The Gospel of MarkSample

The Pharisees test Jesus, pushing him to perform a special type of miracle or a bigger miracle than he had yet to perform. Another word for testing would be tempting. The same way Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, the Pharisees were asking the same of Him.

This deeply disheartens Jesus. He refuses to do this because Jesus didn’t perform miracles to convince hardened hearts. He did them to show God’s power in the context of mercy! Those who sought out just enough miracles to believe assumed to know more than Jesus did.

Both Herod and the Pharisees viewed the Kingdom as domineering power and authority. Herod viewed it as political power and the Pharisees viewed it as spiritual power and authority. Both of these views are in opposition to the Kingdom that Jesus intended to bring, one of self-sacrificial, unconditional love and service.

Leaven in a batch of bread, just a little piece of it, could grow into a whole new big loaf of bread. Leaven was a term often interchangeably used with the idea of sin or pride. Jesus used this illustration as a warning that the disciples and us today need to be sensitive to even small areas of sin or disbelief that can creep in because similarly, it can grow into something much bigger if we leave it unaddressed.

Q: how do we make sure we don’t forget how God has faithfully provided and loved us in the past, and apply what He has done so that we can have faith for what we are believing He is going to do next?