What do windscreen wipers, a flare gun, and a fire exit sign have in common? You can just answer in your head. Windscreen wipers, a flare gun, and an exit sign. What’s the link between them? The answer is they help you see clearly when it matters the most. That’s the link.
Our roads are packed with cars, trucks, motorbikes, pedestrians, and potholes. In Riverstone, there are dogs everywhere. There’s a lot of risk, so drivers need to be able to see clearly. How much more is that true when it’s raining? Windscreen wipers are essential. They help you see when it matters most. If someone gets lost or injured in the bush or in the ocean, a flare gun can help the rescue party see their location quickly when it matters the most. If someone’s inside a burning building where it’s hard to breathe, even hard to see, the bright green glowing exit signs help show the way out. It helps you see clearly when it matters the most.
In those serious moments, in those moments where the stakes are high, clarity matters.
One of the themes we have been seeing as we’ve been working our way through the Gospel of Mark is there’s been some confusion about who Jesus is. People aren’t seeing him clearly. Even though Jesus has been saying who he is as he teaches and showing who he is with all of his miracles, we keep meeting people who are confused. They don’t get it. Even his friends, his disciples who have been with him the whole time, are not seeing him clearly. There’s a lack of clarity.
Right after this part of the story, down in Mark 8:29, one of Jesus’s friends, Peter, says out loud who Jesus is. He says, “Jesus, I think you’re the Messiah. I think you’re the promised king.” He’s right, but even though he says the truth, he still doesn’t get it. He and his friends still don’t understand what that means. The Gospel of Mark is full of people who are struggling to see Jesus clearly. That is exactly what we’re going to see in this part of the story that was just read for us.
As we work through this true part of the story of Jesus feeding 4,000 people, we’re going to see three wrong ways to see Jesus. Here they are:
- Backwards binoculars Jesus
- Instagram Jesus
- Lens cap Jesus
They’re the wrong ways to see him. Let’s start with backwards binoculars.
Backwards Binoculars Jesus
I wonder if you felt a little bit of deja vu as this story was being read. Just a few weeks ago in Mark chapter 6, Jesus fed 5,000 people with miraculously multiplied bread and fish. Now here in chapter 8, he feeds 4,000 people with miraculously multiplied bread and fish. What makes this repeated story even more strange is that Mark’s gospel is only 15 chapters long. It’s the speedrun gospel. I always recommend when I give someone a Bible to start with the Gospel of Mark for that reason. There are lots of other miracles and moments that Mark could have included, but he leaves them out and includes this same miracle again. Why?
The answer is it’s not the same miracle. The feeding of the 5,000 is not the same as the feeding of the 4,000. It’s similar, but there’s a key difference which you can see for yourself in Mark 7:31. If you’ve got a Bible, it’s easy to see. It’s right before our passage. Mark says, “Jesus left Tyre and went up to Sidon before going back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns.”
When Jesus feeds the 4,000 people, he’s in the Decapolis. He’s in the Ten Towns. Most of his teaching, most of his miracles, including the feeding of the 5,000, is in the Jewish region. The miracle is similar. The crowd is completely different. Jesus intentionally repeats this miracle in a different context.
The 5,000 people that Jesus fed were Jewish people, God’s chosen people in the Old Testament who knew all about the God of the Bible. They were all waiting for God to fulfill his promises. The 4,000 people were Gentile people, non-Jewish people like me and most of us. At that time, they were pagan. They followed false gods. The miracle is similar. The crowd is completely different. Jesus himself explains why this difference is so profound. Have a look at verses 19-21. Jesus tells us that the amount of leftover bread was meaningful.
Sometimes in the Bible, we come across numbers that are symbolic. We need to be careful not to immediately jump at every number like Sherlock Holmes and expect some profound meaning. That’s how you get wacko calculations about the exact time and date that Jesus is going to come back, and then it never happens. But here, I think these two numbers do carry a lot of symbolism. The numbers there are 12 and seven.
There are 12 leftover loaves after Jesus feeds the 5,000 Jewish people because in the Old Testament, there are 12 tribes of Israel, 12 big families in God’s chosen people. What Jesus seems to be saying to his disciples here is that he is going to provide for and care for and love those people, those 12 tribes and their descendants. He is sufficient for them. He’s their Messiah. He’s their promised king. God is going to fulfill all of his promises to them through Jesus. All these people over here should turn and follow Jesus. That’s true.
But that’s not all that happens because there are seven leftover loaves after Jesus feeds the Gentile people. Throughout the Bible, the number seven is completeness, is perfection. The most obvious example is when God creates and completes the world in seven days. Seven is completeness. Can you see where Jesus is going? What Jesus is saying to his disciples here is that it’s not just the 12 tribes of Israel that he’s going to provide for and be sufficient for. It’s not just God’s Old Testament people who will see God’s promises fulfilled. All of that love and all of that goodness is expanded and exploded outwards to also include Gentile people as well.
It’s not that Gentile people are an afterthought. The seven leftover loaves show us that Jesus’s fulfillment of God’s promises will only be complete, will only be perfected when Gentile people are also included. They too should turn and follow Jesus. God’s promises are far more glorious. They’re far more expansive. They’re far more generous than we could ever imagine.
This is why Mark includes this miracle in his gospel. The feeding of the 4,000 is here to enlarge our view of Jesus, to amaze us with how wide and high and long and deep God’s love is for us, to expose our underestimation of Jesus.
It’s here to ensure that our view of Jesus is not small, not limited, not reduced. It’s here to make sure we’re not viewing Jesus through backwards binoculars. There he is. He’s tiny. He’s blurry. Maybe he can’t do everything he says he can. That’s why this story is here.
Jesus’s disciples, their view of him is so small, so limited, they can’t even imagine how he could solve the simple problem of the food. Have a look at verse four. His disciples replied, “How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?” Come on, guys. You were just there. Jesus just did this. This is like when your mom or your dad asks you to clean your room and then 30 minutes later they come back and they’re like, “Hey, you need to clean your room,” and you’re like, “Yeah, sure.” Then they come back after 30 minutes and they’re a bit angry and they say, “Hey, you got to clean your room.” And you’re like, “Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure.” They come back 30 minutes later and they’re like, “You got to clean your room.” And you’re like, “What are you talking about? This is the first time you’ve asked me.” And this big argument. I’m sure this has never happened to anyone ever in this room.
It’s similar, isn’t it? The disciples just saw that Jesus has proven that he can do this and they’ve already forgotten. The disciples have their binoculars on backwards and Jesus is so tiny to them that they can’t even imagine him doing a miracle that he just proved that he could do. How much more should it blow their minds that Jesus will not only provide for these people, but that Jesus will provide for these people?
It’s easy to look back at the disciples and think they’re a bit thick, a bit slow. But it’s also easy for us to look at Jesus through our backwards binoculars and to think, surely he’s not enough for this situation. Surely he’s not enough for these people. It’s easy for us to minimize Jesus, to underestimate him. It’s easy for us to hesitate, to be slow to talk to him, to be reluctant to trust him. This miracle reminds us to take the backward binoculars off. Jesus is standing right in front of you. He’s ready to listen and forgive. He’s able to provide and heal. He’s willing to show patience and mercy. Get rid of the binoculars, see him clearly, and move towards him. The first wrong way to look at Jesus is through backwards binoculars.
Instagram Jesus
Let’s look at the second one. The second one is Instagram Jesus. Whenever my wife Morgan and I spend time on Instagram Reels, we always use my account. My account is perfected. The algorithm is so good. It’s a perfect balance of dogs and dog fails, coffee and coffee fails. Those ones hurt pretty bad. There’s parenting and parenting fails. There’s church music and church music fails. And then of course there’s toilet humor right there at the end.
But we all know that whether you’re on Instagram or TikTok or even the news or YouTube, whatever it is, all the content we see is curated. It’s filtered. It’s edited. It’s tweaked. The blemishes are removed. The inconvenient truths are diluted and the speculations are emphasized. The ultimate goal is engagement and clicks, not honesty and transparency. This is what I mean by Instagram Jesus. Instagram Jesus is filtered Jesus, edited Jesus, diluted, misquoted Jesus. You don’t even have to reject Instagram Jesus. You can just edit him to match your preferences. Now you’re both in agreement and we’re best friends.
Let’s see how Jesus exposes this wrong way of looking at him. Verse 11, Jesus gets back to the Jewish territory, the green section, and the Pharisees, who are the Jewish religious leaders, come and find him, and they start to argue with him. They want to see another miracle. Jesus refuses because he knows that any miracle that he shows them is going to do nothing. It’s not going to convince them.
Then in verse 15, Jesus gives his disciples a warning which at first seems a bit strange. Have a look at your Bibles. Verse 15. As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out. Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.” Now, there are two strange things about that warning. The first one is that Jesus warns them about yeast, which doesn’t strike us as perhaps the most deadly thing you would find in the kitchen. But second, Jesus doesn’t just warn them about the Pharisees that he’s just seen. He also warns them about Herod. That’s strange because the Pharisees and Herod are enemies.
About 90 years before this moment in the story, Rome swept in and conquered the nation of Israel. They put their own rulers over the Jewish people. King Herod is the conquering Roman king over the conquered Pharisees and Jewish people. They don’t like each other. You might remember King Herod a few weeks ago we looked at the part of the story in chapter 6 where Herod’s new wife, who was his brother’s wife, takes advantage of Herod’s political power and makes him behead John the Baptist, which is very convenient to them because John the Baptist was getting in their way of gaining more power. They just chopped his head off and problem solved. That’s Herod. That’s the Pharisees. And Jesus links them together. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
Here’s what Jesus is saying. Although the Pharisees and Herod are enemies, they’re both actually united by their desire for control. That’s what they both want. The Pharisees are trying to control God through their religiousness, through their relentless commitment to keep the law. They’re trying to secure themselves in front of God by their performance. It’s all about them and all about their effort and all about their actions and their commitment. It’s all about them having control. It’s exactly the same for Herod. Herod is trying to keep control of his power through protecting his position from opponents and from John the Baptist. Even if it means that we have to behead, he’s trying to save himself and his authority. It’s all about him and all about his effort and his actions and his commitment. It’s all about him having control.
That attitude of grasping for control is incompatible with the real Jesus. It’s incompatible with unfiltered, unedited Jesus. So Jesus says, “Beware of their yeast.” In the same way that you only need a little bit of yeast to make the whole bread rise, you only need a little bit of editing, a little bit of filtering, a little bit of Instagramming, and you’ve no longer got the real Jesus.
Here’s the danger. Here’s why Jesus warns his disciples and warns us. You could lose Jesus by rejecting him. Of course, you can also lose Jesus by editing him.
Just add a little filter here. I like this thing that Jesus says, but maybe not this bit. So, I’ll just agree with that bit. Just a little bit of editing. Or I’ll just add a little filter here. I’ll follow Jesus, but there’s this little part of my life that I’m going to cling to for control. Just a little bit of editing. Before you know it, you’ve got a version of Jesus that feels good and is comfortable and agrees with you. It might get heaps of hearts on Instagram, but it’s not the real Jesus anymore. A filtered, edited Jesus cannot provide for you, cannot satisfy you, cannot save you.
The real Jesus doesn’t come to you to fit into your life. He comes to be your king. He comes to be your king who dies on the cross for you and then rises to new life for you so that you might have a new life of joyful obedience to him. There’s no way to earn favor with him. There’s no way to work your way towards him. There’s no way to deserve mercy from him. It is a free gift of grace that you can receive when you give him control and put your trust in him. Jesus says, “Beware of the yeast,” because it only takes a little bit of Instagramming, a little bit of editing to miss the real Jesus entirely.
Jesus is standing in front of you. He’s ready to listen and forgive. He’s able to provide and heal. He’s willing to show patience and mercy. Get rid of the Instagram filters. See him clearly and move towards him. The second wrong way to see Jesus is Instagram Jesus.
Lens Cap Jesus
Number three, lens cap Jesus. One of the new trends that you might have noticed emerging is the idea of old tech. It’s making a comeback. Our society is slowly, finally figuring out that social media and doom scrolling and instant micro-content isn’t great for us and isn’t great for our brains and our relationships. Dumb phones are making a comeback, like flip phones, disposable cameras, MP3 players, LPs, and CDs, all this stuff.
Some friends of ours have a 2-year-old and they have got themselves a CRT TV. Half of the room knows what that is. And a VCR player. Most of the room might know what that is. They’ve got everything on video so that if their son wants to watch something, they have to get off the couch and go and get it and put it in the VCR and rewind the VCR and then finally they can watch it. It’s brilliant, right? To try and teach their son about not being able to get things instantly. This is this vibe, this new trend that’s coming up, this old tech.
I’ve noticed this a lot more at weddings as well. Maybe you’ve been to a wedding recently. More and more we’re encouraged to leave our phones in the car as wedding guests so that we can be more present, but also so that Auntie Betty with her iPhone 6 or iPad doesn’t get in the way of the professional photographer. I typed into Google “worst wedding photos ruined by phones.” This one was my favorite or my least favorite because I don’t know if you can see on the bottom left there’s a sign that says “Welcome to our unplugged ceremony.” So leave your phones away, and that is not going to be a flattering photo that this guy is taking. But you know what would be even worse than that photo? If you forgot to take the lens cap off.
This is my DSLR. It’s seen better days. I could spend hours working on the lighting of the photo that I want to take. I can spend hours playing with all the settings, getting all the ISOs right, getting all the f-numbers right, getting it all right, but if I don’t take the lens cap off, then my photo is useless. All my efforts are useless.
Have a look at verses 16-18.
At this the disciples began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear? Don’t you remember anything at all?” Mark 8:16-18
It’s a bit of a scary verse, isn’t it? The disciples are in the boat with Jesus. They can’t get any closer and yet they can’t see him.
Jesus is standing right in front of them. He’s ready to listen and forgive. He’s able to provide and heal. He’s willing to show patience and mercy. And they miss it.
Maybe today it’s time to take the lens cap off. It’s time to stop trying to perfect the settings of your life. Trying to stop perfecting the lighting of your circumstances. It’s time to take the lens cap off and see Jesus. Maybe for the first time or maybe you’ve just noticed that you’ve put it back on. Jesus is standing right in front of you. He’s ready to listen and forgive. He’s able to provide and heal. He’s willing to show patience and mercy. The third wrong way to see Jesus is to not see him at all and have the lens cap still on.
See Jesus Clearly When It Matters Most
What the windscreen wipers and a flare gun and a fire exit sign have in common, they help you see clearly when it matters the most. What matters the most is your relationship with Jesus. It’s a matter of life and death. It’s a matter of eternal life and eternal death. It’s a matter of living life to the full in the light and living life in darkness.
Wherever you’re at with Jesus, whatever your relationship with Jesus is like at the moment, get rid of the backwards binoculars that make him seem small and blurry and maybe he can’t do everything that he says he can. Let him amaze you as the cross shows us just how wide and high and long and deep God’s love is for you.
Wherever you’re at with Jesus, get rid of the Instagram filters that create this comfortable, agreeable, fake Jesus that cannot satisfy and cannot save. Instead, listen to him. Find true satisfaction and true salvation in the real deal. He’s standing right in front of you.
Wherever you’re at with Jesus, get rid of the lens cap that is blinding you. He’s right there. Jesus is standing right in front of you, ready to listen and forgive, able to provide and heal, and willing to show patience and mercy.