Mark 8:16-21 “And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have no bread." (17) But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? (18) Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? (19) When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?" They said to Him, "Twelve." (20) "Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?" And they said, "Seven." (21) So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?”
We saw in the previous passage of scripture how the Lord had tried to teach the disciples to use their faith in areas other than healing, when He challenged them to feed the multitudes. The above quoted passage of scripture reinforces this same truth, for in this passage we see Jesus expressing His frustration at the disciples’ hardness of heart in this area. The context of this passage is that the disciples were travelling by boat with the Lord Jesus, and they had forgotten to take enough bread with them for the journey. And so a dispute had broken out among them as to who should carry the blame for the fact that they only had one loaf of bread between them, which was obviously not enough. When Jesus heard about the dispute however, He rebuked them by reminding them about the fact that with very little resources He had fed thousands of people on two separate occasions. I have no doubt that on this occasion as well Jesus multiplied their one loaf of bread so that everyone had enough to eat, but the point that I wanted to highlight from this passage is that in His rebuke, Jesus strongly implied that the disciples had the same access to God’s power that He did and they could therefore have just as easily resolved the problem themselves. Clearly our Lord was frustrated, not because of their lack of faith, but rather because of their lack of understanding through hardened hearts, which was preventing them from exercising their faith in God’s power. And so we see a truth revealed to us in this section, which is that the problem which many believers have is not their lack of faith but rather their lack of understanding because of hardened hearts.
Michael E.B. Maher
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