Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 4 Study # 4
December 21, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: The "disciples" wanted Jesus to curtail His expression of "compassion" for the great crowd and turn His "compassionate" attention to them.
Introduction: In our last study we focused our attention upon the exercise of compassion by Jesus toward a great host of "unworthy objects". There are several characteristics assigned to the great crowd that both individually and collectively reveal a complete absence of anything that would summon "compassion" from anyone who observed them.
In Mark's very large thesis of the dawning of a season of "Grace" by the coming of The Mighty One, it is necessary that we keep two issues in mind at all times when reading his Gospel: God is gracious, and men are unworthy.
With this reality in mind, we considered four of Mark's characterizations of the great crowd so that we could see that the "compassion of Jesus" was exercised without significant regard for the traits of the people in the crowd that would, in most men's minds, disqualify them from receiving "compassionate treatment" from Jesus. But Mark's point was that Jesus acted in compassion anyway.
Given those facts, we now turn to the disciples and Mark's record of their response to the crowd and Jesus' compassion toward it. We shall see that Mark is continuing to reveal characteristics of those with whom Jesus had to do that would have not been done if He took demerit into account. This is a "bottom line" issue in Jesus' program of turning the "disciples" into ministers of The Word. In our study, keep this in mind: the "compassion of Jesus" was highlighted by His "teaching of many things" to the crowd. Explaining Truth to a person is the greatest single act that has the actual ability to help whatever the need is.
- I. Behind Mark's Description Of The Disciples' Words Is One Reality.
- A. In his comments regarding these disciples in their condition in the early hours of the next morning, Mark revealed a devastating fact concerning them.
- 1. Mark 6:52 is a revelation of a significant underlying reality that stood directly in the way of Jesus' efforts to transform them into "apostles" worthy of that descriptive term.
- 2. This fact is this: "their hearts were hardened" so that their perception of the content of the "many things" that Jesus had to teach (things that would have compassionately brought a real solution into their experiences) simply did not exist (they "had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves").
- 3. That this is a significant/necessary revelation of their condition is revealed by a second fact: in 8:17 Mark recorded that Jesus highlighted their possession of "a hardened heart".
- B. Then, the first words Mark penned in regard to what he wished to say about the "disciples'" problematical condition in 6:35 reveal this condition.
- 1. Those first words are "And already many hours having come into existence...".
- a. This is straightforward -- until the translators get a hold of it.
- b. Mark's focus was upon the passing of "many hours"; the translators' focus is upon "when it was already quite late".
- 2. To make sure that we get his point, Mark actually placed those same words into the mouths of the disciples at the end of the same verse.
- a. The repetition is purposeful: the disciples were fixated upon the fact that Jesus had spent, and was spending, "many hours" in the exercise of "compassion" toward the crowd.
- b. What is their "problem"?
- 1) The answer to this question is in two actions taken by those disciples.
- a) The first "action taken" is in the intensified verb mildly translated "came".
- i. This word is an intensified form of a very general word: ercomai, which means either "to come" or "to go".
- ii. The intensity of the action is expressed by a prefix that gives "direction toward": pros.
- iii. Mark intends, by intensification, to reveal that the disciples were making a determined effort to get to Jesus to express themselves to Him about His "compassionate treatment" of the crowd (the implication is that their way to Him was being hindered: the crowd's agenda in conflict with theirs).
- b) The first "action taken" is in what they "were saying".
- i. First, "This place is "erhmos" ("You remember?? The place where You said we could "rest"??)
- ii. Second, "Many hours..." (You have spent "many hours" showing compassion for this crowd; what about us?).
- iii. Third, "send them away" (apoluo), a third intensified verb in the form of a demand (Aorist Imperative): "Get rid of them" by ceasing to teach them.
- iv. Fourth, "apercomai": "that they may go away"; the translation of the same verb ercomai, with a different intensifier attached as a prefix with explanation.
- v. Fifth, (what I consider a faux "compassion" by the disciples) "let them go and buy food from the surrounding countryside and villages".
- i) This is, perhaps, the worst thing the disciples said: a hypocritical "reason" for dismissing them (they are hungry).
- ii) The "problem" here is that the disciples want Jesus to stop being "compassionate" toward the crowd and turn His attention back to them (How about showing us a little compassion???).
- C. In the hardness of their hearts, the disciples want Jesus to turn from what is important to what is not.
- 1. In the record of the feeding of the four thousand, the crowd stays with Jesus for three days without food.
- 2. There is no mention in that record of the disciples being concerned about whether the crowd has anything to eat.
- II. Jesus' Response To The Disciples.
- A. "His answer" was "He said...".
- B. What He said was a direct confrontation of their hardness of heart.
- 1. "You feed them" (Is your "compassion" for their hunger up for that?).
- 2. "You want rest? Get to work".
- 3. He not only does not give them rest, He saddles them with "impossibility".
