05.44. The Grieved Servant of Jehovah
44. — The Grieved Servant of Jehovah
"And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why Both this generation seek a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. And he left them, and again entering intothe boatdeparted to the other side. And they forgot to take bread; and they had not in the boat with them more than one loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned one with another, saying, We have no bread. And Jesus perceiving it saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? do ye not yet perceive, neither understand? have ye your heart hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among the four thousand, how many basketfuls of broken pieces took ye up? And they say unto him, Seven. And he said unto them, Do ye not yet understand?" (Mark 8:11-21, R.V.). In this section the Evangelist shows how the Servant of the Lord was tried from "within and without." He was obstructed in His ministry (1) by the evil machinations of the leaders of the people and also (2) by the ignorant dullness of His immediate followers. The Pharisees who had recently criticised the Lord Jesus because they saw His disciples eat bread with unwashen hands (Mark 7:1-37) now came forth to oppose Him upon other grounds. On the earlier occasion they sought to invalidate His teaching, now their attempt was to detract from the value of His miraculous works of mercy and power. Accordingly they sought by cunning questioning to discredit the Lord before the eyes of the Galileans to whom He had given such cogent evidence that the kingdom of God was among them. Tempting Him, they asked for a sign from heaven, as if the fame of His many miracles had not previously spread throughout the province. The Lord’s works were not done in a corner. For instance, were there not at least five thousand witnesses to the second multiplication of the few loaves? And was not this sign, like all the Lord’s works, of a heavenly order? But these Pharisees had the will to doubt and disbelieve; otherwise the Lord might have said to them as He did to the messengers from John the Baptist, who asked Him, "Art thou He that should come?" The Lord’s answer to these men was, "The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be stumbled in me" (Matthew 11:2-6). The "honest and good heart" of John the prisoner was sincerely in doubt, and the Lord, though He did not work a fresh and special sign, sent to him the gracious reminder of the supernatural facts which none could deny, and which his messengers themselves witnessed (Luke 7:21-22). The Pharisees, however (who came with the Sadducees, as Matthew tells us) were hostile in intent: "They began to question him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him." This request was made in shameless unbelief and hypocrisy on their part too, for in their heart of hearts these men knew that the Lord was "from above," and not "from beneath." Nicodemus confessed, being himself a Pharisee, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these signs that thou doest, except God be with him." The evidences of the heavenly mission of Christ were ample and indisputable, and open to the sight of all men. So manifest were they that Peter charged the Jews on the day of Pentecost with a full knowledge of His credentials. When the apostle declared: "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know" (Acts 2:22), not a single dissentient voice from the crowded audience was raised in protest. Indeed, during His ministry, the people said as they saw His wonderful works, "When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than this man hath done?" (John 7:31). And the Lord Himself, when surveying the whole course of His service said, "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father" (John 15:24). The Pharisees wilfully ignored all this display of loving power, and their obduracy of heart, particularly noticeable as it was after the repeated miracle of the multiplied loaves, was characteristic of the nation as a whole from the day when Jehovah brought them out of the land of Egypt. Then "they remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered from the enemy; how he had wrought his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the land of Zoan" (Psalms 78:42-43;Psalms 106:7; Psalms 106:13; Psalms 106:21). The hardness and insensibility of their hearts to God’s marvellous mercies which all the Old Testament prophets charged upon them, were still unchanged, even when Messiah Himself was in their midst. A Sign from Heaven This occasion was not the only one on which the Pharisees sought from the Lord a sign from heaven. The first occasion was a plain indication that the nation would eventually reject their Messiah (Matthew 12:38;Luke 11:16), and the Lord thereupon began in public to teach by parables that the kingdom of heaven would assume a new form. But on both the former and the latter occasions, the request of the Jewish teachers was a tacit denial that the Lord’s miracles were signs from heaven, implying at the same time that His marvellous energy was Satanic in origin, as if He cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons. For if the miracles were not from "above," they must have been from "beneath." This foul aspersion arose from a gross form of wilful unbelief in the Messianic miracles, wonders and signs, but, in point of fact, the Lord Himself, apart from His works, was a sign from above to the people. He was the Second Man, "the Lord from heaven," come to them as Immanuel, according to the prophecy of Isaiah: To the house of David, Jehovah had said, "The Lord himself shall give you a sign, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name, Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14). Hence the Incarnate Babe was the sign of the introduction of the promised gospel. This sign-character was mentioned expressly by the angel of the Lord to the shepherds of Bethlehem "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be the sign unto you; Ye shall find a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Luke 2:11-12).* Further, Simeon alluded to this same characteristic of the Heavenly Babe, saying, as he blessed Joseph and Mary, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" (Luke 2:34-35).
Looking ahead also to the future Advent there will be appointed premonitions from above. The second coming of Christ in power and glory for the redemption of Israel is to be heralded by the sign of the Son of man in heaven. This we learn from the prophetic discourse of our Lord to the disciples on the Mount of Olives. In reply to their query, "What shall be the sign of thy coming?" He said, after naming certain coming events, "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30). The Sign of the Son of Man
Mark preserves for our adoring contemplation a record of the profound emotion of the Master at this display of unbelief and malice on the part of the Pharisees and Sadducees. "He sighed deeply in his spirit." There was no expression of wrath nor of a desire for vengeance, but we are permitted to know how keenly He was affected by the evil purpose of those who "lay in wait for His soul." "His heart was wounded within Him." As Jehovah’s righteous Servant, He bore the griefs and carried the sorrows of His people in loving sympathy, but this oppressive burden of griefs was augmented by the plottings of those who had become His enemies, and whose secret thoughts stood revealed before His holy eyes; and He "groaned upward" at the sight. The Lord was the Great Prophet sent with a message of deliverance for the enslaved people of God, and their obstinate refusal to hearken to the pleadings of His love begat sorrows within Him too deep, as it were, for utterance then. Later this inward sorrow found articulation, and His weeping lamentation over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44) expressed the spirit of the Psalmist who said, "Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law" (Psalms 119:136). The faithful servants of Jehovah in a former day of apostasy were distinguished by their grief over the waywardness of their people: they were marked off as those "that sigh and that cry for all the abominations in the midst of Jerusalem" (Ezekiel 9:4). Here in this Gospel, by this unique phrase, the veil over the inner feelings of the Master is lifted for a brief moment that we may catch a glimpse of His loyal zeal for God and His passionate yearning over the guilty people. The heart ever sighing over Israel’s perversity was always before the eyes of Jehovah, and gave cause for His unbroken complacency in that elect Servant in whom His soul delighted.
It is a profitable reflection that our Lord had a perfect knowledge of the value of His own service as well as of the depravity of those opposing Him. Without thinking of Himself more highly than He ought to think, He accurately appraised the character of His labours among them. His "judgment was just," and He knew that His own works were such as man never did before, and also that His words perfectly presented the ineffable love of the Father to man as well as the earthly things of the kingdom. But He also saw with equal vividness that His unremitting service, His self-consuming zeal, His absolute surrender to the interests of His mission were barren in result. His enemies, tempting Him, ask to be shown a sign from heaven, while His friends and followers are blind and deaf to the true significance of His ministry. The great impulses of His loving heart towards the sons of men were thus doubly resisted and thrown back upon Himself. The joy of the Shepherd in rescuing His flock was denied Him. He could adopt the language in the prophecy: "All day long have I stretched out my hand to a disobedient and gainsaying people" (Romans 10:21;Isaiah 65:2). Accordingly, we read that at this juncture the Man of sorrows sighed deeply in His Spirit. The Spirit of Christ
There are three recorded occasions on which the Spirit of Christ was perturbed. In each case human sin was the agitating cause, and in these instances He was confronted with its grievous effects; (1) upon the nation, (2) upon the family of Bethany, and (3) upon one of the apostolic band.
(1) The first instance is given in this section of Mark. Sin wrought so effectually in the midst of the chosen nation that its religious leaders refused to own the signs of His prophetic calling, and in malicious unbelief sought from Him a sign from heaven. He "sighed deeply in his spirit" at this unbelief.
(2) Sin wrought in the midst of the pious family of Bethany, where the Messiah was wont to turn aside to rest for a while, and where He was welcomed and honoured. Death removed Lazarus, and plunged the sisters into sorrow. Coming with the bereaved to the sepulchre, the Lord groaned in spirit at their grief (John 11:33).
(3) Sin wrought in the midst of the chosen twelve, and one of them became a tool of Satan for the betrayal of his Master. On the night of the last Supper, the Lord expressed to His disciples His knowledge that the doer of this infamous deed was even then among them. He "was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me" (John 13:21). One of you — one of my familiar friends — one of the holy circle (cp. Psalms 41:9; Psalms 55:12-14): this troubled His spirit.
These instances in some respects differ from each other, but their common origin may be traced back to the presence and action of sin in the world. Sin was always grievous and saddening in the eyes of the Lord, but these cases of its evil effects were the more deplorable because they occurred in a select circle, as it were,i.e.,in the elect nation, in the godly household, in the apostolic band. The pure and holy spirit must always be shocked in the presence of the horrid fruits of sin. It was so with the Lord: and it is a test of His followers, for "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9). No Sign to be Given In reply to the Pharisees, the Lord said, "Why doth this generation seek after a sign?" They were then in Magdala, and it was in this very locality that the Lord wrought His marvellous cure upon Mary the Magdalene out of whom He cast seven demons (Mark 16:9). What greater testimony could there be Of the presence of the Mighty One subduing the power of the Evil One? Was not this the sign from heaven? But the blind Pharisees attributed all such signs of the Lord to the energy of Beelzebub, and not to Him as the Messianic Servant anointed by the Spirit of God.
It is noticeable how the Lord in declining to yield to the provocative request of His opponents speaks with the dignity and authority of His own right: "Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation." This language is not that of a delegate, even though commissioned from on high. The introductory formula of the Old Testament prophets was, "Thus saith the Lord" but the Lord Jesus replied to these Pharisees who despised both His words and His works in His own name: "Verily I say unto you In truth, the Godhead was there amongst them in the Person of their Messiah in humble guise, and no more transcendent sign than this could be given them. The Lord therefore refused any further sign to that guilty generation which notoriously killed the prophets sent unto it. The Stone of Israel had been laid in Zion. If the nation stumbled upon it and rejected it, all hope must be abandoned. God anyhow would exalt that Stone, and it would eventually fall upon the wicked builders in Zion and grind them to powder. Thus the humbled Christ was the final test to Israel upon the ground of law, and no other Saviour-Prince but He would be offered to them. In seeking a sign the Pharisees were governed by an evil motive. It was altogether otherwise with John the Baptist. To him, as the Forerunner, a special sign from heaven was appointed for the identification of the Messiah. His own testimony on this head was that he saw the Holy Spirit like a dove descending from heaven, and it rested upon the baptized Jesus. And this public anointing constituted to him the promised assurance that Jesus was the Son of God (John 1:32-34). John’s mission was to prepare the way of the Lord before Him, and the sign from heaven given at the Jordan indicated that the Deliverer had come to Israel, and that his own service, as the voice of the Forerunner crying in the wilderness was accomplished.
John the Baptist was a Nazarite devoted to the will of God, but the Jews were a wicked and adulterous generation, and their determined will was to disbelieve and resist the gospel. These Pharisees in Dalmanutha were imbued with the same spirit as those which afterwards cried, "Come down from the cross, and we will believe" (Matthew 27:42). Had a sign been given they had no intention of believing. They were tempting the Lord to yield to them, as they did at other times (Matthew 12:38;John 2:18;John 6:30). Their request was modelled upon that of Satan in the wilderness, who said to the Lord, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread" (Matthew 4:3). The Lord, therefore declined to accede to their request, and told these adversaries, that no sign would be given to them, except (as Matthew adds) the sign of the prophet Jonah. That prophet of Galilee, after being three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, preached to the Ninevites their imminent doom, and they repented at his preaching. The Son of man would lie three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40), and if the men of Israel, even after the sin of crucifixion, would repent at the preaching of His apostles, God would send again to them His Servant Jesus, whom they had crucified, that He might restore all things (see Peter’s address,Acts 3:19-20). But as the people refused the sign of a humbled Messiah in His life, so they rejected the sign of His crucifixion and death. To them, a veil being upon their hearts, He was a stumbling block, and the apostle so described their state, when writing to the Corinthians: "Jews ask for signs and Gentiles seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumbling block, and unto Greeks foolishness" (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). But those who reject the signs of truth are open to receive the signs of error. The studied resistance of the Jews to their Deliverer who came to them as the Virgin’s Child, and who like the prophet of Galilee lay three days and nights in the heart of the earth will duly receive in the governmental dealings of God its meet and merited punishment. The generation, not yet passed away, who refused the appointed signs of the Holy and the True will be blinded to accept the signs of the Evil and the False. For when Antichrist comes he will show signs ostensibly from heaven in imitation of those the Christ did, and men will believe the lie. Paul declares that the coming of this Lawless One will be "according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" (2 Thessalonians 2:9). The apostle John prophesies in like terms concerning the False Lamb who is yet to appear. Speaking in the predictive present, he says, concerning the Antichrist, that "he doeth great signs that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and he deceiveth them that dwell upon the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to do in the sight of the beast" (Revelation 13:13-14). The Danger of Leaven in the Kingdom The Lord thereupon turned away from the representatives of the "wicked and adulterous generation," and left them (solemn action!) in their obstinate unbelief, crossing again the Sea of Galilee. He then uttered one of His profound sayings to the apostles, bidding them to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod." If the King was rejected, what would befall the kingdom? The influence of the Pharisees and of Herod aroused violent and insidious opposition to the spread of the ministry of Christ Himself; what a powerful and inimical influence would they not subsequently exercise upon the ministry of His servants? He bade them beware of these corrupting influences.
Looking back, the disciples might have remembered that before leaving the opposite shores they witnessed an example of the power of Pharisaism to befog the heart and prevent the acceptance of the Lord whom they loved and revered as the Messiah of Israel. Looking still further back, they might have recollected that terrible exhibition of the power of Herod when John, the prophet and forerunner, was murdered in circumstances of horrible barbarity. These forces of religious hypocrisy and of civil government at work in these typical instances were proved to be alike antagonistic to the progress of the truth, and the Lord had turned away in avoidance of both. For the future guidance of His followers, the Lord now warned them against these sources of contamination and corruption. The time had come when the children of the kingdom must break away from those who professed to be teachers of the law and who sat in Moses’ seat. The Pharisees were unreal pietists, and, the Herodians were political time-servers. It behoved the disciples in the exercise of such power and authority as the Lord had given them as His apostles to take heed lest empty-formalism and the fear of or undue subservience to worldly power should enter and vitiate the kingdom of God. Love of self and love of the world would, if allowed, work insidiously, like leaven, to the corruption of the followers of Christ, as it had already done in the Jewish nation. The warning of the Lord was uttered with a full knowledge of the coming menace, and, we find, historically, that evil afterwards crept into the churches of Galatia and Corinth, and is alluded to under this figure of leaven (Galatians 5:9;1 Corinthians 5:7-8). When the Lord was with His disciples it was, as it were, the days of unleavened bread, for He Himself was the Bread of God come down from heaven to give life to the world. But in the succession of Jewish feasts, the feast of wave-loaves followed that of the unleavened bread and the first fruits, and it was provided from the time of institution that the two wave-loaves should be baked with leaven (Leviticus 23:17). So the results of the public and united testimony of the Lord’s followers, which would immediately succeed His own pure and untainted witness, would be leavened in character; and counselling them in view of His own absence, and of the coming dangers of corrupting influences, He bade them "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod."
Dullness of Hearing But the disciples did not apprehend the meaning of these cautionary words of our Lord. They did not, in the scriptural sense, "hear His word," and therefore they did not understand His phraseology (John 8:43). "Leaven" was the key-word to help them to the true explanation of the utterance, but, forgetting that their Master’s kingdom was not of this world, they assigned to the word a physical not a spiritual significance: an error similar to that made by Nicodemus in a different connection (John 3:4). The disciples could think only of their own negligence in stocking the food-baskets of the company. Their hearts had not yet grasped the inner purpose of His teaching, and, therefore, His figurative expression concerning leaven was of the nature of a parable to them. It was a "hard word" to them (cp.John 6:60, New Tr.). "And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread."
Why were they so dull? Truly the words of the Lord were spirit and life, while the Great Teacher was skilful and wise in utterance, and spoke to the disciples as they were "able to hear" (Mark 4:33). They however failed to use rightly those "ears to hear" which they possessed as those born anew for the kingdom. They were engrossed with earthly or secondary matters, and missed the heavenly harmonies of His words. When the Lord warned against certain sources of leaven, their thoughts at once flew to food for the body. They had had but one loaf with them in the boat, and their conscience charged them with negligence in providing an adequate supply on reaching the other side (Matthew 16:5). No doubt they were the more concerned when they recalled the previous poverty of their stock on each occasion when the Lord inquired on behalf of the hungry multitude. But if it was a good thing for the disciples to recall their former failures, it would have been better still for them to have remembered the Lord’s teaching. For He had already in one of the parables which He specially explained to them, associated leaven with the kingdom of the heavens, and showed how its surreptitious introduction resulted in the leavening of the whole mass (Matthew 13:33). The three measures of meal affected as a whole by the foreign element brought into it was set forth as a figure of the new religious organization which was about to be established in the place of Judaism. The Lord taught thereby that the kingdom in its coming phase was not the ideal one. When the great city, the holy Jerusalem, shall have come down out of heaven from God, and become the seat of government in the earth for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, the kingdom will then assume its incorruptible form, for "there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie" (Revelation 21:27). But until the dawning of that day of glory, the kingdom of God in the earth will not be homogeneous:, but leavened by the presence of evil.
Nevertheless, the introduction of the leaven was the work of the enemies not of the faithful friends of the kingdom. Indeed, the faithful in the midst of a tainted assembly were held responsible for its presence, and exhorted to purge out the old leaven, and to "keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
Seeing, then, that our Lord had delivered this parable of the leavened meal in the course of His public ministry, and interpreted its significance to the disciples privately (Mark 4:34), they possessed a key to the meaning of His words on this occasion. But as they had forgotten the first miracle of the loaves when the necessity for a second arose, so they forgot the parable of the leaven when the Lord used the figure to warn them against the evil influences of the spirit of Pharisaism and(Herodianism — of insidious corruption, religious and political. The Seven-Fold Interrogatory The Lord corrected His disciples by a series of questions which gave them the opportunity for self-conviction and self-condemnation. The gentle and forbearing manner in which He dealt with them is instructive too. We see in the Prophetic Servant a perfect exemplification of those qualities afterwards enjoined by the apostle Paul upon his dear son Timothy: "the servant of the Lord must not strive: but he must be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, forbearing, patient" (2 Timothy 2:24).
Let us proceed to inquire what was the cause of the erroneous thoughts of the disciples, and why they failed to profit by the Lord’s teaching. It was needful for them that the true source of their dullness should be exposed, in order that their eventual spiritual progress might be secured. The stumbling-block to their understanding could not lie in the matter nor in the manner of the Lord’s instruction; for, with regard to the subject of His teaching, He taught them such things as they were able to bear (Mark 4:33;John 16:12), and, with regard to His method of teaching, His representation of His subject to His hearers could not but be perfect: "as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things" (John 8:28). The fault and the failure to apprehend the meaning of the Lord’s words therefore lay with the apostles themselves. They failed most of all in that they were not sufficiently appreciative of the incomparable worth of the One who was their Instructor, in whom were "hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." It was then, though they did not fully realize it, the day of their visitation. The Dayspring from on high was with them, but they did not set such store by His presence as they might have done. They slighted the Lord’s testimonies, they disobeyed His precepts, and they forgot His wonderful works. The nature of the Lord’s questions seems to imply that they were guilty of neglect, and that this was the real cause of their want of progress in divine things. The skilful Physician of their souls by this exposure laid before them the inward cause of their weakness and spiritual backwardness. If they confessed their errors, as they were given opportunity to do, they would be forgiven and cleansed from their secret faults. For it is written, "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged" (1 Corinthians 11:31). To bring before the disciples the truth concerning their hearts the Lord made use of the interrogative method, and His questions imply censure. It was by a similar but more extended "cross-examination" that Job’s self-conceit was broken down. Jehovah’s series of questions to the patriarch from the whirlwind is recorded in four lengthy chapters (Job 38:1-41, Job 39:1-30, Job 40:1-24, Job 41:1-34), and, in result, Job confessed, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
We may observe a sevenfold succession in the questions put by our Lord to the disciples. They all imply condemnation, and "work wedge-like to the proof." The series may be set out in the following order, and the implied charge is suggested for consideration in each case.
(1) Why reason ye because ye have no bread? implying a lack of confidence in the Lord on the part of the apostles.
(2) Do ye not yet perceive(vow)?implying lack of observation during their recent experiences.
(3) Do ye not yet understand(suniemi)?implying an absence of due reflection upon the Lord’s words and acts.
(4) Have ye your heart hardened? implying a lack of sensitiveness to divine things.
(5) Having eyes, see ye not? implying the non-use of their spiritual faculties in relation to the Lord’s doings.
(6) Having ears, hear ye not? implying the non-use of their spiritual faculties upon the Lord’s words.
(7) Do ye not yet remember? implying a lack of spiritual intelligence, and specifying their forgetfulness of the two recent food-miracles, especially of the bountiful supply of broken pieces over and above the amount required. This series of seven is followed by another question, which is separately introduced in the narrative, viz., Do ye not yet understand(suniemi)? This is in a sense a summary of the foregoing series, and it will be considered in its due order.
While considering this display of the dullness of the disciples, it is well to recall that there were many matters which The apostles were incompetent to understand until the Lord was glorified, and the Holy Spirit was bestowed upon them at Pentecost (cp. Luke 18:34; John 12:16). But their incapacity in some respects did not exonerate them from their slackness in others. And the Lord dealt with their responsibility to make good use of their exceptional privileges as special eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of His ministry as the Great Prophet of the kingdom of God. They were apostles; should not they, as such, display some intelligence of their Master’s ways? It was written in the law concerning the whole nation: "there is none that understandeth" (Romans 3:11). If the same indictment was true in any degree of the twelve, after their special opportunities, were they not the more blameworthy?
Let us now briefly consider these several points raised by our Lord with His disciples in this series of questions (Mark 8:17-21).
(1)Lack of confidence in the Master.— The Lord’s first inquiry was, "Why reason ye because ye have no loaf?" The disciples had been discussing among themselves the meaning of the Lord’s remark concerning the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. Not understanding the figurative significance of the allusion, all or some of them (for it was a matter of discussion, and they may not have been unanimous) concluded that the Lord’s reference was to their lack of bread for food. Uncertain of their interpretation, they sought enlightenment one from another, although the Source of all wisdom was in their midst. That they turned to one another for help was evidence that they lacked confidence in the love and sympathy of Christ for them. Otherwise, would they not have appealed direct to Him, owning their dullness, and seeking to be instructed? They, however, reasoned and questioned and debated and argued one with another. The Divine Teacher was with them, and the promise was even then good: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not" (James 1:5). But the disciples did not ask, and therefore they did not receive. On the contrary, the Lord had to inquire of them, Why do ye debate the question? He who opened the minds of the disciples to understand the scriptures (Luke 24:45) could He not open their minds to understand the things of the kingdom?
(2)Lack of perception. TheLord said, "Do ye not perceive (noeo)"? This verb implies the giving of earnest attention to what is passing so that the event is impressed upon the mind. Its sense is stated to be "to weigh with intelligence, so as to understand." Levity and unconcern would hinder and even prevent perception. An instance of its use in the sense stated occurs in connection with the prophecy concerning the future days when the abomination of desolation will be set up in the holy place. Whoever reads Daniel’s prophecy, quoted by our Lord, is exhorted to "understand, or perceive,"i.e.,to ponder, to consider seriously, to heed the prophecy (Matthew 24:15;Mark 13:14). Again, the apostle Paul states that the invisible things of God are "perceived" from the world’s creation (Romans 1:20). Due perception therefore of the Lord’s teaching is the result of studied attention with the heart. Had the disciples been attentive to the Master’s service? If so, why was it that after His ministry had been exercised in their view for some two years so little impression had been made upon their minds? Their education and training to become able ministers of the new covenant by actual experience of the Lord’s ways of working and teaching was being frustrated by their own lack of interest. Spiritual progress cannot be attained by mere outward contact with the workings of divine power and mercy. The doings of the Lord must be weighed and considered seriously. "Consider (noeo) what I say," Paul said to Timothy, "and the Lord give thee understanding(sunesin)in all things" (2 Timothy 2:7). In a like strain the Psalmist sang of what will be true in the coming kingdom, "All men shall fear, and they shall declare the work of God for they shall wisely consider of his doing" (Psalms 64:9).
(3) Lack of reflection. Spiritual perception is followed by spiritual understanding. The disciples first failed to receive and retain accurate impressions of the many acts of our Lord’s power, wisdom, and grace, and they further failed to meditate upon the significance of the abundance and repetition of His works, and their superhuman nature. They had seen miracles of healing, the exercise of the power of Christ over the forces of nature, over the spirit-world, over death itself. They had heard the expositions of kingdom-truth, introducing what was altogether brighter and better than the law. But the apostles were not yet wise. "Whoso is wise shall give heed to those things, and they shall consider the mercies of the LORD" (Psalms 107:43).
Understanding is of the heart (Matthew 13:15). It was in her heart that Mary kept the deep sayings about the Christ, and in secret she kept pondering them that she might eventually understand (Luke 2:19; Luke 2:51). The next question bears upon the right heart-attitude of a learner in divine truth.
(4) Lack of sensibility of heart. — "Have ye your heart hardened?" Hardness or callousness of heart was attributed to the Pharisees (Mark 3:5). But it is also used with reference to the disciples. And in this case we notice that the term is associated (a) with failure to perceive spiritual truth, and (b) with the first food-miracle. In that connection we read in an earlier passage that they perceived not concerning the loaves, and that their heart was hardened (Mark 6:52). The amazement of the apostles at the stilling of the storm was was because they understood (suniemi) not the miracle of the loaves, their hearts being dull and insensible in both instances.
It is most important to see that want of spiritual perception is the result of deadness of feeling in the heart. And from the questions which follow we see that spiritual sight, hearing and memory are all affected by grossness of heart. In commissioning the prophet Ezekiel to be His messenger to the house of Israel, Jehovah said to him, "All my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears" (Ezekiel 3:10).
(5) Lack of visual activity. — "Having eyes, see ye not?" The disciples are clearly credited with the possession of spiritual vision. Their eyes were gifted to see what the world could not. It is ever so with men of faith. Aged Simeon saw in the Holy Babe whom he took in his arms what the priests of the temple did not see. He discerned in the Infant the Lord’s Christ, the salvation of Jehovah (Luke 2:26; Luke 2:29). The eyes of faith, when in exercise, behold what is unseen and eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).
These eyes are not our mental faculties, but the eyes of our hearts (Ephesians 1:18, R.V.). They are associated with the emotions rather than the intellect, and are inseparable from inward affection and loyal devotion. They are the eyes which see in the Christ of the Gospels a supreme Person for our worship and service. The apostles undervalued the ministry of Christ because they undervalued Christ Himself. A follower of the Lord may fall into the same weakness still if the eye be not single for the Master. He loses the vision of his soul, and becomes guilty of the blindness of Laodicea (Revelation 17:1-18). Having eyes, let us therefore, turn them in the right direction, and sec Jesus, crowned and glorified.
(6)Lack of aural attention.— "And having ears, hear ye not?" It was an essential qualification of the apostles’ service that therein they declared what they had seen and heard. So John wrote in his First Epistle: "that which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of Life . . . declare we unto you" (1 John 1:1-3). Paul’s instructions were to the same effect (Acts 22:14-15). The Lord’s question thus revealed a serious defect in the conduct of the disciples; having ears, they did not hear. Those who turn away their ears from the truth are false and evil teachers (2 Timothy 4:4). There is a proper attitude in which to hear rightly, but they had neglected the Lord’s warning, "Take heed how ye hear." They should have listened attentively. Marychosethe good part of sitting at the feet of Jesus, and hearing His word. She had "ears to hear," and she used them well. It is not sufficient to be in possession of ears, they must be exercised. Hence the recurring exhortation to each of the seven churches of Asia was, "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear" (Revelation 2:3). But the disciples had become "dull of hearing," like some of the Hebrew Christians, and therefore the saying of the Lord was hard of interpretation to them (cp.Hebrews 5:2, R.V.).
(7)Lack of recollection.— "Do ye not remember?" and then the Lord cited the two miracles of the loaves. The things which are behind, which relate to our former measure of attainment in the Christian life, we may usefully forget (Php 3:13). But the memory of the great goodness of the Lord should be ever with us to incite us to continuous praise (Psalms 145:7). The recollection of the Lord’s ways with us in the past gives us guidance for the present. When we remember the food-miracles of yesterday we do not fear a famine today or tomorrow. A vivid and accurate memory is a great factor of the spiritual life. The importance of an active remembrance of divine things is emphasized by Peter, who makes four references to the subject in his Second Epistle (2 Peter 1:12-13; 2 Peter 1:15;2 Peter 3:1). In thus exhorting others, did he recall his own experience, when the remembrance of the warning words of the Lord caused him to repent of his shameful denial of his Master? (Matthew 26:75;Luke 22:61). The Lord’s Supper is an act appointed to perpetuate the remembrance of the death of Christ by the church. Two Psalms (Psalms 38:1-22andPsalms 70:1-5) were specially written "to bring to remembrance"; and the recollection of the marvellous works of the Lord is stated many times in the Psalms to be the basis 0f confidence and trust in God. To the assembly at Sardis, the Lord sent the solemn warning, "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard" (Revelation 3:3). In this instance in Mark, when the disciples were thinking that the Lord was chiding them for the shortage of their food-store, He reminded them of His double miracle so recently worked, and the number of baskets of broken pieces they were able to collect owing to His overflowing bounty. Might He not well say, O ye of little faith, do ye not remember? The Final Question When the Lord definitely inquired concerning the, miracles of the loaves, their memories were refreshed. They could reply accurately when He asked the number of baskets of fragments they had taken up. Whereupon the Lord put the question which was a repetition and a summary of the preceding ones: "and he kept saying to them, Do ye not yet understand; Mark 8:21)?" The question embodied a charge of reprehensible dullness How could they think that the Lord feared that He might have to make use of the bread of the Pharisees? Matthew, who does not record the sevenfold series, states the final question in a fuller form, "How is it that ye do not perceive that I spake not to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of Pharisees and Sadducees" (Matthew 16:2). Did they suppose that the Lord who had taught them not to be anxious about what they should eat and drink was Himself anxious lest He and His disciples should be compelled to eat the bread of the Pharisees and the Sadducees?
We also learn from the same Evangelist that after these words light dawned on the hearts of the disciples: "Then understood (suniemi) they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (Matthew 16:12). Their rabbis had leavened the holy bread of the law as it was given originally by the introduction of the leaven of the precepts of men (Mark 7:7). Their teaching was permeated by the traditions of the elders, and thus the unleavened bread of the scripture was spoiled for the children of the kingdom by the leaven of hypocrisy and formalism, making the word of God of none effect, as it did, by their tradition.