Jesus is Essential
Mark 8:18–21: Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” “Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?” And they said, “Seven.” So He said to them, “How is it you do not understand?”
We should also draw upon the remembrances contained in God’s Word. We should remember Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea. Have you ever purposely imagined what the event was like? You should. We should do this with the miracle of the sun standing still for embattled Joshua, the raising of Lazarus, and Peter’s miraculous deliverance from jail, to name a few.
Christ ended with one final question. It is best to see it not as a continuation of the rebuke, but as a searching appeal to the disciples. He said to them in verse 21, “Do you still not understand?” That is, do you still not understand that I am the Bread of Life for the whole world?” This is a question for our own hearts. Is he our Bread? Do we understand what this means for the way we live? Do we understand what it means for the world? 1
Walking with Jesus
What is it that you are “not getting” about who God is and how He wants to take you through the intimidating Red Sea’s of life? Is your heart hard or soft? Is the warning light on…and are you ignoring it? Be careful!
For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened. Mark 6:52
At the heart of every problem, there is a problem in the heart.
Praying
Lord, please cleanse my heart from pride. I can not make it without You.
1. Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
