Mark 8:11-21: Learning Christ! (1)

Let’s think about how it is that we learn Biblical truth.  It is clear from today’s reading that the disciples were not getting what Jesus thought should have been obvious truth from His ministry (8:17).  Before we get into the passage, let’s review some Biblical principles about gaining knowledge.

·       Luke 11:52 (24:25-27; John 5:39; Rev. 19:10): Jesus accused the lawyers of taking away the key of knowledge so that those they taught were actually hindered from learning the truth.  The Bible makes it clear that the “key” to knowledge is Jesus, the Savior, the One who is at the center of the message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  Jesus chided the two disciples of His, after His resurrection, about the fact that they didn’t realize the Messiah had to suffer and die before entering His glory.  Jesus chided the Jews, who loved to quote Moses, but failed to understand that He, Jesus, was what Moses was talking about.  John, in the Apocalypse, said that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”  To understand OT prophecy you have to realize that it is fulfilled in Him.  Jesus is the key of knowledge!

·       Eph. 4:20-21: Paul, encouraging Christians to live repentant lives, not like their former life (v17-19), reminded them that, you have not so learned Christ.  The fullness of truth that we need to learn as Christians is bound up in Christ!

·       2 Peter 3:18: Peter had the same emphasis, encouraging believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

·       Mark 4:24-25: We thought it good to remember the principle we saw earlier in Mark: use it or lose it!  Christ is the key to knowledge.  Obedience is the key to being renewed in our minds so that we naturally think in the Bible way.

With these things in our background, we need to think a little bit about “stagnating” rather than “growing” in the knowledge of Christ.  It might seem strange that the Pharisees asked Jesus to show a sign from heaven.  Jesus had been performing many signs, and even though He tried to stop people from telling everyone about the signs (instead of the message of the gospel He preached), people continued to tell about the healings and so forth for all to hear.  No wonder Jesus “sighed deeply in His spirit.” 

Just as strange is the disciples’ concern for bread after the miraculous feedings.  Jesus warned them of the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Herod, the perspective they had that did not recognize Christ as the key of knowledge.  Be careful, Jesus said, that you don’t think like they do.  And the disciples concluded that Jesus was upset because they forgot to bring bread on the boat.  Are we spiritually stagnant because we are failing to see Christ in the mundane events of our lives?