Do You Still Not Understand

Observe. The disciples have forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf. Jesus warns them about the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod, and they conclude he is upset that they have no bread. He responds with a barrage of questions. Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, ears but fail to hear? Then he makes them recite the numbers: five loaves, five thousand, twelve baskets; seven loaves, four thousand, seven baskets. Do you still not understand?

Interpret. Yeast is a small hidden thing that spreads through the whole batch. The yeast of the Pharisees was unbelief that demanded signs; the yeast of Herod was worldly power. Jesus is warning the Twelve that those attitudes are contagious. The disciples, however, are so anxious about lunch that they cannot hear a warning about their souls. Twice they have watched him feed thousands. They have counted the baskets. And they are worried about one loaf. Mark places this just before the healing of a blind man, who sees in stages, as a picture of the disciples themselves.

Apply. Anxiety about provision makes us deaf to instruction. What are you so worried about supplying that you cannot hear what Jesus is actually saying to you? What has he already multiplied in your life that you have forgotten to count? And which yeast, the demand for proof or the appetite for power, is most likely to work its way through you unnoticed?