Sermon Notes: Mark 8:1-21
Big Idea of the Gospel of Mark: Jesus is the divine Son of God and the suffering servant Messiah who inaugurates the kingdom of God, who atones for sin through his death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus calls his people to a costly discipleship of self-denial and suffering with purpose and joy.
Big Idea of Mark 8:1-21:
Spiritual blindness prevents us from seeing Jesus’ true identity, and only the gift of faith can open our eyes to see and believe.
Observation: What does this text say?
Who is the author? John Mark
Who is the intended audience? Gentiles who are being taught the good news of Jesus and his kingdom. Followers of Jesus who are continuing to grow in their faith and walk in maturity.
What is the occasion for the author’s writing? John Mark, partnering with Peter to obey the Great Commission, writes a historical biography about Jesus for use as a gospel tract primarily for Gentiles.
What is the genre of writing? Historical biography.
Key words and phrases (big words, words that are repeated, etc.):
Crowd: A repeated theme that we have found studying through Mark. Jesus draws large crowds due to his miraculous healings and many signs and wonders.
Compassion: Similar to the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus felt compassion because the crowd were like sheep without a shepherd. Here the crowd has been gathered for three days listening to him teach.
Bread: Repeated multiple times. The physical issue that later becomes a vehicle for Jesus’ spiritual lesson.
Satisfied: In both feeding miracles we are told the people were “satisfied,” expressed with a strong Greek verb (chortazō) meaning they were “stuffed full.”
Baskets: a large wicker hamper similar to the one used in Acts 9:25 to lower Paul over the city wall of Damascus in escape. This shows that Jesus provided in abundance for the crowd, demonstrating his divine power.
Immediately: a key word repeated throughout the gospel of Mark. Jesus is not in a hurry. He’s on a mission.
Dalmanutha: Not much is known about this region. In Matthew’s parallel account of this story, he adds they “went to the region of Magadan” (15:39), commonly linked with Magdala on the northwest coast of the lake. Dalmanutha then was a small fishing village not far from Capernaum. This shows us the geographical movement away from Gentile territory back to Jewish territory where Jesus will have a brief encounter with the Pharisees.
Pharisees: Religious leaders who were constantly confronting Jesus.
Sighed deeply: Different from the sigh we saw last week which showed Jesus’ deep compassion for the man's condition. Here Jesus sighed with a deep exasperation at the Pharisees’ blindness and their refusal to recognize who he truly is.
Watch out; beware: A direct warning from Jesus to his disciples.
Leaven: A metaphor used by Jesus for the corrupting influence of the Pharisees and Herod.
Do you not yet…: Jesus exposes the disciples' spiritual dullness.
Perceive: Jesus is concerned not merely with what they see physically but rather they understand spiritually.
Understand: Points to the central problem: the disciples have witnessed Jesus’ works but don’t quite yet grasp their significance.
Hearts hardened: Strong language by Jesus to describe their spiritual insensitivity and lack of understanding.
Remember: Maybe the key command by Jesus in helping his disciples recall all that he has done.
Lists:
None
Compare and contrast (What is being compared or contrasted? What does this illustrate for us?)
Comparison: The Pharisees’ blindness vs. the disciples’ blindness.
Both groups fail here to understand the true identity of Jesus, but they respond differently.
The Pharisees have witnessed many miraculous works performed by Jesus, yet demand another sign, revealing their unbelief toward him.
The disciples have also witnessed the miracles performed by Jesus but they fail to understand their significance, revealing spiritual immaturity and slowness in learning.
The Pharisees reject the clear evidence Jesus has already given them; while the disciples struggle to comprehend the evidence Jesus has already given them.
What does this illustrate for us? The comparison here exposes an important distinction between unbelief and the need for continual spiritual maturity.
The Pharisees observe Jesus’ work and outright refuse to believe, thus Jesus leaves them refusing to give them any sign. The disciples see Jesus’ works and fail to comprehend them fully. Both show spiritual blindness, but the disciples remain with Jesus and are continuing to be taught by him. That is a huge distinction that we need to consider.
Expressions of time:
None
Purpose clause:
None
Restate the passage:
Jesus, by his divine authority, power, and compassion, miraculously feeds 4,000 people in a desolate place with only seven loaves of bread and a few small fish, demonstrating his divine authority and pointing to his identity as the Son of God. After the feeding, the Pharisees come to Jesus and begin arguing with him, demanding that he perform a sign from heaven to prove his identity and authority. Jesus refuses to give them the sign they demand and leaves them as he gets into the boat with his disciples and travels to the other side.
While Jesus and his disciples are in the boat, the disciples realize that they have forgotten to bring bread and begin discussing their dilemma among themselves. Jesus, aware of their conversation, uses the opportunity to warn them about the corrupting influence of the religious leaders, telling them to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” The disciples, however, misunderstand Jesus’ warning and continue focusing on their lack of bread.
Jesus then lovingly rebukes them for their lack of understanding. He reminds them of the two miraculous feedings they have witnessed and asks whether they still do not understand. He exposes the deeper problem of their spiritual condition, declaring that they have hard hearts, eyes that do not see, and ears that do not hear. Although they have witnessed Jesus miraculously provide food for thousands, they still fail to fully perceive who Jesus is and what he is capable of doing.
Mark intentionally places this conversation between two miraculous healings: Jesus heals a deaf man in the preceding section and a blind man immediately afterward. These healings provide a fitting picture of the disciples’ spiritual condition. They have physical ears and eyes, but they are still struggling to truly hear, see, and understand the identity and power of Jesus.
Interpretation: (What does this mean? Take all of the observation data into account)
1. Mark 8:1-21, as well as other portions of Mark’s Gospel, reveals to us that spiritual blindness is so pervasive that it prevents people from recognizing Jesus’ true identity, even though they have witnessed clear evidence of his divine identity and power.
The Pharisees demonstrate hardened unbelief towards Jesus by failing to “see” spiritually Jesus’ identity (11-13). The miracle that Jesus had just performed was not merely about meeting a physical need. Just like feeding the 5,000, Jesus provided in abundance for a multitude that was unable to provide for themselves. Like all the miracles that Jesus performed, they were about revealing his true identity as the Son of God. Jesus wasn’t just a good humanitarian who was seeking to make people’s physical life better by performing miraculous healings. His power and authority to heal, cast out demons, and proclaim forgiveness was intended to point to the greater need of the human condition that is steeped in sin and held captive by the dark kingdom of this world.
However, the Pharisees were blind to this truth and they approached Jesus, “arguing with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him” (8:11). They had already witnessed many great signs that they could not deny, and they credited them to Beelzebul (3:22). Yet they were still not satisfied and demanded a “sign from heaven” be given.
At this demand by the Pharisees, Jesus demonstrates some righteous anger towards these hard hearted and blind religious leaders. Matthew adds that the Sadducees were present with them. Why is that important? The Pharisees and Sadducees opposed one another. That's how deep the darkness runs in those who are blind to the truth. The darkness will partner with anyone, even those they disagree with and are enemies of, in an attempt to suppress and push away the truth.
Kent Hughes notes, “It is difficult to translate the sense of “no sign will be given to this generation.” The phrase is literally, “If shall be given to this generation a sign–!” thus leaving the conclusion unstated, which might be “may God punish me” or “may I die.” The construction is characteristic of Hebrew oaths– suggesting intense emotion. Jesus knew the hardness of their hearts. Matthew says in his parallel account, “‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.’ So he left them and departed” (Matthew 16:4). The only sign they would get was that signified by Jonah– the Resurrection!”
When Mark says, “And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.” This is Jesus symbolically leaving those who are blind to the truth in their spiritual darkness. Jesus addressed the Pharisees in John 8:24, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
What about the disciples? They demonstrate a lack of understanding Jesus’ full identity and spiritual dullness (14-21). The disciples have come to believe Jesus is the Son of God, and to them “has been given the secret of the kingdom of God” (4:11). So, the disciples are in fellowship with Christ. Their blindness is distinct from the Pharisees in that they are continuing to struggle with interpreting all things Jesus is saying and doing.
Here in the boat going back across to the other side as the disciples are discussing the fact they forgot to bring bread, Jesus gave them a spiritual warning, which they misinterpreted because of their slowness of understanding.
Verses 14-16, “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.”
This scene is kind of humorous, kind of sad, and very telling of the nature of humanity. Jesus can do some of the wildest things, we experience it, immediately forget what he has just done, and move on to the next thing.
The leaven that Jesus is warning about here is not physical bread. It’s about the evil teaching of the Pharisees, and the teaching of Herod. The Pharisees and Herod seem to have little in common– the one steeped in religious duties, the other sunk in iniquity. But they do share one poisonous fault that can infect others. Jesus does not explicitly identify what that toxic flaw is, but the context points to their obstinate refusal to believe in spite of the evidence. They will not admit the truth, let alone embrace it, even when it stares them in the face. Herod and his men failed to believe when they heard of Jesus’ mighty works (6:14-16). The Pharisees are insisting that Jesus provide a sign conforming to their own goals and aspirations before they will commit themselves to believe.
Jesus thus warns the disciples not to fall victim to this same insidious unbelief. Their worry about where the next meal is coming from makes them deaf to the warning about not hearing and blind to the warning against blindness. They consistently fret about insufficient resources while neglecting to see the all sufficient one in front of them who is able to provide all their needs.
Jesus however does not give up on his disciples, and the disciples eventually grasp the meaning of what Jesus is saying as Matthew 16:12 records, “Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
The disciples show signs of spiritual maturity and their understanding of Jesus’ true identity, but also continue to struggle all the way to the cross. What is it that eventually solidifies it for the disciples and understanding who Jesus is? The resurrection because it literally changes everything. 1 Corinthians 15:17-20, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins… and we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…”
Gospel connection:
Mark 8:1-21 exposes the deeper problem of every human heart: we are spiritually blind and unable to rightly perceive Jesus apart from God’s grace. The Pharisees have witnessed Jesus’ miraculous works yet still refuse to believe. The disciples have witnessed those same works and yet still struggle to understand what they reveal about Jesus. The problem is not a lack of evidence; it is the spiritual blindness of the human heart.
That is why we need the gospel. Jesus did not come merely to give us physical bread or to make our earthly circumstances easier. He came to rescue sinners from the domain of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of God. As Paul says in Colossians 1:13-14, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Ultimately, Jesus would accomplish this rescue through his atoning death, burial, and resurrection. At the cross, Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, and in his resurrection he demonstrated his victory over sin and death. The resurrection also becomes the decisive revelation of Jesus’ identity and the foundation of our faith.
The answer to our spiritual blindness is not that Jesus needs to give us more signs. The answer is that we need to see and believe the sign that has already been given to us in Christ. Jesus is the divine Son of God who died and rose again to redeem spiritually blind sinners and bring them from darkness into his kingdom.
Application: (What does this text require of me?)
2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”
Are you still demonstrating a hardened heart of unbelief like the Pharisees and still rejecting Jesus as the eternal Son of God? Romans 1 tells us that we are all without excuse because God has clearly revealed himself to us. If so, repent and believe the good news that Jesus is who he says he is. You don’t need any other visible sign to prove the truthfulness of Jesus. You have the powerful word of God that is sufficient to lead you into saving faith. What Jesus said in Luke 16 is absolutely remarkable. “‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
Have you embraced Jesus as the eternal Son of God, but continue to struggle like the disciples with the distractions of material things that cause you to have a hard heart, eyes that do not see, and ears that do not hear? Press into the good news that once freed you from the domain of darkness and brought you to the kingdom of God’s son where you have redemption and forgiveness.
The same gospel that saved you by faith will be the same gospel that keeps you, sanctifies you, and ultimately glorifies you on the last day. Renew your mind daily through the word so that you have fresh eyes to see Jesus clearly.
Remember, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1) can be understood in three parts:
Knowledge (Notitia)- We have to learn, be told, and know truth. Faith is not blind, empty, or objectless. Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Mental assent (Assensus)- We have to have a mental understanding and agreement with the truth.
Trust (Fiducia)- We have to assimilate knowing and agreement into reliance upon and action toward.