Series

Series:Mark#21

October 28, 2007

DON’T YOU GET IT YET?

Mark 8:11-25

Mark 8:11-25 NIV

[11] The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. [12] He sighed deeply and said, "Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it." [13] Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.

[14] The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. [15] "Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."

[16] They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread."

[17] Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? [18] Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? [19] When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"

"Twelve," they replied.

[20] "And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"

They answered, "Seven."

[21] He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

[22] They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. [23] He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?"

[24] He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."

[25] Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

“Don’t you get it yet?” I would bet that most of us have been on one side or the other of that question at different times in our lives. (Maybe both sides!) I was certainly on the receiving end of that question in Latin and Algebra I in high school, and in Hebrew in seminary. I just didn’t get it, no matter how many times the instructor tried to explain it to me. If you have ever had responsibility for training or teaching people at work, or if you are a teacher, then you have almost certainly felt the kind of frustration that leads to saying this to your students, even if you didn’t voice it.

Jesus sounds frustrated to me. His rhetorical questions indicate that He is about fed up with these men who have had every opportunity to “get it”, and still don’t.

In order to see the big picture here, we have to go back to some incidents in the gospel of Mark that we skipped over previously. One is the feeding of the 5,000 in Mark 6 (:34-44). Jesus had taken a short boat trip out in the Sea of Galilee, and when He landed, He was met by a large crowd who had followed Him around the shore. Mark 6:34, “he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. [35] By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. "This is a remote place," they said, "and it's already very late. [36] Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat."

[37] But he answered, "You give them something to eat."

They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"

[38] "How many loaves do you have?" he asked. "Go and see."

When they found out, they said, "Five--and two fish."

[39] Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. [40] So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. [41] Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. [42] They all ate and were satisfied, [43] and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. [44] The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Then in the first part of Mark 8, Jesus feeds another large crowd, this time numbering about 4,000. The accounts of these two miraculous feedings sound very similar to one another, so let me just highlight the similarities: Jesus again mentions His compassion as the motive for wanting to do something for them. Again, He asked His disciples how much food they had on hand, and again it was not nearly enough. They had the people sit down on the ground, and Jesus again miraculously multiplied the little they had and fed the whole group. This time they picked up seven basketfuls of leftovers.

A couple of points emerge from these two miracles that we should notice:

I. Jesus’ Compassion

In both cases, He says that He has compassion on the people. In the first instance, He began teaching them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; they needed spiritual direction, which they were not getting from the Pharisees and teachers of the law. But that kept them out in the remote location too late for them to go into the nearest villages to buy food, so Jesus fed them there. In the second instance, Jesus had been teaching the people for three days (we might think of this like a retreat, or a camp out in the mountains), and they had eaten all the food they had brought with them, and Jesus says He has compassion on them because they are hungry. He feeds them spiritually, and He feeds them physically because of His compassion.

The English word compassion means to feel with someone, and that’s what Jesus was doing. He was feeling the lack in these people’s lives, and it moved Him to action. I’m praying that God will give us all the compassion of Jesus for the hurting people around us, and that when we truly feel their suffering with them, we, too, will be moved to action. We never want our service to people to be motivated out of a sense of obligation, or duty. We want to do it out of love, and the only place to get that is from the One who is love in His very essence. The Apostle John wrote, “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). It is His love, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that gives us the ability to love even unlovely, needy people. Lord, give us this love! Help us see people the way you do, and to feel your heart of compassion for them!

A second observation from these two miracles is that

II. Our Resources Are Not Sufficient but Are Necessary

A. Not sufficient

In both of these feeding miracles, Jesus asks the disciples how much food they have, and in both cases it is insufficient. Five loaves of bread and two fish in one case, and seven loaves and a few small fish in the other. Not even close to being enough for crowds of several thousand. A comparison would be this amount of bread for all of us here. In this worship service, we have roughly 5% of the number of people Jesus fed in the first miracle, and I have here one quarter of a loaf of bread, which is proportional to the amount they had. You can add a couple of anchovies if you want, but it is still not going to be enough for all of us here to even have a taste.

Why do you think Jesus asked the disciples how much food they had? In the first situation, He even suggested that they give the people something to eat. He was forcing them as bluntly as possible to recognize that they did not have enough resources for the need at hand. OK, let’s take stock. How much do we have? Could we make it stretch? No way at all! So it’s all up to Jesus. If He doesn’t do it, it isn’t going to happen. They are completely dependent on Him in these two situations.

It is important that we be trying to do something that is beyond us. If we only attempt things that we know we can already do, we will not need God, and we will try to do it in our own strength. That will never bring Him glory; it will only give us a fat head. What are you doing that will surely fail without the supernatural power of God? What great work has He called you to that is beyond you? If you don’t know, ask Him what He wants you to do. I guarantee that when He gives you an assignment, it will be too big for you to do without His help. He wants you to be dependent on Him, so that He will get the credit when things go unbelievably well.

B. Necessary

But notice that in both of these cases where Jesus fed people, He took what the disciples had, and multiplied it. He made it enough, when it wasn’t enough. By themselves, what they had was woefully inadequate; but when they put it in Jesus’ hands, He made it more than enough. So what’s the lesson for us?

Our resources are not sufficient, but they are apparently necessary in the master plan of God. If Jesus can multiply a sack lunch into enough food for 5,000 people and have twelve basketfuls left over, don’t you think He could make the bread out of nothing? I’m sure He could. He could do all the things He wants done now, like feed the hungry, and heal the sick, and teach the ignorant, and provide water for thirsty people in drought-stricken deserts, and save people without us, but He gives us a part to play in it all. He chooses, out of love for us, to use what we have to offer. He gives us an important role to play in His work on earth. Our part is not enough, but in the plan of God, it is necessary.

Every one of you has something to offer to Jesus. You have a talent, an ability, you are good at something; many of you are very talented people—you have several loaves of bread and several fish. Your resources may seem to you like a squashed baloney sandwich in a paper sack, but no matter. In the hands of Jesus, it will be enough. Give it to Jesus, and ask Him to multiply it until it is more than enough for the work He is calling you to do.

III. Hard Hearts

So after He had fed the 4,000, some Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. They asked Him for a sign from heaven, but He refused, got back in the boat with the disciples, and they started back across the lake. On the way, Jesus said, Mark 8:[15] "Be careful. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod." [16] They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread." [They had only brought one loaf with them from all the leftovers.] [17] Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? [18] Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? [19] When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" "Twelve," they replied. [20] "And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" They answered, "Seven."

[21] He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

He reminds them: Look—I fed 5,000 people, and we had twelve basketfuls left over. I fed 4,000 people and we had seven basketfuls left over. And now you think that my comment about the yeast of the Pharisees is because I’m worried we don’t have enough bread on board? Are you kidding me? Aren’t you paying attention? Don’t you get it yet?

No, they don’t, and Jesus says that’s because their hearts were hard. The word translated hardened (< poroo) means stony, petrified. A heart of stone is impervious even to the facts and plain evidence of their senses. For them, seeing was not believing. They saw the miracles, but they didn’t get it—they didn’t connect the dots from what they had seen with their own eyes, so they never came to the conclusion those signs were pointing to.

We are much like the disciples, aren’t we? We have eyes, but we fail to see the implications of what we see. For example, we see that we have bread on our tables in incredible abundance—with leftovers much of the time, and more in the freezer and the cupboard, but we don’t see that we can trust God to provide all we need, so we worry and fret about not having enough to buy some toy we want, or enough to retire on, etc. We see the people around us who love us, even when we don’t deserve it, but we don’t see that the God of grace has put them in our lives as expressions of His love for us.

We have ears and hear the Scripture taught every week, in sermons, and Bible Studies, and on the radio; but we fail to hear the full impact of the truth behind the words we hear. We know this is true, because every once in a while, we do get it—the Scripture crashes in on us in power and life, and we see so much more in it than we usually do. It comes as a flash of insight, or a pang of conviction, or a wave of joy that washes over us as we contemplate God’s glory and beauty in the Scripture. But much of the time, our eyes are dim, and our hearing is fuzzy.

Jesus asks, “Don’t you remember?” Many of us have many years of walking with God, of experiencing His faithfulness and grace to us every day, and yet, like the disciples, we don’t remember those times, so when the next crisis comes, we panic, as though God had never brought us through a hard time, as though we had been abandoned in every crisis in the past. This faulty memory, Jesus says, is not a function of old age; the disciples were probably in their 30s, as He was. No, this is a moral problem, a hard heart. We just don’t get it.

What does Jesus want them to get?

III. Expect the Supernatural! Eph 3:20

He wants them to expect the supernatural. Even if He had been referring to the fact that they only had one loaf of bread between them, that would not have been a problem for the One who can feed so many with so little. In chapter 6, the disciples were “completely amazed” that Jesus walked on water, even though He had healed many people and cast out many demons by that time. He’s saying, Connect the dots, guys! I can do this! You ought to expect the supernatural when you are around me.

So we are facing some trial—maybe an operation coming up, or a big test, or trouble with the parents, or our elderly parents are failing, and we get nervous and anxious about it. We go into crisis mode, when we ought to be expecting Jesus to show up in a miraculous fashion, take the little that we have to offer in that situation, and turn it into more than enough.

What are you facing right now that troubles you? At the end of our service, we will have a time for prayer ministry, where you can come up to the front and pray with someone about whatever it is that is on your heart. As you do, I want to encourage you to expect the supernatural. Eph 3:20 says that God is able to do far more than we can ever ask, or even imagine. Remember how Jesus stilled the storm. Remember how He fed 5,000, and then 4,000, with just a few loaves of bread. Remember how He healed people. Don’t have a hard, stony, unbelieving heart, but believe that God can do whatever it takes to meet your need.

And then, right after they got across the lake, they came to Bethsaida, where we have a very strange miracle.

IV. An Acted Parable Mark 8:22-25

Mark 8:22, “…some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. [23] He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’

[24] He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’

[25] Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” What’s that all about? Given the power of Jesus to heal that He has demonstrated so many times before this, it makes us wonder, why does this healing come in two stages? Did Jesus not have the ability to heal him the first time? Surely He did! Then what was the point of this particular two-stage process at this particular time?

This healing was an acted parable. The healing of the blind man in stages parallels the stages the disciples were going through in gaining their spiritual sight. It was a portrayal of the disciples’ spiritual understanding which was coming slowly. They “saw” spiritual reality, but not completely. They couldn’t connect the dots yet; they didn’t get it yet. But it was coming. Each time they saw a miracle, their eyes were opened a little more.

In Mark 8:18, Jesus asks, “Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?” They are spiritually blind like this man, and deaf like the deaf man Jesus healed just a little while before. The spiritual lives of the disciples are parallel to the physical limitations of the people Jesus healed. And just as this blind man was healed in stages, so the disciples were growing spiritually in stages.

Look at the process they went through after this.

V. The Pilgrims’ Progress

A. Peter gets it! (sort of) Mark 8:29; Matthew 16:17

Just after this healing, Jesus has the conversation with the disciples about who He is, and Peter comes up with the profound declaration: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” That’s exactly right, but notice that Jesus tells him, Peter, you didn’t get this on your own. The Father revealed it to you (Matthew 16:17). He gave you the spiritual insight to see the truth about who I am.

So then it looks like the disciples have gotten it; they finally know who Jesus really is. They have connected all the dots and come to the right conclusion.

But then, they don’t, again.

B. They still don’t get it Mark 8:33; 9:14-24; 11:21

Because right after Peter’s powerful declaration, Jesus begins to teach them that He is going to have to go to Jerusalem, where He will suffer and die, and Peter won’t hear of it. He rebukes Jesus for even saying such a thing! So Jesus has to put him in his place: Mark 8:33, "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Peter still doesn’t fully “see”. He’s still in process, like the blind man in stages.

In Mark 9:14-24, Jesus encounters a man whose boy was tormented by demons. The disciples tried to cast it out, but could not. Jesus responds with, Mark 9:19, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." You can hear the frustration in His voice again, the same frustration He expressed when they were in the boat talking about the lack of bread. They are still an “unbelieving generation”.

In Mark 11:21, they were still amazed that the fig tree Jesus cursed withered (11:21). Why were they still surprised at that? After all they had seen Him do. But their spiritual sight was coming in stages.

Even after the resurrection, after they had seen Him alive, touched Him, eaten meals with Him, heard Him teach, noticed how He could appear and disappear at will, and pass through locked doors, even then, Matthew tells us, “some doubted” (Matt 28:17).

And then finally, they get it for good at Pentecost.

C. They get it for good

When the Holy Spirit came on them at Pentecost, that did it. After that, there was no more doubting. Then they were able to see spiritual reality so clearly that they stood firm in their faith even in the face of severe persecution and death.

VI. Keep Growing

What’s the point for us? This whole process Jesus took the disciples through is an exhortation for us to keep growing—and an encouragement to believe that we can. We are not stuck with our current grasp of God. Paul says in 1 Cor. 13:12 (NLT), “Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now.” He’s referring to the time of the return of Christ, when all of history is consummated, and all things are unified under God. But between now and then, we can look forward to getting past the “people who look like trees” stage, to the place where we can see Him much more clearly than we do. Don’t stop growing! Keep learning, keep pressing in, keep seeking His face. Expect the supernatural when Jesus is around.