loudandclear

Mark 7:31-8:13
(notes by Niko Gruber)

 31 Jesus left Tyre and went up to Sidon before going back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns. 32 A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal him.
 33 Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” 35 Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly!

 36 Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news. 37 They were completely amazed and said again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.”

Mark 8

 1 About this time another large crowd had gathered, and the people ran out of food again. Jesus called his disciples and told them, 2 “I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. 3 If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way. For some of them have come a long distance.”
 4 His disciples replied, “How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?”

 5 Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?”

   “Seven loaves,” they replied.

 6 So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces. He gave them to his disciples, who distributed the bread to the crowd. 7 A few small fish were found, too, so Jesus also blessed these and told the disciples to distribute them.

 8 They ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. 9 There were about 4,000 people in the crowd that day, and Jesus sent them home after they had eaten. 10 Immediately after this, he got into a boat with his disciples and crossed over to the region of Dalmanutha.

 11 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.
 12 When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.” 13 So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake.

(((Chapter 7 ends with Jesus healing a deaf man.  Once again we see Jesus’ humility through this story.  Not only does he ask the deaf man to walk away from the crowd so that the doesn’t do the miracle in front of them, but He also asks the crowd not to tell anyone.  Because Jesus is fully God He could have done these miracles to make Himself look amazing.  He could make all of these things He is doing about Himself.  Instead Jesus models to us how to life a humble life and doesn’t worry about His glory, but instead is working for God the Father’s glory.)))

(((Jesus then feeds an entire crowd of people again.  One thing we should notice, that is easy to gloss over is that they start with only seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.  By the time everyone is done eating as much as they want, there is still seven baskets of leftover food.  Jesus didn’t just provide enough food for everyone to be full, instead He provided more than enough.  Jesus was more than all satisfying for every person there.  Because of this we know we can trust Him with our lives.  He doesn’t just give us enough to get by.  Jesus gives us more than we need.)))

(((The Pharisees demand for Jesus to perform a miracle for them.  They want Him to prove that He is the Messiah.  Jesus of course sees right though their request.  He knows that they are coming to Him asking with a hard heart.  They are wanting Jesus to fail and even if He does perform a miracle they will still find excuses.  They have no doubt heard of all that He has already done, but they still don’t want to believe it.  Jesus didn’t want to waste His precious time on earth trying to convince these men who have hard hearts.  It wouldn’t be a good use of His time.)))