Mark 8

Mark 8 is a chapter about perception - or the lack of it.

Jesus was still in gentile territory when He fed the four thousand. His disciples did not seem to recall what happened when He fed the five thousand in Israel. Even though the circumstances were similar, they made the same argument - where will we get enough to feed all these people. This miracle is repeated twice, and both times it's almost the same story. The disciples don't quite grasp what's going on, Jesus multiplies the food so that there is an abundance of leftovers. Then they leave by boat.

Somehow the Pharisees tracked Jesus down in the middle of this and asked Him to show them a sign - as if He hasn't been showing signs everywhere He went. All the Pharisees had to do was follow Jesus around for any amount of time and they would have seen the all the signs they wanted to, but they refused to follow Jesus so they never opened their eyes to what He was actually doing.

Then, it seems they were back on the road and Jesus warned them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. Jesus was talking about false teaching and false authority, but the disciples were hung up on food. Jesus had to remind them that food was not a problem they needed to worry about, and to try to understand what He was doing.

Then Jesus healed a blind man, but this particular healing took two attempts. Jesus healed Him the first time, and the man could only see partially, so Jesus healed him again, and he was finally able to see clearly. It's kind of like Jesus having to teach the disciples the same lessons over and over for them to actually get it.

Then Jesus asked His disciples who people say that He is. Many people did not understand who Jesus was because they likened Him to John the Baptist and the old prophets. They couldn't see Jesus for who He really was. Peter finally did see Jesus for who He really was, though, but He immediately fumbled again.

Jesus started teaching the disciples that He was going to be killed, and Peter stepped up and rebuked Jesus. Then Jesus immediately rebuked Peter. Peter kind of got who Jesus was at that point, but not fully.

Then Jesus exhorted the crowd to pick up their cross and follow Him. This would have been the last thing anyone in Israel wanted to hear. They were looking for a savior to save them from Rome, and here is Jesus telling them to submit to the worst punishment Rome could sentence them to. Imagine seeing your friends and neighbors hanging on crosses around town - and then someone tells you to carry your cross and follow them. My first reaction would probably be to call that person crazy and get away from them.

We have the benefit of having all the Bible, and two thousand years of understanding about it, to help us navigate through these passages. But the people who were experiencing this in real time would have had a very hard time wrapping their heads around what was going on. It's easy for us to look down on them as if they were blind to what was happening right in front of them, but Jesus was doing things that nobody had ever done before and it was hard for them to mentally lock on to everything He did. We have to be careful not to make the same mistakes by relying so much on the past that we can't grasp the reality happeing in front of us. When Jesus returns He won't be like He was then. We must be prepared to follow Jesus when the time comes - even though we won't have any historical or cultural frame of reference to know what's going on around us.