Mark 8:1-21.  Long again yesterday but shorter than the day before.  Hope I’m not causing you not to read.  As I read today’s reading it seemed to me that the trip to Dalmanutha and back was mostly to create an opportunity for Jesus to instruct his followers.  When we last saw Jesus he was in the region of Decapolis on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee.  IN today’s reading Jesus and the disciples cross the sea twice.  In tomorrow’s reading Jesus is in Bethsaida on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee so the crowd in today’s reading is probably on that side.  Scholars don’t know where Dalmanutha is.  In Matthew 15 we see that same story and Matthew tells us that they went to Magadan another place we don’t know the location of.  From the flow of the story these places must have been on the estern side of the Sea of Galilee.  Most of the eastern side was “gentile” territory and the Pharisees avoided going into gentile territory if they could so that is another indication that Jesus and the disciples went over to the western shore.

In the beginning of our reading we see a miracle very similar to one earlier in Mark (Mark 6:33-44).  Jesus is teaching a large crowd and realizes that they must be hungry.  They have been listening to him for three days and many had traveled a long way to hear him.  When the disciple question him about where they will get enough food he asks them how much they have and then give instructions for everyone to sit down.  After praying he has his followers hand out the food and like the time in Mark 6 we see that everyone is fed and there is quite a bit left over.  This time we learn tht there were about 4000 people there.

Next Jeus and the guys get into a boat and go to Dalmanuth (or Magadan or both).   While there some Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders) come out and begin to argue with Jesus, then they demand proof of who he is, they want a sign; a miracle.  The problem is they wouldn’t have been there if they hadn’t heard all the stories of what was going on with Jesus, there had been plenty of miracles so far, they just didn’t like what that all meant, Jesus was God.  Jesus was saddened by their request and refused to do a miracle for them.  Verse 12 literally says, “If a sign should be given to this generation…”  The statement is incomplete leaving the Pharisees to wonder.  It’s sort of a question like, ”What sign should I give this generation?” or “What sign would be good enough?”  Some scholars think the implied sentence should go something like, “If I give a sign to this generation may I die.”  Mark tells us that Jesus ‘sighs’ before he gives this answer.  Maybe he was hinting at the ultimate sign that he would give, dying on the cross.  Paul told the churches in Galatia many years later that everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed (referring to Jesus crucifixion and quoting Deuteronomy 21:23).  It is very interesting that that statement is in the Law of Moses since executions in Law were to be carried out by stoning and crucifixion wasn’t even invented for centuries after Moses wrote the Law down.  I think Jesus was in some way setting up the Pharisees for the greatest sign or proof of all, his death and resurrection.

In Mark we have seen that Jesus is doing a lot of “setting up” or preparing of people so that the good news about him will spread for a long time after his return to Heaven (see Acts 1:8).  Jesus was certain “setting up” his followers.  After talking to the Pharisees (a seeming wasted trip, but not if you realize Jesus is working through a plan), Jesus and the disciples go back across the Sea of Galilee.  Mark then tells us that they only had one loaf of bread with them, thay had forgotten to get more.  Jesus instructs them while they row across (remember this is a large body of water maybe 5 miles across and it can get very rough and windy).  He uses a parable of sorts and tells them to beware of the “leaven of the Pharisees”.  “Leaven” is like yeast and is used to cause bread to rise.  In Jesus time it was a symbol of sin or evil.  In Matthew 16:12 we learn that Jesus is talking about their teaching.  Matthew mentions the Pharisees and Sadducees  (a second group of religious leaders in Israel at the time) but Mark mentions the Pharisees and Herod (the Roman ruler of the area who pretended to be a faithful Jew).  The warning, I think, is about not just the teaching of these people but about their closed minds about what the Old Testament meant.  Even the disciples were only looking at life from their own immediate situation.  “Oh, Jesus knows we are worried about not having enough bread.”  But that is not what Jesus was talking about at all, and they shouldn’t have been worried about bread when they had just recently seen Jesus turn a few loafs into enough to feed 4000 people (including them I suppose).  Jesus brings up theses miracles and then asks them if they really don’t get it.  In Matthew they finally get it but Mark leaves the question hanging, sort of like the unfinished question to the Pharisees.  In Matthew we learn that Jesus is confronting their lack of faith or trust but in Mark we see that he also was their lack of trust was self-made.  Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10; 42:18-20).  In another place in Matthew (Matthew 13:14-15) Jesus quotes those verses and it becomes clear that the problem is that the people are unwilling to understand what they clearly see and hear.  That seems to be the case with the Pharisees and Herod and the Sadducees and Jesus is warning the disciples not to fall into the same trap.  We need to not let our agenda block us from seeing the great things God is doing.  In Matthew the disciples get it but Mark leaves us hanging.

I think it’s important that Mark leaves these questions unanswered because we see the struggle that people have with accepting and following Jesus.  When we get to the end of Mark we will see that the original apostles struggle with following Jesus is a main point of Mark.  That would be meaningful to the believers in Rome who were also struggling to follow Jesus.  After all the disciple finally did stand up and live for Jesus and they changed the whole world, so there is hope for all of us, but they struggled.  We need to know that Jesus cares for us and our needs, and that he also cares about our fears. We also need to know that we have the same power available to us that helped the original followers through their fears and lack of faith too.  We just need to open our eyes and ears and especially our minds and hearts and see what Jesus has done, the signs are already there.

God help me believe.  Help me trust.  Help me see.  Help me not be afraid.  Let me look beyond today’s needs.  Let me trust you for them and for eternity.