Mark 8:13-21
Introduction: We have had a series of train accidents
this year, thankfully most involved derailments of freight trains, even so,
there has been loss of life. A derailment is one thing, but when a crash
happens between a train and a motor vehicle, it is usually devastating. One of
my walking routes takes me to a train crossing, and the flashing lights,
ringing bell, and the bar that lowers across the road, and across the
sidewalk, leave no doubt when a train is coming! In some areas it is more
common to be warned only by a sign that says, “Stop, look, listen” at the
crossings. Despite the warning, every year there are accidents and fatalities, often
because drivers don’t heed the warning signs right in front of them. Stop,
look, and listen: It is not just a suggestion, it can be life or death! What is true of railroad crossings is also
true of living the Christian Life. We can make a trainwreck of our lives if we
are not on guard against the perils of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Yes,
our eternity is secure, but our witness can be destroyed. We need to be sure
that we slow down enough in life to listen to what God has revealed and
to hear the voice of the Master. God is real… and He has spoken! That truth
should be enough to cause us to “stop, look, and listen”!
As we see history unfolding
around us, in the world, in our nation, in our city, in our church, and in our
individual lives, we also need to watch, to look for the hand of God. He is the
Lord of history, and in a real sense all of history is HIS STORY. In the Gospel
of Mark, we see Jesus revealing himself through His works and His words. Some,
like the Pharisees, for the most part had long made up their minds about Jesus.
For the crowds, for some individuals that He will yet meet in Galilee before that final trip to Jerusalem, and for the disciples, the revelation of truth
continues. Jesus was calling the people to repent, and believe the Gospel, the
Good News of God. As Mark tells the story of Jesus he is asking his readers to
consider who Jesus is, to think about why He came, and to ponder what
it really means to follow Him. This will be another “private class” (that we
get to listen in on) as Jesus gets in the boat with His disciples.
Context (13): Jesus “left them” [the Pharisees] in their unbelief and moved on,
continuing the training of the disciples…
13 And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other
side.
Mark gives us two important details to set the context for the exchange
that follows. First, Jesus leaves the unbelieving Pharisees and gets in
the boat with the disciples. He knew the unbelief of the leaders and understood
their motivation in asking of a sign, He would not be manipulated. He also
knew that He had more work to do with the disciples before His departure.
They needed to be prepared for the ministry that would be entrusted to them,
including learning to avoid the subtle “shifts” in attention and vision that
can lead us astray, and to stay focused on the Truth that leads to life…
The BIG Idea: We must be aware of things that can
disrupt our spiritual growth and be intentional about seeking God’s direction.
We’ll see that we need to 1) Beware of unbelief; 2) Be aware
of our spiritual sensibility; and 3) Be patient… the Christian life is a
walk, and God isn’t finished with us yet!
I. Beware of Unbelief: The Leaven of the Pharisees and
the Leaven of Herod (14-15).
14 Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with
them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of
the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
In a class at a Christian elementary
school down south the teacher asked, “What
is false doctrine?” A little boy’s hand shot up to answer. “False doctorin’ is when the doctor gives the
wrong stuff to people who are sick.” Although he confused doctrine with doctorin’ he arrived at a good
definition! Jesus came to heal the lost souls of fallen humans – by his stripes we are healed. People
need the truth, sound doctrine, to heal their sin-sick souls! Mark has been
teaching us who Jesus is, why He came, and what it means to follow Him. It’s
clear that the disciples are still learning! Ok, class in session!
Verse 14 gives the setting,
the disciples have forgotten bread. Jesus knows their thoughts, and He seizes
the moment to teach them. He calls them to be on guard for something. He uses two
verbs connected to the idea of “watching”: “Look!
Watch!” Some of our English translations separate the verbs, but they are
together in the Greek text. The ESV says “Watch out, beware…”
That repetition gives the idea of keeping diligent, careful watch. Like in
Gethsemane, in Mark 14:34, “And he said to them, ‘My soul is very
sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.’" How
did that go? They fell asleep! Let’s take seriously the call to stay alert. But
stay alert for what?
Jesus repeats the word
“leaven.” He doesn’t say “the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod,” but rather
“the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” We know that
usually (but not always) “leaven” is used as a symbol of sin. Just as a little
leaven works through a lump of dough and “infects” the whole thing, a little
sin, willful compromise, can permeate our whole life as an individual believer,
or even our church. We know the Pharisees were very religious. But they held up
their tradition even above Scripture. Jesus confronted them more harshly than
any other group. In Mt 23:27-28 he says,
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of
dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but
within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Here in Mark, just in the previous chapter, Jesus sternly rebuked the
Pharisees and taught the disciples that God was not concerned with what we eat
or drink, but with our hearts (Mk 7:1-23). Then, after miracles of healing and miraculously
feeding a gentile multitude, they came across the lake and the Pharisees where
there, waiting to “test” Him. Jesus would not be manipulated. So having just
left the Pharisees and gotten in the boat with the disciples, He is warning
them not to let the hypocrisy and legalism and pride of the Pharisees begin to
seep into their hearts. They needed to beware, to watch diligently. Like the
proverb says, “Above all else, guard your
heart, your whole life depends on it…” (Prov 4:23). He told them to watch
out for the leaven of the Pharisees, and the leaven of Herod…
We know from earlier in this
gospel that Herod was worldly, carnal, focused on his power and the comforts in
his position. He too was prideful and wanted to look good to the people around
him. In fact, to save face, he would even take a life. Just in chapter 6 Mark
recounts the scene when Herodias’ daughter danced before him and his friends,
and, seemingly trying to impress, Herod made a foolish oath that resulted in
him ordering the death of John the Baptist! Jesus is warning his disciples, an
us, not to let pride, self-centeredness, worldliness, the leaven of Herod,
start creeping into our lives! There is an old Arab proverb, “Do not let the
Camel’s nose in the tent, his body will soon follow!” Both the Pharisees
and Herod showed their unbelief in their response to Jesus and His teaching. The
Big Idea is that we too need to watch and be aware of things that can disrupt
our spiritual growth, and be intentional about seeking God’s direction..
II. Be aware of your spiritual
sensibility: Jesus corrects his followers
(16-18). After close to three years, we might expect the disciples to be more
discerning! Do they yet see?
16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no
bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of
this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no
bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and
having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?
The disciples, like us, were a work in
progress. More than once in this gospel he has asked them, “Don’t you yet understand?” So be
encouraged! They had the Master of all teachers. They had been walking with
Jesus for close to three years at this point and they were still not always
getting what He said! All of us, no
matter how long we’ve been believers, are also a work in progress. Someone
said, “The church is not a gallery where
we exhibit the finest of Christians. No, it is a school where we educate and
encourage imperfect Christians.” So, the disciples missed what Jesus was
saying, but He asks some rhetorical questions to “jar” their minds, and maybe,
to convict their hearts.
Seek to understand His words. [Excursus] One of the challenging things
about the teaching of Jesus was how extensively He used figurative language.
From simple metaphors or similes, to extended parables, the things that Jesus
taught were not superficial, they required thought and consideration. He wanted to provoke the minds of His hearers
and draw them in, engaging their minds in the word pictures He used as they
pondered the meaning of His words. Do you remember when the prophet Nathan came
to David and told him a story in 2 Samuel 12:1-9,
"There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other
poor. 2 The rich man had very
many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little
ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him
and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and
lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the
rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare
for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared
it for the man who had come to him."
5 Then David's anger was
greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD
lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, 6 and he shall restore the lamb
fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity." 7 Nathan said to David, "You
are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I anointed you king over
Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. 8 And I gave you your master's
house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel
and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much
more. 9 Why have you despised
the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down
Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and
have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
Nathan was not talking about lambs, rather he was using that story to
paint a picture that drew David in, and in this case, exposed his sin and
condemned him by his own words! And he was exposed and convicted! Consequently,
David repented and turned to God for mercy. Word pictures are powerful and
they were something that Jesus used extensively. He is doing so right here
in our passage in Mark 8.
The disciples forgot “bread”
and they immediately were fixated on that. They heard Jesus’ warning about
“leaven” and thought, “Leaven? Bread! It’s because we forgot the bread!” He wasn’t
giving the disciples a baking tip! They
were completely focused on the literal, superficial meaning of His words. It is
almost like Nicodemus in John 3:4, “How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's
womb and be born?” Born again Nick, born spiritually! And this scene in
Mark was not a cooking class on the water, nor was he talking about the fact
that they didn’t bring enough bread for lunch!
How did Mark 8 begin? Jesus had just fed 4000 men with seven loaves of
bread, what were the disciples worried about? They should have been focused on
what these miracles revealed about Jesus! Who is Jesus? They are beginning to see, later
in this chapter Peter will make a great profession of faith, and then tries to
rebuke Jesus, showing he does not understand fully who He is and why He came!
The questions Jesus asks here
are pointed ones, they were intended as a serious call to self-examination. He
had asked similar questions before (cf. 4:9,23; 7:16). Here He directly asks
the disciples, 1. Having eyes do you not see…? 2. …and having ears do you not hear? 3. And
do you not remember? Jesus had just confronted the unbelief of the Pharisees, and now He was
dealing with the “baby faith” of His disciples!
Is it coincidental that
immediately before this scene Jesus opens the ears of a deaf man, and
immediately after, He gives sight to a blind man? By the way, the blind man
comes to see in a couple of steps, maybe a picture of the disciples’ baby steps
toward faith? Peter makes a grand confession that Jesus is the Messiah (8:29),
and then shortly after tries to rebuke Jesus (32)! They have a way to go, but
then so do we, right?
Seek
to discern His actions, as He providentially guides you through life. We
see in the Gospel of Mark the patience of Jesus as He guides His disciples,
teaching them and preparing them for the mission that lay ahead. He continues
to guide His followers, that is us, through His Word, through the inward
conviction of the Spirit, and through the circumstances of life. God is not
only interested in our future, but He is present and active in our lives here
and now, preparing us for the future we will have with Him in eternity. We must
be aware of things that can disrupt our spiritual growth and be intentional
about seeking God’s direction.
III. Be Patient: God isn’t
finished with you yet! “…do you not yet understand…”? Do you find hope in that
question? I do, as Jesus reminds them of what He has done, what they should
have already learned, he implies that one day they will see more clearly (18c-21).
And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five
loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you
take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." 20 "And the seven for the
four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?"
And they said to him, "Seven."
21 And he said to them, "Do you not yet
understand?"
Back in v.17 Jesus asked, “Do you not
yet perceive and understand…?” In verse 21 He asks again, “So you not yet understand?” Jesus
referred back to the two miraculous feedings, and to the impossible amount of
leftovers that were collected in both cases. Moses, David, and Elijah had known
God’s miraculous provision in times past, and now One greater than Moses was
here! They experienced God’s presence and power, and now, after leaving behind
the unbelieving Pharisees, they hear Jesus talk about the “leaven of the
Pharisees,” and they can’t get past the superficial, the transitory, “we forgot
to bring bread!” They did “not yet” understand—but that phrase seems to hold
out hope that one day their eyes would be opened, and they would understand!
We see Paul in his letters frequently expressing hope in his readers. Of the
Philippians he said, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a
good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ…”
(Phil 1:6). Though he was surely concerned about the spiritual immaturity in
some of his churches (see I Cor 1-3!). God has chosen to use ordinary,
struggling, imperfect people, as He carries out His plan in the world!
What is God saying to me in
this passage? Lets be careful to stop, look, and
listen… Let’s be aware of things that can disrupt our spiritual growth and be
intentional about seeking God’s direction as we live our lives and carry out
His mission in the world.
What would God have me to do in response to this
passage? The Pharisees’ legalism kept them from
accepting the possibility that Jesus is the Messiah, the long-awaited Rescuer
spoken of in the Scriptures. How could He be the Messiah, if He doesn’t follow
our traditions? Herod was prideful, self-centered, and focused on
maintaining the status quo. His father had tried to kill the infant
Jesus, and he was more concerned that Jesus might be the reincarnation of John
the Baptist than anything else. Like the Pharisees, He was unwilling to humble
himself, recognize his need, and turn to God in repentance and faith. They
thought they could see, but they were blind to the Living Word, the Light of
the World, who stood right in front of them. Before we judge them, or the disciples, we
should be careful to turn the light of the Word on ourselves. Are there are
subtle influences that would creep into my life, and disrupt the fellowship
with God that I long for? Let’s take a moment to bow quietly before Him,
inviting Him to convict, to heal, to change us, from within. The psalmist said “Search me, O
God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any
grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23,24). Might that be our prayer
today. AMEN.
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