How well do you know Jesus Christ? You may be tempted to say: “Pretty well. I understand that he is more than a great teacher or leader. I believe (without fully understanding) that he is God, become man for my salvation. I know he came into this world to die for sinners, myself included. I’ve been studying the Bible a pretty long time, so I have a relatively good idea who Jesus is.” Mark’s account of Jesus’ interaction with his disciples (Mark 8:1–21) pushes you to re-evaluate how well you think you know him.
Watch out for the wrong leaven. The Pharisees demanded a sign. Jesus has just performed another miracle of feeding a multitude, this time with seven loaves and a few small fish. There are obvious parallels with the feeding of the 5,000 (Mark 6:30–44), but also differences. This feeding apparently takes place in Gentile Decapolis. (His compassion here, verse 2, extends beyond Israel, as the healing miracles in Mark 7 indicate.) It is Jesus who initiates the plans for a meal, and the disciples are deterred, not just by the cost, but by the lack of places to buy food. The Pharisees had no interest in Jesus as their Messiah. Rather they demanded a sign, perhaps reflecting Deuteronomy 13 and 18, but in the spirit of Mark 3:22ff., where any sign, even casting out evil spirits, is attributed to the devil. The “request” is a testing, reflecting language used of Satan in the temptation of Jesus. Jesus’ refusal, verses 11–13, includes him sighing (for the second time in a few verses) and reflecting on “this generation.” The term is used twice in verse 12, and seems to contrast the world generally with the disciples. The demand of the Pharisees reflected a broader attitude towards Christ, and attitude that would ultimately force the crucifixion of Jesus. Rather than continue an unprofitable discussion, Jesus leaves with his disciples in a boat. Jesus leaves the questioners, and embarks with the twelve.
“Given the number of remarkable events already recorded in Mark’s gospel, some at least of which should have been known to these Pharisees, it is not easy to see what more they required, but perhaps they had not yet personally witnessed any of the miracles, and were not prepared to trust to hearsay. It must be remembered, too, that the scribes in 3:22 did not doubt the occurrence of Jesus’ exorcisms, but attributed them to demonic rather than to divine power. For them, even admitted miracles needed some authenticating sign to show that they were ‘from heaven’…. Coming from the Pharisees, the request denotes not a readiness to be convinced, but an excuse for refusing to respond to the clear evidence already available in Jesus’ teaching and ministry.”
(R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NIGTC,pages 311–312
With this boat trip, Mark is drawing to a close the public ministry of Jesus in Galilee. He is going to focus on Jesus’ progression towards Jerusalem to suffer and die.
On that trip Jesus warns his disciples, beware of the yeast of unbelief. About the time that the disciples discover the irony of having spent time handing out bread to 4,000 and collecting seven baskets of remnants, they had brought only one loaf with them on the boat, Jesus begins to talk to them about leaven, about yeast. He warns against the leaven of the Pharisees, and somewhat surprisingly, that of Herod. Both shared an interest in signs while being opposed to Jesus. But Jesus is focusing, not on the crowds, but on his disciples. Yeast is a minor ingredient in making bread, but the small amount used permeates the dough, and is crucial to successful baking. Jesus is warning about an attitude of unbelief, but the disciples don’ “get it.” They can’t get beyond talking about a loaf of bread. What is the yeast? A little bit of unbelief. It has an infectious, dangerous, quality. A little of that attitude leads to demanding a sign from Jesus (setting self up as the judge). It leads to a self-centeredness, an inability to recognize the majesty of the Savior present with them. It comes across in discontent. Some of that attitude infected the deaf man whom Jesus had healed. Even while Mark focuses on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, he will recount the failures of the disciples to recognize their Savior. If the disciples, constantly accompanying Jesus and hearing his teaching, needed that warning, how much more do you and I, who may think we know him.
“Sometimes we think that only tragedy of major proportions could create hardness of heart and spiritual blindness in our lives. Jesus teaches his disciples otherwise. Here too little bread was a sufficient cause to show just how hard their hearts and how blind their spiritual understanding could be. Unbelief is like leaven: small, but influential; apparently insignificant, but all-pervasive in its influence.”
Sinclair B. Ferguson, Let’s Study Mark, p. 123
So Jesus challenges them (and you), asking, do you still not understand? Appreciate the way that Jesus reveals himself. Jesus rebukes the disciples for their hard-heartedness. He points out that their eyes and ears had failed to see and hear. Jesus echoes language of Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 12. And this passage is bracketed between miracles of healing the senses. Jesus asks them how many baskets they had picked up after Jesus used the five loaves to feed the 5,000. (Twelve). How many basketfuls after feeding the 4,000? (Seven). Here they are, arguing, blaming one another, over the failure to bring more than one loaf–and they forget that the one who fed the multitudes is there with them.
Trust the Savior, who is God’s ultimate provision for you. The questions Jesus asks push the disciples to reflect on who it is that is with them. If he has compassion on the crowds and feeds them, is he going to be uncaring about them? (Did the question asked in another boat come to mind: Don’t you care if we perish?) Jesus is drawing his disciples away from their worried discussion with one another about bread and to himself. Rather than the unbelief of the Pharisees and Herod (warnings which the disciples and we need), Jesus calls the them and you to trustful contentment. Mark’s Gospel is pointing you towards understanding who Jesus really is. Following two miracles of feeding, two encounters with the Pharisees over food, and two healings (deaf and blind), Peter makes his great confession. Mark is making a point that doubtless he had heard Peter make — such a confession does not have its origins in man. You need the healing, enlivening power of Christ to recognize who he is, what his work in your place is, and to live in quiet trust in him.
Appreciate the sweeping claims Jesus makes. Understand who he is. Understand with your mind, your heart, and your life. Serve him with all that you are.