As we heard last week, Jesus spent some time outside Galilee and the land of Israel, where He preached and did miracles for the benefit of non-Jews and showed His care for Gentiles, as well as Jews. As soon as He returned to Galilee, though, where more Jews lived (Mark 8:10), He was confronted again by Jewish religious authorities, Pharisees, who “began to argue with Him” again. This time, they wanted Him to show them “a sign from heaven” as a kind of “test” of His authority and His right to sp...
As we heard last week, Jesus spent some time outside Galilee and the land of Israel, where He preached and did miracles for the benefit of non-Jews and showed His care for Gentiles, as well as Jews. As soon as He returned to Galilee, though, where more Jews lived (Mark 8:10), He was confronted again by Jewish religious authorities, Pharisees, who “began to argue with Him” again. This time, they wanted Him to show them “a sign from heaven” as a kind of “test” of His authority and His right to speak and do what He did. Already Jesus had done many miracles and taught the Word of God to them; but that was not enough. They wanted something more, and He knew that they would never be satisfied, no matter what He did. So, He “sighed deeply in His spirit," sorrowful at their reaction, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly (literally, Amen), I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation” (Mark 8:11-12).
Later on, Jesus would call that generation an “adulterous and sinful generation” (Mark 8:38), because it was not being faithful to the One True God and His Word and His will for His people. (See also Matthew 12:38-41, where Jesus would give only “the sign of the prophet Jonah.” As Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days, so Jesus would be in the grave for three days before His mighty resurrection. See also 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, where Paul, who was a Jew, saw the continuing demand from Jews for more signs and proof, but he would preach only Christ crucified, the Power of God for salvation.)
Jesus soon left that Jewish territory again for the other side of the Sea of Galilee with His disciples. As they traveled by boat, the disciples realized that they had forgotten to bring any food with them, other than one loaf of bread. Jesus used this discussion to given them a warning. “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” The disciples seemed to have no idea of what Jesus was telling them and they kept talking about their lack of bread (Mark 8:14-16).
As Jews, they should have remembered Old Testament stories about “leaven” - a word for “yeast,” a substance used to make bread dough rise. When God’s people were rescued from slavery in Egypt, they were to sacrifice a lamb and put blood from it on their door posts and lintel of their homes, so that judgment against the Egyptians would pass over their homes and families. (The sacrificed lamb was a symbol of the sacrifice that Jesus would later make on the cross, so that we would be forgiven and judgment for our sins would pass over us and not come to us.) That night Jews were to eat a meal, including unleavened bread, because they would not have time to wait for their bread to rise, but would leave Egypt quickly, when they were allowed to.
In coming years, then, they were to remember these rescue events from God with a yearly Passover meal, including unleavened bread, and then seven more days of eating unleavened bread. No leaven was to be in their homes or their land during those days. (See especially Exodus 12:1-20 and 13:3-10.) Over time, leaven (yeast) became a symbol for evil or for moral influence, usually bad but sometimes good. (See Matthew 13:33 for an example of good leaven, good moral influence, as the kingdom of heaven starts small in people, yet has great influence over time.)
Jesus was warning, in Mark 8:15, of the leaven, the corrupt moral influence of Herod, who killed John the Baptist and did so much other evil, even though he was powerful and influential. Jesus also warned of the evil moral influence, the leaven, of the Pharisees, with whom they had just been speaking. The Pharisees seemed to be so morally good, but were actually far from God’s will, especially in their opposition to Jesus. (See also 1 Corinthians 5:1-2,6-8 as another example of the leaven of evil, if it is allowed to corrupt even a church.)
The disciples of Jesus were missing what He was saying, though, because of their concern for themselves and their lack of enough bread to eat. Jesus strongly accused them of not being able to see or hear what was really important for them and not listening to and understanding Him, because of hardness of hearts. Surely they should remember how Jesus could take care of their physical needs if necessary, as He had done before in the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. Watch out for spiritual blindness, He is warning, when the focus is on the wrong things (Mark 8:17-21).
Right after this, Jesus and the disciples arrived in Bethsaida, where a blind man was brought to Jesus for healing. Jesus took the man away by himself and put spit on his eyes. This was, as in an earlier story, a way of communicating to the man that healing was coming for him. Maybe to emphasize the healing of blindness, the miracle happened in two stages; but the man finally “saw everything clearly.” As often before, the man was to go home and not spread the news about what had happened (Mark 8:22-26). This was a real healing of a man, but may have had some symbolic meaning, too. If Jesus could heal physical blindness, could He not also cure spiritual blindness, which was ultimately an even greater problem for people?
Jesus then went with His disciples to Caesarea Philippi, which was in the far North of Israel, almost out of the country, where a mixed group of Jews and non-Jews lived. This was a more isolated area, where He could do more teaching with His disciples. As they traveled there, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples gave the usual responses. Some said Jesus was John the Baptist, come back to life after he was killed by Herod. (That is what Herod thought, at times, because of his guilt over putting John to death. See Mark 6:16.) Others thought Jesus was Elijah, though we have heard that John the Baptist was actually the Elijah predicted, who prepared the way for Jesus. Others said that Jesus was a prophet. He did have prophetic power, but He was far more than a prophet (Mark 8:27-28).
Then Jesus asked the disciples the most important question, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter, as usual, quickly answered for all the disciples, “You are the Christ.” Peter was exactly right. The word “Christ” is the Greek form of the Hebrew name “Messiah,” the “Anointed One,” the promised Savior from God. (See Part 1 of this study of Mark for more on this.) Jesus then told Peter not to tell people this about Him. The time for Jesus to be very open about Himself and to complete His saving work was getting close, but not just yet (Mark 8:29-30).
From this time on, though, Jesus was very open with His disciples about what it really meant to be the Christ. He had told them before, but not so directly. “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He said this plainly” (Mark 8:31-32). This was not at all what Peter and the others expected or wanted to hear. They were still thinking that the Christ would be a glorious conquering hero, bringing great honor to Himself and His followers. They were not thinking that He would suffer much and be rejected and die. And it was as if they never even heard the part about rising from the dead. Peter took Jesus aside and began to “rebuke” Him - to criticize Him and tell Him to stop this talk about suffering and dying (Mark 8:32).
Jesus right away rebuked Peter, saying very strongly, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Jesus must suffer and die. That was the plan of His Heavenly Father from the beginning. He had to pay the penalty for the sins of the world by His suffering and death. If Peter and the others opposed that, they were opposing God and doing the work of Satan. That is a challenging statement for us all. Do we sometimes think we know better than God and that he ought to do things our way, instead of His way? Do we too much set our minds on the things of man and our own human desires, rather than on God’s way, according to His Word (Mark 8:33)?
Jesus went on to speak to the crowd of people around Him, as well as to the disciples. Read Mark 8:34-38 very carefully. Following Jesus means self-denial and cross-bearing and might even mean losing our physical life for the sake of Jesus and His Gospel. (It actually did mean that for most of Jesus’ original disciples, eventually, and it could mean that for some, even today.) But following Jesus also means gaining life - life and hope in this world and eternal life with Him and through Him. There is no other way to eternal life and heaven than through Jesus and what He promised to do and did do for us. If we gained everything this world had to offer, that would not be enough to save our own souls. (See Psalm 49:7-9.) The key is trusting Jesus and His Words and work for us and not being ashamed of Him and His ways and plans for us. We cannot attain this on our own (Mark 8:34-38). This a gift of God to us, as we come to faith in Him, as we shall see, in weeks ahead. There is joy and glory also in Jesus; but before it, Jesus now heads to the cross to do what He must do to save us.
The disciples heard all this, but they still did not understand what it all meant, as we shall see. May we also follow Jesus to the cross and grow in our own faith and understanding in Him.
