31. Mark 8:11-21: “Do You Not Yet Understand?”
8:11-13:
A Sign?
The Pharisees are dogging Jesus again.
Big surprise after what we’ve seen in the last several episodes Mark has narrated?
Hardly. They “test” him by requesting/demanding a (miraculous) “sign from
heaven.” Surely he can authenticate himself as a genuine prophet (Dt.13:1-5).
Israel regularly, incorrigibly, “test” or “tempt” God (Psa.95:9–10;78:17–20,40–43,56;
106:13–14; Num.14:1–10,
20–25).
The Pharisees represent the faithless nation here.
The irony, of course, is that Jesus has just provided two of the most evocative
and powerful “signs from heaven” imaginable. But the Pharisees cannot/will not “see.”
Therefore, Jesus will give them no sign. They have more than enough to discern
who he is and what his mission is all about – Israel’s salvation!
Jesus punctuates this rejection by boarding a boat and sailing off to the
other side of the sea.
8:14-21: More on Bread
This story brings the bread motif to a
climax. When Jesus cautions them against the “yeast of the Pharisees and the
yeast of Herod” (v.15), the disciples fail to get it but mention of yeast reminds
they have not brought along enough bread. Jesus, almost surely perplexed and
exasperated, berates them for their failure to understand, for having heard
hearts.
What is this “yeast” of the Pharisees
and of Herod? Yeast is often a sign of evil (1 Cor.5:6-8), hypocrisy (parallel
in Lk.21:1), and false teaching (Gal.5:9; Mt.16:12) in scripture.[1]
Elements of all three are present here. We have just seen the Pharisees
demonstrate their “yeast” in demanding a sign from Jesus in the face of the
signs they have just seen. Herod, for his part, has evidenced a “yeasty” interest
in Jesus earlier in Mark (6:14-16). And in light of the two feeding miracles I
think we can call these the “religious” (5000) and “secular” (4000)
unwillingness/inability to “see” and accept Jesus for who he is. Both have
agendas at “cross”-purposes with his and a cross is what they will finally give
him for his trouble.
Israel’s ethno-centrism and Herod’s
advocacy for Roman rule, each of which would be willing to use Jesus for their
purposes. Or eliminate him if he won’t play their game. But he is playing his
own game and refuses to be coopted by either. His is not yeast but the bread,
the true bread Israel and ultimately the world needs.
Jesus styles the disciples’ failure to
understand in the prophetic idiom of Jer.5:21:
“Hear this, O
foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes, but do not see,
who have ears, but do not hear.”
who have eyes, but do not see,
who have ears, but do not hear.”
And he
interrogates them about the feedings. How many leftovers from the 5 loaves? 12,
that’s right. And how many from the 7 loaves? Yes, 7. Right again.
Don’t you get
it?
Do we?
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