The Danger of Spiritual Forgetfulness

Mark 8:1-21

Transcript

In those days, again, a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat.
He called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd
because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I
send them away hungry to the homes, they will faint on the way, and some of them
have come from far away. And his disciples answered him, how can one feed these
people with bread here in this desolate place? And he asked them, how many
loaves do you have? They said seven. And he directed the crowd to sit down on
the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them
and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. And they had set them
before the crowd, and they had a few small fish. Having blessed them, he said
that these also should be set before them. And they ate them and were satisfied.
And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full, and there were
about 4,000 people. And he sent them away, and immediately he got into the boat
with his disciples, and went to the district of Dalmanutha. The Pharisees came
and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.
And he sighed deeply in the spirit and said, why does this generation seek a
sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. And he left
them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. Now they had
forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And
he cautioned them saying, watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and
the leaven of Herod. And they began discussing with one another the fact that
they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why are you
discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or
understand, are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears,
do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the
5,000, how many basketfuls of broken pieces did you take up? They said to him,
12. And a seven for 4,000. How many basketfuls of broken pieces did you take up?
And they said to him, seven. And he said to them, do you not yet understand? And
Jesus said, no. Let's pray. Father, as we hear your word and we try to
understand it, we ask for the Spirit's enabling power. Lord, we ask that you
would open up our hearts and minds to receive and to understand. We ask that
these words would be faithful and accurate and clear and helpful. Lord, that our
desire would be to honor you by receiving them. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay. When
I was a teenager, there was one summer where I spent two weeks working at a
summer camp in the Adirondacks. And in one sense, this summer camp was like,
just like so many other summer camps, there were swimming and boats and cabins
and hiking and baseball fields and soccer fields and everything like that. But
this camp also had some unusual traditions. At the end of the day, this camp
would have a big meeting at the chapel at the end of the day after dinner. And
all the campers, all the workers, all the adults, the kids, everyone would
gather at this chapel. And there would be typical elements like music and like
teaching. But there was, the unusual thing about this end of day meeting was
that it never officially ended. You were never actually dismissed. The camp had
a tradition and a teaching that said you had to be very careful not to lose your
blessing. And what that meant was at the end of the meeting, you were not
supposed to get up and leave. Instead, you were supposed to sit very quietly at
the end of the meeting and ponder what you had heard. If you got up and just
left, you might lose your blessing. It was a little bit like the Hotel
California. You were free to check in, but you could never check out. Now, I was
like 16 or 17 years old, so when the meeting was over, I was ready to leave. I
was in a hurry to go play ping pong or talk with my friends or go back to my
bunk or hope that a girl would look at me or whatever was going on in my teenage
mind at that time. That's what I was in a hurry to do. But instead, I was stuck
inside this chapel surrounded by older people who had their eyes closed and were
either praying quietly or sleeping or perhaps spying on me to see if I would
tiptoe out of the room, to see if I would leave without my blessing. Well,
fortunately, camp only lasted for two weeks for me. But when I remembered that
time, I've come to realize that the camp had actually identified a real danger.
Even if their solution, their application was goofy, it was the danger of
spiritual forgetfulness. And spiritual forgetfulness means to hear and acquire
truth without any behavioral change or hard transformation. Some people have
said before that spiritual truth is like this, you either use it or lose it. And
that's spiritual forgetfulness, and that's the danger that our passage deals
with today. We're in Mark 8 this morning, and the account that Tom read begins
with the feeding of the 4,000. The passage is broken into four sections. Verses
one through 10 is the feeding of the 4,000. Verses 11 through 13, the Pharisees
come to Jesus and they are demanding a sign. And then third, in verses 14
through 21, Jesus warns his disciples about the teaching, or the leaven, the
attitude of the Pharisees and Herod. So here's what we need to see today. We
need to see the danger of spiritual forgetfulness, and we need to know that we
have to remember if we're going to actually understand. We need to remember if
we're actually going to understand. Let me look at verses one through 10 in Mark
8. In those days when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to
eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the
crowd because they've been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And
if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some
of them have come from far away. And the disciples answered him, how can one
feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? And he asked them, how
many loaves do you have? They said seven. And he directed the crowd to sit down
on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke
them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they set them
before the crowd, and they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he
said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied,
and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full, and there were
about 4,000 people, and he sent them away. And immediately, he got into the boat
with his disciples and went to the district of Delmanutha. Now, if you've been
following Mark, you're thinking, didn't we just read a story like this? Why did
it happen twice? And even if it did happen twice, why did Mark include it? Why
did he write it down again? What's this about? It's a very similar miracle to
what takes place in Mark 6, 30 through 44, known as the feeding of the 5,000.
Now in chapter eight, we're reading about the feeding of the 4,000. And some
scholars have concluded that Mark must have been confused and conflated the
details, turning one episode into two. There's very substantial details,
however, that are different in the story that are not the same, that indicate
chapter six and chapter eight are two different episodes. They're in two
different places. And to make this even more clear, Jesus in verses 19 through
20 reinforces the reality of two separate accounts. But as readers, we have to
ask ourselves, well, what's the significance of the two separate accounts?
Because it's easy when we read the gospels to conclude that every episode kind
of means essentially the same thing. Another person gets healed, another miracle
is done. It means Jesus has power. It means Jesus has authority. But they seem
perhaps repetitive to us. Mark is actually doing something much more specific
than that. So for starters, let's notice in chapter seven, the preceding
passage, 31 to 37, that's an account of blindness, of a man that cannot hear or
see. Chapter eight, verses 22 through 26, so the next passage, the one
bookending this, that is about a blind man receiving his sight. Our account
today is located in that context between the two accounts of blindness. And
we'll notice the disciples, well, they're not physically blind, but they're not
seeing clearly either. There's a lack of sight that they have. And the passage
is located in this Gentile region, this is not Jewish, Jesus is teaching. And
Mark says in verse one, when again a great crowd had gathered, they had nothing
to eat. It's kind of a sign from the author. We've been here before. Once again
there's a big crowd, once again we're out in the middle of nowhere, once again
time is passing, and it's evident that they don't have enough food to eat.
Similar elements to Mark six. Lack of food, big crowd, out in a desolate place.
And Jesus again has compassion on the people. He's thinking about their physical
needs. He says, I have compassion on the crowd because they've been with me now
three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their
homes, they will faint on the way, and some of them have come from far away. The
disciples' response is not as sarcastic as in chapter six. If you recall that
time, they talk about how it would take a year's wage to feed all these people.
But their basic question is still the same. It's how do you feed all these
people? We're out in the middle of nowhere. As though what they have seen and
learned and observed before has no actual impact on this situation. They're slow
to understand. But it's true of us as well. We don't learn everything in one
encounter. And in this case, the disciples need repetition. They need to see
again who Jesus is in the feeding of the crowds. And here's why this second
account is so significant, even if we've heard something similar already. Jesus
is demonstrating for the second time that he is the bread of life. There is a
parallel between Moses and the wilderness generation in Exodus when God fed them
with manna from heaven, and now Jesus is feeding both Jews and then subsequently
Gentiles in the wilderness. He is the bread of life for all people. Something
that Jesus teaches explicitly in John. If you look at John 6, 48 through 51,
Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and
they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of
it and not die. I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. If anyone
eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the
life of the world is my flesh. So he's pointing forward to his sacrifice, the
sacrifice of his body on the cross. But Jesus is saying in John and signifying
here in Mark, I am the one who can satisfy and give eternal life. And once
again, as Jesus multiplies the food, he's providing far more than enough, there
are leftovers. In chapter six, there were 12 baskets full of leftovers. In
chapter eight, there are seven. In that first account, those 12 baskets referred
to or symbolized the 12 tribes of Israel. Now these seven baskets, seven is
often in the Bible a number for fullness and completion. And the point of this
repetition is, the point of repetition always is, if we have not mastered the
concept, we need to see something repeated. There are many things that we think
we get, but we don't really get. And after this miracle, Jesus and his disciples
leave and the narrative picks back up with an encounter with the Pharisees. By
this time, they're likely back in Galilee and the Pharisees come. They ask Jesus
for a sign. The Pharisees came and began to argue with him. I'm in verse 11. The
Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven
to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, why does this
generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this
generation. And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other
side. So Jesus is probably back in town, back in Capernaum at this point, and
the Pharisees come, seeking from him a sign. Now, the truth is, they have
already seen plenty. They have seen a paralyzed man be healed. They've seen a
paralytic's hand, or they've seen a man with a withered hand get healed. They've
seen disreputable people start following Jesus. But when they saw these things,
this is back in Mark chapter three, they accused Jesus of having demonic power,
of being possessed by Satan. What they had seen, they attributed to the power of
the evil one. Now they come to him, contentious, asking him for a sign from
heaven. A sign is not the same thing as do another miracle. People have
different theories as to what the healings are that are taking place and what
they all mean. A sign would be something more like direct revelation, something
that the Pharisees would deem as conclusive or definitive. A sign would be like
a voice from heaven or a message in the sky. Similar, actually, to when Jesus is
tempted by Satan. There's a sit in the Gospel of Matthew, a similar challenge is
posed to him. That passage says that the devil took him to the holy city and set
him down on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of
God, throw yourself down. It's a challenge, prove yourself. You see it in the
beginning of Jesus' ministry, in that encounter with Satan. You see it in the
middle of Jesus' ministry when the Pharisees come and ask him for a sign, and
you see it at the end when Jesus hangs on the cross and people taunt him and
say, if you're the son of God, well, get yourself down off this cross. There's
that challenge again and again, prove yourself. It's disingenuous because it
suggests if they could see more, if more evidence could be provided, then they
would believe, then they would follow. But these are cold-hearted, hard-hearted
people that falsely believe a sign would be enough. And in response, verse 12
says, Jesus sighs. It's the same language and anguish and groaning and moaning
he expressed when he encountered the deaf man, deaf and blind man in Mark 7. He
says, why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be
given to this generation. That word generation is a reference back to the
wilderness generation, during the time of Moses. Those people experienced more
signs than most of us could ever even imagine or expect. They saw the 10
plagues, they saw the Red Sea parted, they saw the manifest presence of God on
Mount Sinai. They were not lacking evidence or signs or demonstrations of power,
that was not the problem. The problem was their hard-heartedness. The hard-
heartedness of the wilderness generation becomes proverbial for the people of
God down through the generations. In Psalm 95, the psalmist references it and
uses it as an example to the people of God not to be hard-hearted the way their
forefathers were. If you look at Psalm 95, eight through 11, the psalmist says,
today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Maribba, as on
the day at Massa in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put
me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For 40 years, I loathed that
generation and said, they are a people who go astray in their heart and they
have not known my ways. Therefore, I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my
rest. When the Pharisees came to Jesus demanding a sign, he could have given
that to them. It had to be, it had to be tempting to give an obvious
demonstration of power, but they received no sign. Jesus actually turns his back
on the Pharisees. He left them, he got in the boat again, and he went to the
other side. There's a warning there about the condition of our own hearts. We
can read a lot, we can know a lot, we can hear spiritual truth, we can have
spiritual experiences, we can participate in things that are undeniable. All
that can happen. We can still be cold-hearted before Jesus. The Pharisees wanted
a sign, but it's not what they needed. They needed change from the inside out.
Now the Pharisees, they are outright rejecting Jesus. Now our account
transitions back to the disciples. They are not rejecting Jesus, they see
themselves as followers, but they are also facing a danger, the danger of
spiritual forgetfulness. Verse 14 says, now they had forgotten to bring bread,
and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them saying,
watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod, and
they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And
Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you
have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?
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 5,000, how many baskets full of
broken pieces did you take up? They said to him, 12. And seven for the 4,000?
How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him,
seven. And he said to them, do you not yet understand? The disciples are slow to
believe. They're slow on the uptake. They're slow to process. They're slow to
connect the dots. They get in the boat for the trip to the other side, and they
realize they have forgotten to pack enough bread. This is very literal. They
didn't pack enough food for the trip. And Jesus cautions them and says, beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Leaven is a figure of
speech for self-centeredness, self-reliance, and hard-heartedness. Leaven is
fermented dough, and if just a little bit gets added to a new lump, just that
little bit will affect the whole lump. This is how Galatians uses leaven when
Paul says a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Jesus is warning his
disciples. They are not nearly as far down the road of rejection as the
Pharisees and Herod were. But he says, beware this heart attitude that you see
in the Pharisees and Herod. Obviously, those guys are further down the road in
their hard-heartedness, but Jesus is saying, beware of the deceptiveness of
hard-heartedness, and recognize that religious knowledge can coexist with pride
and stubbornness. The disciples aren't hard-hearted the way the Pharisees are,
but they are forgetful. They are failing to appropriate the spiritual truth that
they've received. So Jesus warns them. You can see there's a little bit of humor
in Mark's narrative. Jesus has just demonstrated he's the bread of life. He fed
4,000 people. It's the second time in a short period of time that food has been
miraculously multiplied, and then the disciples get into the boat, and they're
like, what are we gonna do about the bread? And you read this, and say, guys,
it's gonna be okay. You're gonna be all right. But we can see their short-
sightedness. Their forgetfulness is intentionally humorous in the narrative, but
we're very similar. They've experienced something, but there's not actual
application. This is the Messiah, the promised one, the bread of life, the giver
of life, and they're still worried about not packing enough food. They're still
not sure who it is in the boat with them. Later on in this chapter, Jesus
presses them. Who do you say that I am? There's all these theories that people
have. Who do you actually say that I am? He's bringing them towards the point of
decision, and the teaching that they're receiving and the experiences that
they're having does not preclude them from being hard-hearted and forgetful.
They're still like, we don't have enough bread. The question is, are we learning
anything at all? They're discussing, they're hearing, they're observing, they're
taking in information, but that penny has not dropped yet. They're still
thinking, man, we didn't bring enough food. They're seeing things, they're
hearing things, but they're not benefiting. They're not taking advantage. And
Jesus, in response, hits them with this very powerful sequence of questions. If
you look at your Bible, look at the punctuation, because you're gonna see eight
questions in a row. Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do
you not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 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 5,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you
take up? And they say to him, like students that forgot to do their homework,
12, right? And the seven to the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces
did you take up? Seven. And he said to them, do you not understand yet? The
questions are like a drumbeat. They're a little bit intense of a teacher with
the students saying, don't you get it yet? Do you not remember? There's a danger
that we all face of spiritual forgetfulness. The New Testament letter of James
reflects on this danger and says to us, but be doers of the word and not hearers
only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a
doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for
he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he looks like. And
that's all of us. And we look at this passage and we thank the Lord for the
compassion that Jesus has with these people, the patience he has with the
disciples, the patience he has on stubborn, forgetful, hard-hearted people like
us. But we ought to ask ourselves, how do we cultivate spiritual understanding?
So this passage is a caution for us, and I think there's two different types of
people that this speaks to. One, one is for those who are on the fence, for
those here in the room that have never actually given their life to Jesus. And I
know the claims of Christ and of Christianity are a lot to take in. And in one
sense, in one sense, my hope would be that you have all the time in the world to
process and ask honest questions and get honest answers. And then at the same
time, I know that all of us love to use process language when there's no process
going on. Because process implies direction and destination and progress. So we
like to use that language because it sounds better. So we say, someone might ask
us about our spiritual condition or what we think about the claims of Christ,
and we say things like, well, I'm kind of working through things. And you push
off those spiritual thoughts for another time. And if that's you, my hope would
be that the word of God rests really heavily on you right now, and that you
would see that Jesus is the bread of life that satisfies in the living water
that you're looking for, and that you would, not someday in the far off future,
or someday maybe, but that even now you would humble yourself and pray and cry
out to God, confess your sin and cry out to him in prayer. There's also those of
us here in the room that are following Jesus that need to be very careful about
the danger of spiritual forgetfulness. Because we need to see, do you see, we
can have a lot of spiritual knowledge and still be blind, hard-hearted, and
self-deluded. You can pray and read your Bible and listen to good biblical
teaching and do that in a way that is very disconnected from the rest of your
life. The disciples watched Jesus multiply bread and feed thousands of people,
and then they got in their boat and started to worry that they wouldn't have
enough food for the rest of the day. But isn't it, is that really a whole lot
different than when we stand here together and sing great is thy faithfulness,
and then go home and start complaining? Our words and our actions would express
God actually hasn't been faithful at all. That's just, that singing, that's just
something we do at this time of the week. We can be like the disciples who are
worried about not packing enough bread. We can be like the man in the mirror who
forgets what he looks like. We need to remember if we're gonna actually
understand. And remembering means humbling yourself before God. It means
meditating on his word. It means allowing the Holy Spirit to prompt you towards
confession and repentance. It means remembering what we've heard, what we've
learned, and what we've been given, and remembering in a Christian sense is not
nostalgia. It's a way of building faith for the future. It's an actual
discipline that Christians practice. We remember, we meditate, we ponder, we
receive the truth of God's word, and we ask his Holy Spirit to open up our
hearts and minds to illuminate us and make us hearers and doers. James
continues, after he warns about the man who looks in the mirror and forgets what
he looks like, he says, but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of
liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he
will be blessed in his doing. So let's pray that the Lord would make us hearers
like that and give us hearts like that.