Mark 8:10 - Meaning and Application

Christ kept moving, and now he visited the area of Dalmanutha, so no part of the land of Israel could say it never had his presence. He came there by boat (Mark 8:10), but when he met arguments there and no chance to do good, he got back into the boat (Mark 8:13) and left.

These verses show, first, how he refused to satisfy the Pharisees, who challenged him to give them a sign from heaven. They came only to argue with him, not to learn from him. They were trying to trap him, not to be taught by him.

They asked for a sign from heaven, as if the signs he had already given on earth were not enough. Those earlier signs were easier for them to examine and could be checked carefully. There had already been a sign from heaven at his baptism, when the dove came down and the voice spoke (Matthew 3:16-17). That was public enough, and if they had paid attention to John’s baptism as they should have, they might have seen it themselves.

Later, when Jesus was nailed to the cross, they asked for yet another sign, saying, “Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him.” Hard unbelief always finds another excuse, no matter how unreasonable. They asked for this sign as a test, not because they expected to be satisfied, but because they hoped he would not give it, and then they could claim a reason for their unbelief.

Jesus refused their request. He sighed deeply in his spirit, or groaned, because he was grieved by the hardness of their hearts and by how little his teaching and miracles had affected them. The unbelief of people who have long had the chance to be convinced is a great sorrow to the Lord Jesus. It troubles him that sinners block their own way and shut their own door.

He then pressed them with a question: Why does this generation keep looking for a sign? This was a generation unworthy to have the gospel brought to it, or to have any sign with it. It eagerly accepted the traditions of the elders, even without any sign at all. It was also a generation that, by the timing foretold in the Old Testament, could have seen that the Messiah was due to come. And it had already seen many clear and merciful signs in the healing of the sick. So their demand was foolish.

He also refused their demand plainly: “Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” When God spoke to particular people in special cases, outside his usual way of dealing, he sometimes encouraged them to ask for a sign, as with Gideon and Ahaz. But when he speaks more generally to all people, as in the law and the gospel, and gives each its own proof, it is presumption to ask for different signs than the ones he has already given. No one should try to teach God what he should know.

So he denied them and left them, as men not fit to be argued with. If they would not be convinced, then they would not. He leaves them to their strong delusions.

Second, he warned his disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. The warning was this: “Be careful, and watch out, so that you do not take in the leaven of the Pharisees.” Leaven means yeast, but here it stands for harmful influence that spreads through the whole person. He meant, do not take in the tradition of the elders, to which they were so attached, and do not become proud, hypocritical, and overly ceremonial like them.

Matthew also adds the Sadducees, but Mark adds Herod. Some think this means Herod and his court were usually Sadducees, that is, people who denied much of religion. Others take it this way: the Pharisees asked for a sign from heaven, and Herod also wanted to see Jesus do a miracle of his choosing (Luke 23:8). So the leaven of both was the same. They were never satisfied with the signs they had and wanted miracles in their own way. Christ’s warning means, be content with the miracles you have already seen, and do not keep craving more.

The disciples misunderstood this warning. They had forgotten to bring bread as they set out, and they had only one loaf in the boat (Mark 8:14). So when Jesus told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, they thought he was warning them not to go to the Pharisees for help when they reached the other side. They had recently been offended by the Pharisees over eating with unwashed hands.

They discussed among themselves what he meant and decided it was because they had no bread. They thought he was blaming them for going to sea and traveling among strangers with only one loaf. In effect, they thought he was telling them they would have to make do with very little. They argued among themselves, one blaming another for the poor planning. That is what distrust of God does, it makes Christ’s disciples quarrel with one another.

Christ then rebuked them for their worry, because it showed they did not trust his power to provide, even after all they had already seen. He spoke with some sharpness, because he knew their hearts and knew they needed a strong correction. “Do you still not perceive or understand? Have your hearts become hard? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? Do you not remember?” He reminded them of the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and the feeding of the four thousand with seven loaves. They could even count the leftovers, twelve baskets full after one miracle and seven after the other.

His point was clear: if he could multiply five loaves and seven loaves, he could certainly multiply one loaf too. They seemed to think one loaf was too little for him to work with, as if he could not feed people again. But to the Lord, it is all the same whether he saves by many means or by few. It is just as easy for him to make one loaf feed five thousand as to make five loaves do so.

So he rightly reminded them not only of the sufficiency of the earlier meals, but of the extra left over. They should have understood what he was teaching through those miracles, and what they themselves could learn from them. The lesson is this, the experiences we have had of God’s goodness to us while doing his will make our distrust of him much worse, and that distrust greatly displeases the Lord Jesus.

Not understanding the true meaning of God’s gifts to us is much the same as forgetting them. Because of that, we often become overwhelmed by present worries and distrust. We fail to make use of what we have already known and seen about the power and goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It would greatly strengthen us to look back on the days gone by. We wrong both God and ourselves if we do not. When we forget God’s works and begin to distrust him, we should rebuke ourselves sharply for it, just as Christ rebuked his disciples here: “Do I still not understand? Why is my heart so hard?”