Mark 8
Hi, Team! It’s Molly writing the blog this week, about Mark 8.
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12And 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."
While Jesus refused to give the Pharisees a sign, his disciples had all just witnessed
Jesus taking seven loaves of bread and a few small fish, feeding four thousand people with it, and having seven baskets of bread left over. He’s also, at this point, walked on the Sea, healed a Deaf Mute, and made people well just by them touching Him.
Shortly after when Jesus tells the disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod, the disciples don’t think of it as a warning to help them, they think he is upset with them because they only brought one loaf of bread. They’ve just witnessed the miracle that he performed with the previous group, feeding them from seven loaves of bread, and they think He’s upset about the bread? You feel like asking them, “Were you paying attention, at all to what just happened?” Which is basically what he does say to them. Jesus has just told the Pharisees he does not need to give them a sign, and then the people following him most closely that have been witnessing true signs the whole time of the Word he speaks and of the Godly acts he performs, are thinking he would be upset about something that they just watched him take complete control over?
We live in a society that is always looking for “proof” before we take action on something. We have all been these disciples at some point. We are always seeking signs from God, we even ask for them, but how many come that we just skip over, in turn thinking that God has forgotten about us and that he is upset with us about “the bread”? I can think of too many instances where God would be able to say to me, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?”
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I am guilty of looking for signs. I admit it. I forget that God already gave me one: His Word. That's the proof. I want writing on the wall and obvious stuff. I want a letter to fall from the sky with the direction to take. He already gave me instructions and the story. I just have to believe it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amy, I think we live in a society where we are always looking for signs and waiting for signs for us to continue on. But all the signs we need are in The Word. I like how he uses leaven as a representation of sin I have always found that interesting.
ReplyDeleteFor what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
ReplyDeleteI think this verse struck me because so many of us have fallen into a pattern of wanting more and more and more without understanding what it is we truly gain versus what we think we gain. I know for me I always worry about money. Worry if I have enough, worry if I have more than enough, thinking that if everything I owned was paid for somehow my life would be easier and happier. That if I could take trips and not have to work, stay home and take care of my house and my children that would make me happy. In reality, none of those things will make me as happy as knowing that my family and myself have our names in the book of life. And if I inventory my life, I know that I do have abundance, maybe not in the material sense, but in a way that means much more.
There are so many things from this passage that one can take away. If you tried to unpack them all in one sitting, you'd be there for quite awhile. For me, I'm looking at this entire chapter as a "whole" idea. It all boils down to the fact that we all try to seek signs and wonders all around us, just as they did back then, but miss the very things in front of us. Jesus feeds the 5,000 and the 4,000... they ask for a sign. Jesus heals the blind mand... they ask for a sign. Instead of shouting, "Hello! Do you not see all of the things that I've been doing for the last few weeks?", he asks a simple question: "Who do people say that I am?" And Peter gives the answer that Jesus wanted. "You are the Christ."
ReplyDeleteI almost feel like there was a second part of that conversation that wasn't recorded for us to read. As if Jesus then said, "And I would let you tell them, but they would be too stubborn to realize it. And that's why I tell you and everyone else to say nothing. If they had eyes to see, then instead of asking for a sign, they would see that they have the Messiah doing signs right in front of them."
We have the Messiah doing signs around us all the time, still to this day. I have to get better at recognizing them. Maybe then, I would be a better worshiper grow even closer to Him.
As it relates to the ongoing conversation about we as a people always wanting a sign, I think it important to note we want sings, not that we are looking for signs. If we truly have our eyes open, and even look back, we see numerous signs in our lives. So we are like the disciples, we are too busy noticing day to day things going on in our lives that we fail to have eyes that see the amazing acts of Christ in our lives. They aren't all "big" things, many times they are little moments. I know the times I have felt the closest to God, I also continued to notice amazing spiritual blessings going on around me, my spiritual eyes were open. To, like the 4000, we have plenty of blessings to be completely satisfied and then we have some left over, except we just miss a lot of them along the way.
ReplyDeleteI look at my life and certianly think that noticing blessings and signs is a marker of where my spriritual life is. God, I want to see more of the signs and wonders you bless me with every day!
Verse 36 hits home in many areas. Often I find myself wasting time and effort doing things that really have no value. What am I trying to gain and why I do it, bad programming I guess?? Could I be trying to gain the world by wasting time on things that have no real value. I should spend that wasted time on gains for the kingdom. That's what really matters. Open my heart lord, reprogram me, that I will not be blinded and self seeking.
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