The parallel account in Matthew 15:30-21 adds:

Both accounts are in fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 35:5-6

The location of these miraculous signs and wonders was in the region of the Decapolis.

· The Decapolis then as being located on the Eastern and Southeastern shores of Galilee.

· Decapolis literally means “ten cities.” Although the inhabitants of these cities were sophisticated according to the standard of Roman-Greco culture; they were also pagan cities.

· They worshipped the fertility gods and pigs were their sacred animals.

· The inhabitants of the Decapolis were believed to be the descendants of the seven pagan nations of the Canaan (Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites), which Joshua had driven out of the land during the time of the conquest to the region east and southeast of Galilee.

Many of the “ten cities” of the Decapolis were founded by former Greek soldiers who settled in the newly conquered lands.

Alexander the Great had a mission: He didn’t want to simply “conquer the known world”, he wanted the whole world to be under the influence of Greek culture in the areas of religion, language, philosophy, political structure, and values.

It fell to the faithful Jews to resist these cultural institutions and the values they brought. As a result, the Pharisees adopted increasingly detailed laws to remain faithful to Torah; the Zealots resisted Hellenism more and more violently; and the Essenes withdrew into isolated communities. By contrast, the Sadducees, while maintaining the prescribed Temple ceremonies, often became as Hellenistic as the pagans.

Hellenism, at its core, was humanism. It glorified human beings above all other creatures and portrayed the human body as the ultimate in physical beauty. Truth, according to Greek philosophy, could be known only through the human mind, and pleasure was a crucial goal in life.

The followers of Jesus today still wrestle with the humanistic worldview.

· In the process of struggling against its seductive power, some Christians become pharisaic; others escape to small, "safe" communities; some even resort to politics or violence.

· But Jesus wants us to follow his example. He sailed across the sea and confronted evil on its own turf to bring his message of the Kingdom of God to the Hellenistic Decapolis.

The feeding of the 4,000 is a different miraculous multiplication of food then that found in Mark, chapter 6, where Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 on the Mount of Beatitudes.

· While Jews had been the recipients of the first miraculous meal, the crowd fed this time in the region of the Decapolis included many Gentiles.

· The two miraculous feedings emphasize that the kingdom will be made up of both Jews and Gentiles.

The disciples still didn’t get it. They too did not understand the significance of the miraculous feeding of the mixed crowd of 4,000 Gentile and Jews.

This feeding of the 5,000 is recorded in all of the gospels. It was when Jesus fed a Jewish multitude. The twelve baskets of leftovers represented the twelve tribes of Israel.

The feeding of the 4,000 was performed in the midst of Gentiles. The seven baskets of leftovers represent the seven pagan nations of Canaan, for whom Jesus had also come.

If you were to go to the Sea of Galilee today, you would be amazed at how close Jesus' area of ministry was to the pagan Decapolis.

In the same way our field of souls could be found next door or across the street, in our schools or on our jobs.

Jesus did not avoid the people living in darkness.

He went to them and pierced the darkness of their sinful lifestyle with the light of God's message of salvation and love.

He left the familiarity of his community and confronted evil on its own turf.

Such a display of God's power still can and does happen today, when we confront the darkness in our society with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

· People today are empty, in search of something to fill the emptiness.

· God has challenged us to confront evil with the goodness of God because Grace always wins!