Do You Not Yet Understand

Introduction

Last week we saw Jesus heal a deaf man and in that account we saw the compassion of Jesus, his prayerful attitude, and his willingness to do the will of the Father whatever it is. That gave us a greater idea about the identity of Jesus which has been the focus of Part 1 of this series and we are quickly approaching Part 2.

Tonight we are going to go through a series of three connected accounts and the storyline may sound familiar because it follows a pattern that we have seen through the book. It starts with the miraculous feeding of a great multitude then moves to conflict with the Pharisees and ends with the disciples not fully understanding. It gives us this almost repeat section that has different stories because it is pointing to a change that is coming soon.

Lets read the entirety of this story then begin to look at it a bit more closely.

Mark 8:1–21 ESV

In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 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? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 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.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Here we have a familiar story of a miraculous feeding of a great crowd. Many of the details of this resemble the first time that Jesus did it but there are enough differences that we know it is a separate occurence. After he performed this miracle he travels some and comes to where the Pharisees were and they ask to see a sign. They had already seen several signs and they said that they were demonic, not to mention in a nearby region Jesus had just performed quite the sign. Because of their hardness of heart Jesus left that region to go somewhere else, while traveling Jesus pronounces a warning to his disciples and all they are worried about is their next meal, Jesus just showed then that they never have to worry about food and was teaching them a spiritual lesson but they were to concerned with the physical.

These three occurences reveal things about the people that Jesus is dealing with but we can also see glimpses of ourselves in them. We too often look for the wrong thing and ignore whatever it is that we are looking for. We to often concern ourselves with physical things while neglecting spiritual things. We are often taken care of by God yet don’t think anything of it.

Tonight I want to travel through this narrative and think about what fallacy you find yourself in, maybe there is more than one. I also want to think about the character of Jesus to each of the groups as we continue to understand more deeply who Jesus is.

Pray

The Second Great Feeding

This section opens up with another miracle where Jesus feeds a large crowd with a little food. It is often forgotten that Jesus did this twice but there is enough difference in details that we can be sure that these are two separate occurrences.

We see the plan to feed them begins with Jesus showing compassion of the people. This has been a theme through this part of Mark, Jesus is a compassionate person. In his compassion he desires to feed the people so that they can safely travel home. This is a crucial moment in the story because we see how the disciples respond. The first time a great crowd was fed the disciples think Jesus is crazy and say that there is no way that they can afford to feed all of the people even if they could find enough food. Here they have a little bit of a different reaction, they ask how. Jesus responds to this question by asking what they have and it was enough.

The disciples at this point knew it could be done, they no longer thought of this as crazy, they just wanted to know how. This shows growth in the lives of the disciples. They are beginning to learn the power of Jesus. Even though there is growth there they still lack much in understanding but we see that they are on the right path.

We can also think about the people that are fed. How much do they know of what is going on? Your just sitting there then Peter walks by and gives you some bread and fish and says it’s from Jesus, you say nice thanks then return to conversation. Not knowing that Jesus was providing this bread from just seven loaves. This is obviously hypothetical, the people there might have known exactly what Jesus was doing. Either way though we are sometimes the same, Jesus is providing for us yet we don’t see it or maybe forget it after just a little time.

The Pharisees

From where the great feeding took place Jesus travels back to Dalmanutha. Here he encounters his friends the Pharisees and they argue and ask for a sign from him. This is the group that has been close to Jesus the majority of his ministry, you can believe that they saw some pretty amazing signs. In fact they even saw some and said that it is by the prince of demons that he does these things. This isn’t to mention that he just fed 4000 with seven loaves and a few fish, surely word of this had already traveled. There were no shortage of signs for them but they refused to pay attention to them.

This brought Jesus great distress, we see that he sighed deeply just as he did a few passages back. He was compassionate towards them yet saddened at their lack of understanding. He truly wanted them to believe.

As we go through life there are often instances where we wish so deeply for Jesus to speak and we never hear him yet he might as well yelling at us. That is what is happening here, Jesus is yelling but they do not hear. The things that Jesus does are often obvious to us yet we overlook them time after time. We need to work to see what Jesus is doing and know it is him.

The Disciples

This section concludes with the disciples. After the hardness of the Pharisees Jesus gets back into the boat and decides to go somewhere else. During the trip Jesus goes to teach the disciples there with him a spiritual lesson but all that they are concerned with is that they forgot to buy food. The man that just fed 4000 people while you watched is sitting here teaching you a spiritual lesson and you are concerned about not having enough food. To this Jesus says do you not yet understand. We saw from the first of the section that their understanding is growing but it still lacks in so many ways.

Jesus desired to instruct the disciples in the way that they should go.

How often do we let our physical desires get in the way of our spiritual lives. We let the things of this world cloud our vision of the things of God. This can be simple or it can be complex. For example in my morning routine if I take extra time reading my emails or stay in the warm shower a little longer or maybe eat breakfast which I rarely do it will take away from my devotion time. Simple things that are not inherently bad can take you away and distract you from the things of God. For you maybe it is time management, maybe it is specific sins, maybe it is laziness. Whatever it is don’t let it distract you from the speaking of the Lord. He is capable of great things and there is no need to worry about the simple things because he has that taken care of rather worry about the spiritual things.

Conclusion

The end of this story is actually quite surprising. These followers of Jesus see a great miracle where Jesus feeds a multitude then there are people that want to see a sign and the followers of Jesus just saw a pretty good one and it ends with these followers of Jesus concerned with not having enough food. It wasn’t that long ago they saw Jesus provide for thousands.

Do you not yet understand? If you don’t that is ok but I ask that you seek understanding. Jesus came and lived a compassionate life here on earth and in his greatest act of compassion he dies paying the price for our sins. With all the compassion that we see Jesus display it should be no surprise that he would do such a thing for us. The thing is will you hear this and keep wandering aimlessly. The different people in this story heard and saw some of the most amazing things and they didn’t let it change them. We will see in a few weeks were there is a real change but for you don’t let it be any longer.

Jesus is the Savior and he came to make a way for the forgiveness of sins. Do not be hardened but see what he is saying to you tonight. To accept Jesus all you must do is put your faith in him as the only way for salvation and turn away from your sins. He made this from the compassion of his heart for you. We need salvation because we deserve punishment for the wrong that we do and this punishment will come if we do not come to know Jesus as more than just some guy from the Bible.