Rescue
Mark 8
Jesus gets down to brass tacks. After feeding thousands of people who are following Jesus to see miracles and hear his teaching, Jesus and the disciples head across the lake. The disciples, though, forgot to pack any food. They started arguing. They fought one another pointing blame at the other because someone forgot the bread. Jesus lays into them saying, "why are you fussing over forgotten bread? Don't you see the point of all this? Don't you get it at all?"
...So its not about bread. Its not about placing blame appropriately. What is it about? What is the point of miracles and the thousands following after Jesus? Scripture doesn't immediately answer the question. In fact it cuts to another story of Jesus putting spit on a man's eyes. Jesus asked if the man saw anything and he said "I see men. They look like walking trees." So Jesus lays hands on him again. Wait, what? Jesus didn't fully heal a man after laying hands on him? What's going on? It seems to me to be an analogy about the disciples. They don't get Jesus' mission. His purpose is not clear to them despite having been with Jesus for some time.
But then its all made clear. Jesus asks perhaps the most important question (and it happens right in the middle of Mark's Gospel, what would be considered the "pinnacle" of the story). He asks 'who do people say I am?' and then 'who do you say I am?' Peter responds for the disciples saying "You are the Christ, the Messiah." That means Jesus is God's representative, who has come to save the people. The disciples may not have gotten it immediately. They hadn't quite realized the point of everything Jesus had done, from feeding thousands to miracles that let the blind see, but now they get it. Jesus is God. He has come to save us and the bread and the miracles are just the beginning. Its not about sin or even satisfying human needs - its about being rescued. Jesus wants to spare us from the things that wear us down, hold us back and ultimately destroy our humanity. He has come to save the world.
Jesus gets down to brass tacks. After feeding thousands of people who are following Jesus to see miracles and hear his teaching, Jesus and the disciples head across the lake. The disciples, though, forgot to pack any food. They started arguing. They fought one another pointing blame at the other because someone forgot the bread. Jesus lays into them saying, "why are you fussing over forgotten bread? Don't you see the point of all this? Don't you get it at all?"
...So its not about bread. Its not about placing blame appropriately. What is it about? What is the point of miracles and the thousands following after Jesus? Scripture doesn't immediately answer the question. In fact it cuts to another story of Jesus putting spit on a man's eyes. Jesus asked if the man saw anything and he said "I see men. They look like walking trees." So Jesus lays hands on him again. Wait, what? Jesus didn't fully heal a man after laying hands on him? What's going on? It seems to me to be an analogy about the disciples. They don't get Jesus' mission. His purpose is not clear to them despite having been with Jesus for some time.
