In Psalm 95, the Lord speaks of the generation of Israelites who perished in the wilderness and were not able to go into the promised land. The Lord says in that chapter that the group that he allowed to perish in the wilderness had put him to the test, always went astray in their heart, and had not known his ways.
Those descriptions are not surprising to us when we consider all the atrocities committed by these people. I mean, consider that while Moses was on the mountain meeting with God, they fashioned an idol out of gold and worshiped a calf. And again, while Moses was on the mountain they “rose up to play” (Ex. 32:6), which Paul tells us means that they engaged in sexual immorality (1 Cor. 10:8). They complained, even after being delivered from slavery in Egypt and having all their needs met in the wilderness. I don’t know that any of us would think it unfair to say that this people put the Lord to the test, always went astray in their heart, and did not know the Lord’s way. Nor is it surprising that they fell dead in the wilderness and were not able to enter the Lord’s land of rest.
What may be surprising is the reason the author of Hebrews says that the people were not able to enter the land. Again, he could have listed any of a number of sins, saying, they weren’t able to enter because of their idolatry, bitter complaining, lack of gratitude, sexual immorality, or the like. But instead, he says, “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”
You see, what lay at the bottom of all of their acts of sin – whether idolatry, sexual immorality, complaining, or a lack of gratitude – was unbelief. In fact, it’s fair to say that unbelief lies at the bottom of all of our acts of sin. In every act of rebellion against God, we are actually committing two acts of defiance, and the act of whatever specific sin we commit is the second of those two acts. This is always true of sin. We can start with Eve, in the garden. The eating of the tree that God had forbidden was the second act of defiance against her God. The first was committed the moment she did not believe that what he had commanded of her was best for her. And it is true for whatever was our last sin – whether gossip, lust, backbiting, covetousness, or the like. In each of those acts, we not only committed the sin, but we first refused to believe that God’s commands were best. We convinced ourselves in the moment that fleeing sexual immorality would be worse for us than engaging in our lusts. We convinced ourselves in the moment that edifying our brother or sister and seeking their good would be worse for us than gossiping about them. We convinced ourselves that making our requests known to God and trusting in him would be worse for us than giving ourselves over to anxiety. In each of these acts, our sin is prefaced with the act of unbelief. We always first refuse to believe and trust in our Lord and his commands, and then we defy him with our sinful thoughts, words, or actions.
And because this is true, there are a number of texts in our Bibles that focus us on the issue of unbelief, faith, and trust in the Lord our God. And Mark 8:11-26 is one such text. The text is comprised of three episodes in Jesus’ life that can feel a bit unrelated. Mark tells us of another interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees in which the Pharisees demand that Jesus provide for them a sign, a conversation with Jesus and his disciples in a boat where they’ve forgotten to bring bread, and the healing of a blind man in Bethsaida that surprisingly happens in stages where he gets a bit of his sight restored at first only to have it ultimately restored as Jesus continues to address him.
The stories each involve different groups or persons with Jesus. The stories have different issue of conflict, misunderstanding, and great hope. And the stories end with Jesus moving away from the Pharisees, settling down into teaching with his disciples, and telling the healed blind man not to even enter the village. Again, it seems that the stories are completely disconnected. But I believe what they have in common is that all of them point us to the issue of faith – whether unbelief or faith and trust in the Lord.
Therefore, it’s important for us, considering how fundamental faith is to whether we walk in sin or obedience to the Lord, to heed the warnings, receive the exhortations, and respond to the encouragement concerning unbelief and faith in this text. And that’s what I want us to do this morning. So, with that said, let’s first note a warning from Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees where we see that . . .
Mark 8:11 begins by telling us that the Pharisees began to “argue” with Jesus. But the nature of their argument is a bit different than we are accustomed to. Typically, they’re charging him or his disciples with doing something wrong – whether violating their understanding of God’s law or the tradition of the elders. But this time they’re arguing with him by “seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him” (v. 11).
And Jesus doesn’t take too kindly to this. In fact, Mark tells us that he sighed deeply in his spirit (most likely a representation of his frustration) and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation” (v. 12). Then, he left them (which is really the last time Mark provides for us sustained dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees in this gospel.
So, let’s first ask an obvious question about this encounter, namely, why was what the Pharisees did so wrong? After all, haven’t we asked the Lord to provide some guidance to us in life by providing a sign of sorts? I can think of numerous times in my own life where I’ve prayed, saying, “Father, would you please show me that I’m making the right decision here?” And maybe you’ve prayed something similar. Isn’t that like asking for a sign? It sure feels like it.
But what the Pharisees are doing here is, I believe, altogether different. Note first that Mark tells us that they are seeking a sign from heaven “to test him” (v. 11). Perhaps it’s this testing that makes the demand for a sign so atrocious. After all, of that generation of Israelites who fell in the wilderness, the Lord said of them in Psalm 95:9 that they “put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.” Doesn’t that sound pretty descriptive of the Pharisees here? They’d seen (or at least heard of) the Lord’s miraculous work, but now they were putting the Lord to the test.
But, then again, we find texts in Scripture like Malachi 3:10, where the people had not been giving the Lord their tithe under the prescription of the Old Covenant, and the Lord says to them, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” Here God invites the people to put him to the test. So, what’s the difference?
Here’s what I think it is. In the Malachi text, the Lord does invite the people to test him, but we should also acknowledge that the means they would use to test him would be to obey him. That is, the Lord says to them, “Test me by obeying me, and I’ll show my faithfulness.” This is not the Lord saying, “Refuse to obey and instead demand of me, and I’ll act.” That would reflect a heart of unbelief leading to sin. By bringing their storehouse into the Lord and thus asking God to fulfill his promise, they would test him from a heart that believes and obeys. This is what God is demanding of them.
And, in contrast, the Pharisees are not asking from a believing heart that wants to obey the Lord for the Lord to give them a sign. That’s what you and I are doing when we ask God to confirm our perceptions of his guidance. When we pray, “Father, I think this is what you want me to do, would you confirm it?” we may well be asking for a sign, if you will, but we are asking for a sign from a heart that believes and wants to obey. We simply want to ensure that what we’re about to do really is what God wants from us.
The Pharisees are refusing to believe unless God from heaven will attest to Jesus in a way they approve. Their stance is, “We will not believe unless you give us a sign from heaven.” This is why Jesus refuses. He will not indulge a heart that is hardened in unbelief against him and makes demands of him. That is exactly the nature of the Pharisees’ hearts.
So, when Jesus goes on to tell the disciples in 8:15, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod,” he is telling them (and us) to beware of having a heart that is hardened by unbelief. That’s what he means by “leaven” in that verse. After all, what do the Pharisees and Herod have in common? They are completely different in numerous ways. But what they both have displayed and will continue to display in Jesus’ life is a heart that is hardened in unbelief against Jesus.
This is what we must guard against. This is why the author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 3:12-14, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”
Unbelief is a threat to the life of the believer. We should fight against it more seriously than we would make war against cancer or other things that can take our bodies from us. Stated positively, we must fight to ensure that we are growing in our trust of the Lord, our belief in his Word, and our faith that he is who he says he is and should be obeyed. That’s one reason why we consistently talk about exposing ourselves to the Scriptures – because faith comes by hearing.
The Word of God is like a sword that continues to divide and reveal what’s going on in our hearts. It keeps our hearts tender, and it builds faith in us, moving us to submit ourselves to our Lord. This must be our fight – to go to great pains to make sure we are guarding against unbelief and a hard heart that leads to rebellion against our God.
But this is easier said than done. And one obstacle to fighting against unbelief and for the cultivation of faith and trust in the Lord is found in 8:14-21. It is that . . .
As Jesus leaves the Pharisees and gets in the boat with his disciples, Mark tells us that the disciples forgot to take bring bread. They only had one loaf with them in the boat. And the reason Mark tells us this right at the beginning of this section is because he wants us to understand why the disciples miss what Jesus is saying so badly.
Jesus says to them, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod” (v. 15), meaning (as I’ve already noted) that they should beware of having a heart that is hardened against the Lord in unbelief. But the disciples miss the metaphor of “leaven” Jesus is using to refer to hardness of heart and unbelief, and instead start discussing with themselves that they had no bread.
That is, they completely miss Jesus’ point and hear what concerns them. There’ve been a few times in my conversations with my children that they’ll ask me if they can do something, and I’ll pause, think about it, and say, “Alright, that’s fine.” Then, they’ll shrug their shoulders, mumble okay, and turn to walk away before turning back around quickly, and saying, “What did you say?” They were so sure of what they thought I was going to say that they missed the words I actually said. And I think that’s exactly what’s going on in this text.
The disciples are so sure that Jesus is going to point out that they forgot bread that when he mentions the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, they instantly begin talking about the fact that they had no bread. It’s as if one turns to the other and says, “I told you he was going to notice we’d forgotten bread.” I mean, they never even ask him anything about what he meant by the leaven of Herod and the Pharisees. It’s as if they didn’t even hear him.
So, Jesus asks them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?” (v. 17). And one reason Jesus could ask that is because that wasn’t at all what he was talking about. But another reason he was asking this is because they shouldn’t worry about such things when Jesus is one who multiplies loaves of bread.
Therefore, Jesus asks them how many baskets full did they take up after he fed the 5,000, and they answered, “Twelve.” He asks them how many baskets full did they take up after he fed the 4,000, and they answered, “Seven.” So, he says, “Do you not yet understand?” (v. 21).
Don’t they get it? Their focus and worry doesn’t have to be on bread. Quit worrying about how they’re going to eat lunch and begin warring against a heart that is hardened in unbelief.
And this is a reminder to us as well that there are constant temptations in our lives to think that other things are more important than fighting for faith and trust in our Lord. Simply consider what makes war against us cultivating a faithful and believing heart through meditation on the Scripture and in prayer. There are a number of things that seem to us much more important in that moment aren’t there? You can work your whole life obsessing over making sure you’ll have enough money to get the house you want, put your kids through school, and retire as you need to while completely disobeying what the Lord is demanding of you and growing hardened in a heart of unbelief.
Does this mean that having a fund for your kids’ education or retirement is evil? Of course not. But it’s not nearly as important as making sure you’re walking and living in faith and trust in the Lord, cultivating a heart that is quick to leap forward in obedience. Isn’t this what Jesus says to us in Matthew 6:31-33? He says, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Jesus says to us, as he says to the disciples here, “Do you not yet understand? I can take care of all the things you are tempted to be anxious about and obsess about. The most important thing is that you have a believing heart that is seeking to obey me at every turn.”
So, let us simply be aware that there are constant temptations to think that there are more important and urgent matters than cultivating a heart of faith and trust in the Lord that will obey even in difficult and trying ways. And let us show that we understand the importance of fighting for faith by choosing to seek first a heart of belief that obeys our Lord.
Thus, we’ve seen a warning against unbelief and a reminder of the challenge of fighting for faith and trust that walks in obedience. But there is also a note of encouragement I believe this text provides for us in 8:22-26. There, we are reminded that . . .
Now, the placement of this next story is a bit odd. Jesus has just had a conversation with the disciples in which he’s expressed amazement at how little they understand and believe. He actually asked them, “Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?” (v. 18). Then, in the next section, he’s going to ask them who people say he is. They’re going to give him a myriad of answers. Then, as he asks them, Peter correctly (and startlingly correctly) answers, “You are the Christ” (v. 29). And in between the disciples blindness and ability to see and answer clearly, we have the story of an unnamed blind man being healed, and he’s healed in an odd way. So, let’s first look at the story in 8:22-26 before looking at what this story might convey.
As Jesus and the disciples come to Bethsaida, the people bring to him a blind man who asked Jesus to touch him. So far, nothing odd. Then, Jesus takes him out of the village, spits and touches the man, putting spit on his eyes. Again, this is similar to at least one other miracle, so nothing odd. But here’s where the story gets odd. Jesus asks the man, “Do you see anything?” (v. 23).
What’s odd here is that Jesus had never had need to ask such a question. He’d always just healed instantaneously and known the person was healed fully. Even the woman with the issue of blood who touched Jesus’ garment in the crowd was healed instantly, and Jesus knew it. So, this is a bit odd for Jesus to ask this question.
Even more odd is the fact that the man is not instantaneously healed completely. He answers Jesus’ question, saying, “I see men, but they look like trees, walking” (v. 24). That is to say, the man’s vision had been restored – kind of. He saw things walking around – so they were obviously people – but he couldn’t see well enough to tell whether they were trees or people. If trees and people both walked, he wouldn’t have known what they were his sight was still so bad.
So Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and this time his sight is restored perfectly. And Jesus, as he’s often done in Mark’s gospel, doesn’t want the man to go and spread word of this, telling him not to even enter the village. And, we’ve suggested in the past that this is to keep people from misunderstanding who Jesus is and the purpose of his mission. He’s not just a healer coming to rid people of diseases.
But let’s ask why it is that Jesus’ heals this man in stages. Is it because this was an especially hard case? Of course not. Jesus had already raised a person from the dead. And nothing is more or less hard for one who has divine power. God does not strain doing anything because he has all power. So, that can’t be the answer. Then why does Jesus heal him in two stages.
The answer seems to be (and commentators agree) that it’s because the man’s healing is serving as a parable. Mark places this story at this point in the gospel to provide a picture of what the Lord is doing with the disciples. In the section prior to this story, the disciples have eyes but don’t yet see. They are still spiritually blind to who Jesus is. In the story after, Peter rightly confesses that Jesus is the Christ. But it’s not as if Peter and the others see clearly at that point. Rather, their blindness is going to be slowly lifted and not completely removed until after the resurrection and Pentecost. Their faith and ability to walk steadfast is going to be gradually built in them even as this blind man’s sight was gradually restored.
It was going to happen gradually, but it was going to happen. The very disciples who were worried about bread in the boat are those whom the Lord is going to use to give their lives in witness to Jesus Christ. And when Mark writes this gospel (with Peter likely as the eye-witness guiding Mark), he writes, knowing the boldness of these men to proclaim Christ – even to the point of death. Yet, having written of their blindness in the boat without bread, the question would arise in the readers’ minds and in ours perhaps at this point, “How did they go from being so blind to being so bold?”
And the answer is that the Lord worked in them gradually to remove their blindness and unbelief and instability and give them understanding and faith and steadfastness. Mark uses this point in his gospel to begin to point us in that direction through the placement of this story of the healing of the blind man whose sight was only restored gradually.
And the encouraging thing for us is that the Lord is doing the same thing with us. The Lord is working in your life right now to test and refine and grow your faith so that it will be steadfast in the day of temptation. This is why James writes in James 1:2-3, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” The Lord is not content to let us stay in a state of blindness and unbelief but will move us from that.
In fact, one of the challenging things the Lord may be asking you to do right now, that tests your faith, may have multiple ends. On the one hand, the Lord is working the good of whatever it is. If he asks you to be in a hard country to build up the church in a foreign land or to minister to someone in a difficult setting or whatever the task, the good of that task is only part of what the Lord is doing through that challenging call of obedience he’s placed on you. The other thing (of many, perhaps) that the Lord is doing is he’s refusing to leave your faith where it is. He’s growing it, testing it, refining it, and building in your heart a steadfastness of faith that is necessary for one who names Christ as Lord.
So be encouraged and take heart. What must be our fight – to cultivate a greater heart of faith, God is working in us. So let us labor heart to believe and trust in our Lord so that we obey, and let us give thanks that God is working and willing in us and in our lives to bring about his good pleasure in and through us.
And the reason we can trust him to do so is because he’s already given us his Son who lived, died, and was raised for all who will place their faith in him. So let us remember the Lord’s gracious love and faithfulness to his people as we come to the table now. Amen.