing and then left to go back to their lives having been made whole. Instead, we see them abiding and cleaving unto Jesus to the point of hunger. Healing was a by-product of their abiding with the Healer. They are fulfilling the words that Jesus gave to His disciples in John 15 where He said “abide in Me and I in you” before they were ever spoken by Jesus. They are remaining faithful to Jesus and Jesus feels compassion for them. This crowd is not simply there to receive something from Christ, they are there to be with Christ. What can we learn from this? #1: What we need is not something from Christ, we need Christ Himself. Colossians 2:9-10 says: For in Him (That's Jesus) all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; These verses show us that when we get Christ we get everything that Christ has and is. Sometimes we look for things from the hands of Christ in the form of blessings, never realizing that what we need is Christ Himself. #2: Experiencing Christ leads to a hunger for more of Christ. These crowds stayed with Jesus for 3 days without food. Being in this revival atmosphere overwhelmed their sense of hunger for physical food. When people truly meet the living Christ, there is always a sense of awe and expectation. Questions to Consider: 1. We often pray for God to give us things or to help us with the trials of life. He asks us to! But when was the last time that we prayed just to experience and know God more? Would you take sometime to do that today? 2. What does your daily time spent with the Lord look like?
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