How Does Jesus Have Compassion On The Crowd

They follow him some because they stand in need of healing, others because of the miracles they have seen him perform. While the multitude is making its way, Jesus arrives in Tiberias, goes up to the mountain, sits down and begins to talk with his disciples. Here is where we notice our first major difference in John’s account of this event in comparison to the other gospel writers. All the other writers talk here about Jesus having compassion on the crowd because they are like sheep with no shepherd. He takes the time to talk to the crowd and teach them many things. As it often does with us, time seems to fly by and before they know it the day is far spent and they are far from home. By all accounts except for John’s, here is where the disciples come to Jesus and ask him to send the people away that they might go and find food. Jesus responds to his disciples by saying, I’m paraphrasing here; but he basically says, they don’t have to leave, you give them something to eat. To which the disciples reply, this multitude is too great, we don’t have enough food to feed all of …show more content…
This is one the major difference between his account and that of the others. John does not say that the disciples came to Jesus, it states that Jesus looked up and saw the crowd and asked Philip, where he could buy bread to feed the multitude. There are several theories as to why Jesus asked Philip this question. Some say it is because Philip was from that region and was familiar with the area in which they were. The answer, lies in verse six. Jesus was testing his faith. The scripture declares that Jesus already knew what he would do. I relate this to a parent calling you into question about something that you have said or done, even though they already know the answer, they just want to see if you are going to tell the truth. They already know the truth. They are testing your truthfulness, character and