Mark 8: 11 – 21
Who Forgot Their Lunch?
11 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him. 12 But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.” 13 And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side. 14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. 15 Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have no bread.” 17 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still[b] hardened? 18 Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” 20 “Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?” And they said, “Seven.” 21 So He said to them, “How is it you do not understand?
If we research the other three Gospels we find out that originally Matthew commented on this teaching of our Lord, so let’s see what he has to say also.
Matthew 16:1-12, “Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. 5 Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” 7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.” 8 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? 9 Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? 10 Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? 11 How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ had just visited the 10 predominate Gentile cities around the Sea of Galilee. Here He was well received while in contrast the religious leaders who should have been overjoyed at finally having Adoni Yahweh’s promised ‘Anointed One’. No, their thoughts, words, and actions caused constant attacks against the Messiah.
If you remember some of our past studies these religious phonies had criticized the Lord Jesus for allowing His disciples to eat bread without having gone through the religious ritual hand washing. We will see in fact our Adoni Yeshua – our Lord Jesus Christ, now taking the opportunity of pointing out that in fact the Pharisees themselves were for one thing eating bread with unwashed hands because their hearts are defiled and that the bread that they do eat is defiled because it is filled will leaven.
11 Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him. 12 But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.”
Do not feel sorry for these Pharisees. They are not coming to our Lord Jesus Christ as ‘seekers’. Their purpose in asking for a sign is not in order that they might be convinced that our Master Is truly the Son of God. No, they keep asking for miracles so that perhaps our Lord will not be able to do one which will demonstrate to the people that He Is a phony. They are testing Him and hoping to expose Him as just another imposter. No matter what type or kind of ‘sign’ our Precious Holy God would give to these evil men, do you really think they would accept them? No, they would give a spin to what happened such as when they accused our Lord of doing the miracles in collusion with Satan.
We have to stop and think for a moment. Here we read in the Gospel of Mark that our Lord had said that there would not be any ‘signs’ given – ‘ 12 But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.” Yet in what we have just read in the Gospel of Matthew He will give them a sign or miracle - 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.’ So, how do we explain the differences?
We are going to see in a moment that our Precious Holy Lord has already given everyone a sign or miracle as He fed the 4,000 and 5,000 yet that was not good enough. Our Holy God does not win people by signs. They are given to encourage those who are already genuinely seeking and to those who believe. This is the reason for the sign of the prophet Jonah. For believers greatly rejoice in seeing our Lord rise again from the dead. How did the un-believers react. They would not believe that our Holy Lord came back to life from the dead. Remember His warning as He gave the Parable in Luke 16,
19 “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell[a] from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”
13 And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side. 14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. 15 Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have no bread.” 17 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? 18 Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” 20 “Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?” And they said, “Seven.” 21 So He said to them, “How is it you do not understand?”
In counseling people I have become quite aware of various human mental mistakes. If you are computer literate then you can more fully understand my theory. When our Holy God places some situations into our lives we try to figure out the answer to the problem(s). From education, past experience, and observation we have stored into our minds all various data. So, when the problem we try to think of the solution.
Have you ever ‘Goggled’ information requests before? If so, have you ever come up with a ‘no find’ response? The same thing occurs in our personal lives. Our computers, that is, our brains, search all the stored data that we have put into it. Sometimes we do not come up with any answer to the question that we seek relief from. What happens when we cannot find the right means of solving the current crisis? Like the metal computer program, we come up with an alternative possible answer. Just like the disciples have done here in the boats. They hear our Lord say, ‘13 And He left them, and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side. 14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. 15 Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have no bread.”
Because verse 14’s information is given to us before our Lord’s response we assume that the disciples must have had been discussing this problem beforehand. I do not believe so. We have to think through the rest of the passage to see our Precious Holy Spirit’s leading. Remember, the previous debates our Lord Jesus was having with the Pharisees. They wanted a sign to try to expose Him as a fraud to the people. Miracles were for those seeking God and for those who already believed to build up their faith. In the boat our Lord Jesus was pondering this interaction with the religious phonies and He was worried about His disciples receiving future attacks by these enemies of the faith, so He speaks out -17 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? 18 Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” 20 “Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?” And they said, “Seven.” 21 So He said to them, “How is it you do not understand?”
The enemy then and even now attempts to confuse us as to our Lord’s great work in our lives. For all our lives as you and I both know, our Great El Olam – The Everlasting God – has Faithfully been with us protecting and blessing us. However, when a new problem comes our way, our sinful being with the help of Satan tries to convince us that God has forsaken us and that we have to find our own solutions to fix the problems. Why is it that we forget all the help in times past that we have received from the hands of our Holy Master? We need to write down and keep handy all the individual miracles that our Lord has done for us, so when we experience something new hit us, we can turn to our list that shows our Great King’s help and then rely on Him helping us again.
This is why I believe our Lord asked the disciples to review the miracles that He had just previously done regarding the feeding of the multitude. Sadly, his question went straight over their heads. May we pray that our Lord will help us turn to Him for all things. Amen.
