Do You Still Not Understand?: Mark 8:11-21

The Pharisees arrived demanding a sign from heaven—as if feeding thousands from scraps, walking on water, and casting out legions of demons were insufficient. They wanted something irrefutable, something that would force belief.

Jesus sighed. Mark uses the same word as when he healed the deaf man—a deep, soul-weary groan. "Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it."

He left them standing on the shore and got back in the boat.

On the water, the disciples realized they had forgotten to bring bread. They had exactly one loaf among them.

"Be careful," Jesus warned. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."

They looked at each other. Yeast? "He said that because we have no bread," they whispered.

Jesus heard them. His response was a cascade of frustrated questions:

"Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember?"

Then he drilled them: "When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"

"Twelve."

"And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"

"Seven."

"Do you still not understand?"

Twice he had fed multitudes from almost nothing. Twice they had gathered the overflowing leftovers. And now they were worried about having only one loaf in a boat with the Creator of bread.

The yeast of the Pharisees was not about baking. It was about the slow, spreading infection of unbelief—the inability to recognize what was right before their eyes. The disciples, who had witnessed more than anyone, were in danger of catching the same disease.

One loaf in a boat with Jesus was more than enough. They just couldn't see it yet.