Day 22 : Mark 8:1-21
Don’t you get it?
Sometimes the facts are there, staring us in the face but we don’t see it, yet to others these facts are really plain to see. The first seven chapters of Mark have gently been opening us up to see who Jesus is and what he has come to do. The followers and disciples with Jesus haven’t quite got it. So here in chapter 8 there comes a tipping point for them but that’s not the end of the story. Over the next three days we will see these three stages played out.
It’s important to say there is so much more to study in this chapter but for today we will concentrate on what Mark shows us in the progression of these verses from 1-21. In summary, our first story the feeding of the four thousand shows us that in Jesus’s hands, more comes from less. Yet the story that follows this has the Pharisees asking for the very thing that has just been witnessed. However, this has still escaped the attention of the disciples, as they too find themselves reprimanded by Jesus and asked three questions;
‘Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?’ (NRSVA)
Jesus takes them back over what’s happened and a step by step question and answer session about the provision of much from very little and for so many. Then almost with exasperation, the final question from Jesus to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?’ (NRSVA)
