Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 3 Study # 3
September 13, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: Jesus' "insistent demand" is followed up by a "deliberate exposure".
Introduction: In our study last week, we considered the extreme danger of elevating the opinions of men above the opinions of God. Jesus called this "leaven" and specifically applied it to both "The Pharisees" in their position of spiritual leaders, and to "Herod" in his position of governmental leadership. But, this was, and is, a general, but critical, issue that applies across the board to every believer; it has a specific application to The Twelve as representatives of Jesus and His message of repentance, and also to all who seek to take up the mantle of leadership among men. There are a lot of references to this "problem", but two stand out in my mind:
Isaiah 2:22 and
Galatians 1:10.
This evening we are going to look into the situation Jesus faced with The Twelve: they were totally missing this very major impediment to their ability to be His representatives, and this section of Mark does not claim to having solved it (10:35).
- I. Mark's Record Of The Disciples' Total Disorientation.
- A. Immediately following Jesus' "insistent" demand regarding the temptation to fall into the trap of The Pharisees and of Herod, Mark records the fixation of the disciples upon their lack of loaves.
- 1. We should immediately recognize that Jesus' "insistent demand" will go by the wayside if this fixation should continue.
- a. It goes without saying that one cannot live within the boundaries of "strict insistence" if there is no understanding of either "what" is being restricted, nor "why" the insistence is so "strict".
- b. Thus, as long as the disciples are mentally focused upon their lack of "loaves", they simply cannot be on their guard in regard to the "leaven" issue [there is nothing so unsettling as being completely blind-sided because the issue that blind-sides isn't even on the long range radar, let alone the immediate present].
- 2. We should also immediately recognize that there is an extreme danger to being focused upon "needs" that will be met without even the necessity of prayer. Jesus told His disciples to be totally unconcerned about things over which they have no responsibility or even capability (Philippians 4:6; Matthew 6:25, 31; and Luke 12:28-30).
- 3. We should also recognize that, "hermeneutically", it is impossible to understand words that are addressed for one purpose when they are "forced" to fit a different purpose.
- B. Jesus' words of "insistent demand" assume a total lack of need for preoccupation with things which have no "need" built into them; either because they do not represent a need, or they represent things that God has so abundantly underwritten that we need not even "petition" God for them ("giving thanks", yes; "petitioning", no). Jesus did say, on one occasion, "pray that God will 'give us this day our daily bread'", but He did not mean to belabor that "need'.
- II. The "Lesson" Of The Loaves.
- A. Has a preliminary question.
- 1. The question is "Why?"
- 2. It has its focus upon the disciples' fixation upon the fact that "they had no bread".
- a. Its roots begin in 6:8 where Jesus forbade them to take "a loaf" for their journeys as messengers of Jesus.
- 1) "Loaf" is singular; its significance is best understood as "not even a loaf" as a "preparation" to do the will of Jesus and to discover His ability/willingness to provide for them day by day (Luke 22:35).
- 2) The point in this "forbidding" is that they are to learn the lesson of what is really important to their God: nothing is to get in the way.
- b. Its roots continue into 6:37 and 8:4 where the foundations are laid for both 6:52 and our current text (8:17) in regard to the problem of "a hardened heart".
- c. And to make sure we "get" this connection, Mark goes on to record Jesus' deliberate reminders of how much bread was left when everyone was filled in both 6:42 and 8:8.
- d. But there is this: God sometimes, for His own reasons, lets people "go hungry" (Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11:27; Jesus in Matthew 4:2; and in this very context, the crowd in 8:2.).
- B. Totally underwrites "provided food" as an outcome of "basic" compassion, with the intention of keeping us from distraction.
- C. Thus, Jesus forces them to reconsider the number of baskets of leftovers so that they will not be distracted from what it far more crucial [Isaiah 2:22].
