B-Side - Mark 7:31-8_10 + Matthew 15:29-39

Jesus loves all people; he feeds Jew and Gentile. He provides for those who put their faith in him; he's the Good Shepherd who provides for his flock.

So much of Jesus' work rendered him "unclean" by the Pharisees' standards; he completely rejected the oral tradition of the Pharisees.

Jesus' journey was not direct through the region. It appears he went out of his way to reach the Gentiles in this passage.

His healing of the deaf man, involving the man's tongue and ears, may be foreshadowing Pentecost. This story may be the center of a chiasm, book-ended by the "bread" stories: the Syrophoenician woman, and the feeding of the 4,000.

In the feeding of the 5,000 there are five loaves; in the feeding of the 4,000, there are seven... 12 loaves total. After the 5,000 were fed, there were 12 baskets of leftovers (12 tribes of Israel). After the 4,000 were fed, there were 7 baskets of leftovers (7 equates to completion, "it is good"). Between the two miracles, 9,000 people were fed. Nine is a number of incompletion, possibly indicating the expansion of the church is not yet complete.

The feeding of 5,000 (mostly Jews) aligns with the Israelites leaving Egypt in ranks of five, and the feeding of 4,000 aligns with the Gospel spreading to the four corners of the earth.

In Mark 8:6, we see he makes his people lie down in green pastures. So all the numbers point to the fact that if the Lord is our shepherd, we will come under his compassion, his blessings! He will provide for us.

The 12 loaves echo the showbread in the tabernacle, where the lamp of God would shine forever; here Jesus' face, his compassion and love, shine on his people. And not just the Jews now, but the whole world! What makes us pure is not our ethnicity, but the object of our faith. If Jesus Christ is our Lord and our Savior, then we are under the shepherding care of our God!