Reflecting on Mark's Gospel - Mark 8:14-21

We have here a curious selection of references to bread. The conversation seems somewhat disjointed, but that is perhaps because it is happening on different levels. The section begins with a reference to forgotten bread. Jesus and the disciples were in the boat, but they had forgotten the bread, and so have just one loaf with them, which is apparently not enough. We are not told why they needed bread, but presumably the plan was to have a picnic or something to eat.

Of course, we can also see this on a deeper level, as possibly mirroring, in some small way, the two incidents that Mark has recorded in which large crowds have been unexpectedly fed, and the problem of a lack of bread has proved to be extremely temporary. Indeed, there is a reference back to both events as Jesus asks them to recall the level of leftovers on each occasion, respectively twelve and seven basketfuls.

Alongside this, there is mention of that key ingredient of bread, yeast, and a warning about the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod. Jesus asks them about their concern at the lack of bread, but then moves to asking them if their hearts are hardened and whether they still don’t understand.

The things that matter here are the importance of bread and linking that to Jesus as the Bread of Life, and the rather puzzling circumstance of the disciples’ apparent inability to properly understand what Jesus is about. It would seem, as D. E. Nineham (Saint Mark) suggests, that – “the words of Jesus here and in the following verses imply that the miracles, like the parables, have a meaning which can, and ought to, be understood but is in fact misunderstood. The reasons for such misunderstanding are not just intellectual or psychological, they are also moral; for the words translated ‘hardened hearts’ refer not to unkindness, but to obtuseness, blindness-to-truth engendered by moral shortcomings.”

Are there times when verse 18 might apply to us? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?