Series: QUESTIONS OF THE BIBLE
“How Is It That Ye Do Not Understand”
Mark 8:13-21
Everyone that has a brain does not actually use it.
For instance, a woman was once pulled over by the state patrol. The officer kindly asked to see the woman’s driver’s license. She sighed and said, “I wish you guys would get your act together. Just yesterday you take away my license, and today you expect me to show it to you.”
Another instance is when a man went in to a pizza place and ordered a small pizza to go. The clerk asked the man if wanted the pizza cut into four slices, or six. The man thought for a moment, and said, “Just cut it into four slices. I don’t think I’m hungry enough to eat six.”
Having a brain and using it are two different things!
In our text we are confronted with one of those times when the disciples just did not get it. We are going to see a time when the disciples were slow to grasp the meaning of what the Lord was attempting to teach them.
The Lord Jesus finally ask them in verse 21, “How is that ye do not understand?”
Unfortunately, the original twelve were not the only believers our Lord would ever have who do not get it!
There are many believers today as well as unbelievers who just do not get it. The same question that was asked years ago can be asked again today. “How is that ye do not understand?”
I. They were FOCUSED ON THE MATERIAL
Mark 8 is a fairly good snapshot of an average day in the life of the early disciples. The chapter opens with Jesus feeding a crowd of four thousand with only seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. On the heels of this spectacular miracle, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees, who are demanding a sign from Jesus.
As day comes to a close, the Lord and His disciples boarded a boat headed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee
Without doubt, the disciples would spend their time on their trip contemplating and discussing the significance of the day’s events. Surely, they would be contemplating what they learned and seen on this day.
However, while they are crossing the lake, the disciples are preoccupied about the bread they had forgotten to bring along with them. I can imagine their thoughts, “Oh brother! We had seven huge baskets full of bread back there, and we forgot to bring any with us!”
Verse 16 reiterates what seemed to be on their mind. They are worried about was the fact that they had forgotten to bring enough bread for the boat ride.
The concern of the disciples with the physical serves to remind us of how often we are too concerned with the wrong things.
They are just like us.
A. How restricted was their concern
They have just heard the greatest preacher ever to preach; they have just witnessed a miracle of the feeding of 4,000, and yet they are preoccupied with bread.
Verse 16 says, “And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.”
Many Christians today spend the majority of their time focused on the physical. Many today spend their life thinking about themselves.
Their minds are so focused on the material, physical world that they lose focus of the spiritual.
See Luke 10:41.
B. How ridiculous was their concern
That very same morning, these twelve men had watched the Lord Jesus take seven loaves of bread, break them, and miraculously multiply them in order to fill the hungry stomachs of 4,000 people.
Now, as they are in the boat together, looking at the lone piece of bread, they are saying to each other, “Well, what are we going to do now? How are we all going to eat?”
Their concern over their lack of bread was foolish and needless in light of what they had just witnessed that morning.
What are your concerns? Are you more worried about the spreading of the gospel to unreached people groups, or the market value of your house or the cost of a gallon of gasoline?
See Mark 8:36.
II. They were FOGGY ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL
Their busy day was winding down, and as the boat started out across the water, the Lord was meditating about the confrontation he had had with the Pharisees. The disciples, on the other hand, were busy arguing about whose fault it was that they had forgotten to the bread and which one of them had claims on the one piece that had made it on board.
Suddenly, the Master speaks, “…Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” Jesus had a spiritual truth He wanted to convey to the disciples, and yet, verse 16 declares that the men supposed He was referring to the bread they had forgotten to take with them.
Their misunderstanding of the Lord’s statement to them is a reminder of how often we are clueless regarding spiritual things. They were so preoccupied with material things that they were clueless about spiritual things.
Mark 4:19 - “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”
A. They were dull in the perception of His word to them.
Jesus makes an important spiritual statement, and the disciples completely missed the significance and meaning of what He had said.
Because they lived on the physical level, they said, "Aha, our conclusion is He said this because we have taken no bread." In other words, "What He's afraid of is we'll buy bread baked by a Pharisee. He's worried that, because we don't have any bread, we're liable to run out, and we'll buy bread from a Pharisee.” That isn't the issue. Who they bought bread from wasn't the issue; but that is what they thought because they were on the material or physical level.
There are many people who sit on church pews week after week and hear the Word of God declared, yet they leave with no clue of what it truly means for them.
At times, it is the preacher’s fault because he does not clearly communicate the truth. However, in the majority of cases, the fault lies with the hearer.
Jesus asked the disciples in verse 17, “…perceive ye not yet, neither understand?” The implication was not that the word was unclear, but that the disciples just didn’t grasp the meaning of what He said.
As you read the gospels you find this happened more than once!
B. They were dull in their perception of His work in them.
When the Lord Jesus said to His disciples in verse 15, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod,” He was trying to develop cautious and intelligent disciples that would be prepared to minister in the midst of a world that opposed them. However, the disciples thought He was giving a lesson about buying the right kind of bread. They were ignorant about the fact that He was trying to do a work in their lives.
How often do we fail to see the hand of God as He works in our heart in His attempts to make us what we ought to be!
O, for perception to see the Lord as He works in our life! He works through discourses, defeats, and disappointments.
O that we might be like John when Peter, he, and the others could not draw in the net for the multitude of fishes that they caught after just casting their net on the other side of the boat at the command of the one who directed them from the shore. “IT IS THE LORD.”
III. They were FORGETFUL OF THE ETERNAL
The disciples were so consumed with the issue of their bread shortage.
Can you imagine doubting Thomas saying, “Well, this is great! You guys know what happens when my blood sugar drops!”
What is so amazing about this whole thing is that twice in recent days, these same men had watched the Lord Jesus take a few loaves of bread and feed over to nine thousand people! They had become indifferent to what He could do!
There's a marvelous story told of a little girl in France, and she was blind, and she was given a Gospel of Mark in Braille, and she, with her fingers, began to read that Gospel and came to know Christ and embraced Him as her Savior. As a result, the Gospel of Mark became infinitely more precious to her, and she read it and read it and read it and read it until she had developed such calluses on her fingers that they no longer could sense the letters. In the desire to have the hunger of her heart fulfilled, she peeled the skin back off her fingertips that she might lay bare more sensitive tissue to begin again to feel the Braille. In so doing, the doctor said she damaged the nerves that she would never feel again with her fingers. Days later she picked up that Braille Bible and put it to her lips as if to kiss it farewell, only to discover that her lips were far more sensitive than her fingers had ever been. She spent the rest of her days reading it with her lips! I don’t want to become indifferent to the eternal.
Though they had seen Him work miracles in the past, they were calloused to the eternal Son of God and His miracle working ability.
A. They recognized no miraculous potential
Jesus asks the question, “…do ye not remember?” Twice before them the Lord had spread a table for the multitudes in the wilderness and given them bread enough and to spare.
In spite of this fact, as the disciples discussed a very similar situation, noneof them seem to even consider the possibility of another miracle.
You and I know that God can perform miracles, but when was the last time you gave Him the opportunity to do so in your life?
B. They remembered no miraculous person
Even when Jesus interrupts the great bread debate, none of the disciples even thinks to ask Him to intervene in their food shortage. Had he not taught them to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread?”
There in the boat with them was the very Son of God. He had spoken the universe existence. A dozen dinner rolls would be no problem for such a One as He.
Yet, in spite of all they had seen Him do; in spite of all the power they knew He possessed; they never saw in Him as the answer to their problem.
Do you see Jesus as merely a historical figure or is He the God who is able to do, “exceeding, abundantly, above all that you ask or think?”
Conclusion
“How is that ye do not understand?” Before we criticize the disciples for their stupidity, perhaps we should find out if there is a sense in which we are just like them!
What are you most concerned with? Is it the spiritual things, or are you worried about material things?
Now, it’s one thing for unbelievers like the Pharisees to fail to see and believe. It’s another thing altogether when those who claim to know and love the Lord to fail to see His power and believe Him for their needs.
Jesus does not want us to live our lives focused on earthly matters like bread; however, that is often the case. He wants us to understand that a lack of bread is not our real problem.
Our real problem is that we do not see, hear, or think about the things of God.
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