Halfway There

We are a society that knows tons.  All the knowledge we can handle is at our finger tips.  You ask me anything.  I’ll Google it.  We’ll get an answer.  We can know anything, but we understand little.

One of our biggest challenges in catching the wonder of the Good News is we know too much about it…and understand too little…because we’re only halfway there.

The Pharisee’s came, not unlike the half-dozen other time they’ve come in Mark’s Good News narrative, with all their fears and bitterness masked in questions and demands.  They came and began to argue, with no intent of belief or pursuit of understanding.  They knew all they wanted to know.

They came to test Jesus, or better to temp him.  “Peiradzo.”  The same word is used when Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan.  That was no one-and-done temptation event.  God’s enemy came back again and again to tempt the Lord, our Lord.  Here the temptation was for a sign; some high-level proof that Jesus is more than a local magician or miracle maker, some mighty deed of deliverance to set him apart as Messiah, like when YHWH rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

The prophets of the Torah wrote at length about Messiah…  Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah all promise a new kingdom, Davidic King, restoration and possession of the land.  Micah insists on deliverance and peace; shalom or wholeness.  Zephaniah depicts nation’s converted and great joy and singing and exultation over them.  Habakkuk gives fantastic, vivid, even graphic imagery of judgement and wrath and sun and moon standing still.

“Show us some of that.”

Isaiah 35:5-6:  “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

“And we’ve seen all that Jesus, as well as healing lepers and casting out demons.  All well and good as it is, but a sign of Messiah please!  Let’s see if you can set this thing up!”

Isaiah 35:3-4:  “They shall see the glory of YHWH, the majesty of our God.  Behold, you God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

Isaiah 35:8 & 10:  “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it.  It shall belong to those who walk on the way…  And the ransomed of YHWH shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Jesus sighed…deeply.  This again, he thought.  “Why does this generation seek a sign?”

Jesus’ terms harken us back to the “this generation” that wound up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years after their signs.  Signs are demanded by people who refuse to believe.  Signs are demanded by people who are puffed up in knowing an awful lot but don’t really understand anything.  Signs merely eliminate the need for a faith decision.

“A sign?  I say to you, if a sign will be given to this generation; if I do such a thing…”  Jesus stems off the threat.  It’s a common Hebrew phrase of contempt that our English Bible struggles to convey.  It’s like when my mom would say, “If I come up there and find your Legos all over the floor, so help me…” and you wait for the bad part.  Or when my Dad would say, “If I have to put your bikes away one more time…” and again you wait for he bad part.

For religious culture in Jesus’ day it would have been like this:  “If I do such a thing…” then the bad part “…may God strike me down.”  Or “If I give a sign, may it be that I die.”  Surely you catch the irony that emerges should Jesus have uttered the whole phrase.  But he stems it off.

One commentator has said:  “There is no legitimating sign, except the ambiguity of the humiliated and crucified Lord, and to see in his cross the power and wisdom of God is to be forced to exercise faith, which by definition can never rest in proofs or signs, or else its character would be lost.”

Zechariah 12 talks about Messiah as one who was pierced.  Zechariah 13 talks about Messiah as a shepherd who was struck.  Isaiah 53 talks about Messiah as despised, rejected, and acquainted with grief…  Give it a read; Isaiah 53:4-12

No sign for this generation of “knowledge without understanding.”  And Jesus left them, with conviction and vehemence.  Though that would not be the last time the Pharisees would rise up against Jesus.  He got into the boat and went toward the other side.

They were on the water now, where anything can, and has, happened.  Verse 14 says, “They had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat…”

See what Mark just did there?  He’s been doing it for a couple chapters now.  Mark teases the reader by suggesting, albeit subtly, that Jesus is the “one loaf” of bread. 

As the author, Mark is on the backside of these stories.  He doesn’t just know they happened, he understands what they mean.  And he has been weaving the theme of bread, like a thread, into the tapestry of his Good News narrative since Jesus fed the 5000.

The multitude of Jewish people; “sheep without a shepherd” need bread after a long day of Jesus’ teaching – sustaining food for the journey home.  Jesus shows them who he is in abundant provision.

They Syrophoenician woman comes as a Gentile hoping for only the crumbs of the bread that fall from the table.  Jesus gives her the presence of the Kingdom in healing; indeed the hope of her heart.

The multitude again, this time Gentiles from around the Decapolis, are found without bread and after three days of Jesus’ teaching.  Jesus shows them, as he did the Jews, who he is in abundant provision. 

The only “bread” scene we’re missing in Mark’s Good News narrative is the “Bread of Life” discourse where Jesus states explicitly, “I am the Bread of Life.”  Which frankly would not have meant near as much to mark’s Gentile audience as it did for John’s Jewish audience.

And here, now, the disciples are found without bread, yet with The Bread in the boat.  And Jesus will press them beyond knowing toward understanding.

Verse 15 says he – the loaf – cautioned them:  “Watch out!  Keep your eyes wide open, vigilant and guarded for the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

“That’s good to know Jesus.  We should write that down in our notebooks.  Thanks.  Hey guys, speaking of leaven, did anyone grab a to-go box of leftover bread after that last miracle?”  And so the discussion in the boat progressed.  The disciples now muddled in their own little world with its petty alarms, blind to the cosmic reality that God’s Kingdom is breaking onto the scene in their midst, right there in the boat, on the water, again!

Time is bearing down on Jesus.  He’s halfway there, to the cross.  Verse 17:  “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?”  We feel the frustration and the urgency.  Jesus layers on the questions one after the next…

“Do you not yet perceive and understand?”  (Recalling his discourse on the purpose of parables in 4:11-13.  Same words, check it.)

“Are your hearts still hardened?”  (Recalling the last time in the boat after the 5000, when he walked on water.  Same words, 6:52, check it.)

“Having eyes do you not see (like the guy we’ll notice in a minute), and having ears do you not hear (like the guy we noticed last week)?”

“Do you not remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the 5000, how much was left?” 

Probably silent for a minute.  “Twelve lunch pail size baskets were left.” 

“And the seven loaves for the 4000, how much was left?”

“More.  Seven laundry hamper size baskets were left.”

“Do you not yet understand?!”

“Um, twelve baskets for twelve tribes?  Or twelve disciples…us?  Those were supposed to be our lunches for the journey?  Seven…is the number of completeness?  Things are finished?  Um, 12 + 7 = 19, which means, ah…  No, no we don’t understand.  We should, but we don’t.  We know all about what happened, but we don’t understand.”

Friday afternoon I took a drive.  I was getting anxious about this message.  I was struggling to connect the dots; to see the whole of the text and catch the point that ties these passages all together.  When I get like that I’m not fun to be around.  Thus the drive.

I was sifting through the parts and pieces of the text. Talking it out.  Checking boxes off of what I know about the Pharisees and leaven and rhetorical questions and so on.  I got to the bottom of the list…  Now I’m doing all this out loud as I drive.  I’m not worried about people passing me because I could be on a blue tooth mic talking to a doctor or a client for all they know.  They don’t understand.  But I’m getting upset and emotional and it’s escalating into a battle with God and I blurt out at nearly the top of my lungs:

“I know everything there is to know about this passage God, and I still don’t understand it!”

And then silence in my car.  And you know that feeling you get when you watch those videos on YouTube of soldiers coming home from deployment and surprising their kids or family in classrooms and at games?  Or when you turn at just the right moment to notice the flaring light of the sun splash across a landscape at sunrise or sunset?  Or whenever there’s a “drop of the divine” into a moment and it catches your emotions off guard…  How the emotion rises up and floods your heart and mind and you weep, and you’re like, “I’m weeping right now?!”  That hit me and I pulled over into a field up off the Barnhart Road and I said, out loud, but not near as loud as before, because how could I possibly be as contentious as I was, I said:

“We can know everything there is to know about Jesus, and still not understand who he is.”

I think that ties these passages together.  We can know everything there is to know about Jesus, and still not understand who he is…because we’re only halfway there.

Leaven was a parcel of dough held over from the previous week’s batch of dough, mixed with particular juices to promote fermentation, and then stored away.  At just the right time it was added to a fresh batch of dough to pervade it and cause it to rise.  Then the process is repeated.

Done rightly, leaven perpetuates the provision of bread; one would have a continual supply of life sustaining nutrition.  Done wrongly, leaven becomes toxic and poisons the dough along with those consuming it.  You can also begin to see the point Jesus was making. 

Leaven became a symbol in the ancient world of something small, even insignificant or hidden that can in time grow big and significant and visible, with far reaching effect.  And it could have positive connotation or it could have negative connotation.

Realizing many of you know all that already…do you understand what Jesus is doing?  May I draw some parallels for us here?

The Kingdome of God is the presence of Jesus Christ and all that characterizes him as the eternal Logos or Word of God.  As the Word of God, He is the fullness of what can be communicated or revealed of God, revealed to the world.

Positively, the Kingdom of God is like leaven that was put into dough until the whole batch of dough had been worked through.  Maybe you’ve been counting, maybe you haven’t but thus far in Mark’s Good News narrative he has specifically indicated 25 place references and movements of Jesus.  We’re only 8 chapters in…

From Nazareth, into the wilderness, along the Sea of Galilee, into Capernaum, into a desolate place, throughout Galilee, returning to Capernaum, beside the sea, up to a mountain, back home to Nazareth, beside the sea, on the sea, over to the Gerasenes (Decapolis), back across the sea, then beside it, to Nazareth, about the villages, a desolate place, in the boat, back ashore, back into the boat, over to Gennesaret, around villages, cities, and the countryside, up to Tyre and Sidon, over to the Decapolis, across to Dalmanutha, and now, back on the sea.

The presence of the Kingdom of God is working through the whole region of Galilee as the Eternal Word in Christ Jesus crisscrosses the map from town to village to city. 

Negatively then, the “Kingdom of Judaism” is like leaven that is toxic and poisoning the whole batch of dough with legalism and hypocrisy.

In the Gospels these two are set in opposition to each other.  Leaven equals the Word become Flesh perpetuating a culture of life and freedom in Christ Jesus himself.  As well, leaven equals the false doctrine and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Herodians perpetuating a culture of death and bondage to the law.  And Jesus is warning them of the latter one here; the toxic stuff that is poisoning the culture.

“If the false doctrine and legalistic pursuits of the Pharisees gets into your heart and mind, it would poison the truth of the Kingdom of God at work in you.”  Jesus is pressing a similar point as Paul in Galatians 5:1-9.  The authority of Jesus Messiah, the Son of God, to seek and save the lost is not proved in a sign.  It is proved by faith.

“Do you not yet understand?”

It’s possible the rest of the boat ride was pretty quiet.  Or it’s possible they engaged in seeking understanding.  Either way they run the boat ashore in Bethsaida – movement #26 in our narrative – a town mind you, that already was rebuked by Jesus for unbelief (Matt. 10, 11, 12?). 

None-the-less Jesus and the disciples head toward town.  And no sooner have they set foot in the village when – verse 22:  “Some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.”

The Gospel accounts preserve record of no less than 6 different blind people Jesus heals; each one unique in manner and meaning.  This one perhaps the most curious…  Unless we can notice that beyond the miracle is a parable of the gradual but eventual, even inevitable, opening of Peter’s eyes, the disciple’s eyes, and our eyes yet today.

“Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; out of the place of unbelief, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?”

Everyone leans in.

“The man looked up, ‘I see men…but they look like trees, walking.’”

Now skip down with me…

“Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi – movement #27 in our narrative – and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’  ‘John the Baptist?  Elijah?  One of the other prophets?  Folks see you, but you’re like a tree walking…”

Partial sight equals partial understanding.  You and I, standing next to the disciples, we can know all there is to know about Jesus; we can trace themes and do word studies and cross reference verses, not altogether unlike what we’ve done here to certain degrees.  We can pile up pages of sermon notes and fill notebooks with thoughts and insights.  We can know all there is to know about Jesus, and still not understand who he is…because we’re only halfway there.

Paul says in 1 Corinthian, tucked in amidst the well-worn context on love in chapter 13, verse 12 – and some of you know this one already – “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

We see but a blur, we hear but an echo, we’re only halfway there.

It feels strange to leave a text only halfway through, yes? 

“Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, he saw everything clearly.  And Jesus sent him home, but not back to the place of unbelief.”

“And Jesus asked the disciples:  ‘But who do you say that I am?’  Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah.’”

We see but a blur.  We hear but an echo.  We know an awful lot.  We’re only halfway there.  Let us press on toward understanding.