Large crowds resume following Jesus again. They come to Jesus for healing.
Jesus has compassion on them because they are in a remote area and they would not be able to get back to their homes. So, Jesus arranges them in rows, similar to before. Jesus takes seven loaves of bread and several fish, offers thanks, and has the disciples hand them out. There is enough food for all and seven baskets full of bread are collected.
Afterwards, Jesus left on a boat to across the lake.
This is similar to the feeding of the five thousand. The miracle is still incredible despite that involves 1,000 fewer people. Another interesting similarity is that Jesus immediately heads out across the lake, leaving this crowd behind. When feeding the 5,000, Jesus left them but walked on water.
A big difference with the feeding of the 5,000 is that the text is silent about the crowd wanting to become Jesus' army or whether they think he is the Messiah after all. Rather, this anecdote ends abruptly.
Jesus gets to the other side of the lake is questioned by the Pharisees and Sadducees They want to see a miraculous sign. Jesus has already done many miraculous signs, some of which they had already attributed to the devil. Jesus says that they won't receive a miraculous sign except for the sign of Jonah.
The disciples of Jesus may have remembered Jesus mentioning something about this, but it is probably likely that the Pharisees and Sadducees have no idea what on earth Jesus is talking about. The text is silent as to whether Jesus clarified the "sign of Jonah" to the Pharisees.
Jesus heads across the lake. This seemingly rapid movement back across the lake is also similar to the feeding of the five thousand.
Jesus returns to the bread analogy again. Jesus tells the disciples to beware of the leavening of the Pharisees and of Herod. The disciples think that Jesus is referring to literal bread.
Presumably, they interpret this to mean the bread of the Pharisees or Herod might be poisoned. This interpretation is compounded because they did not have any bread with them. This indicates that at some point, they lost the seven basketfuls of bread.
Jesus is taken back and reminds them about the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand. The implicit message in the reminder is that they should not worry about the provision of literal bread since God will provide. Rather, as clarified in Matthew 16 but not Mark 8, Jesus was referring to the teachings of the Pharisees.
The use of the "bread" is always interesting. It is no surprise that the disciples were confused as it is not always easy to determine when Jesus is referring to literal bread or something else. Here are a few of the examples we see:
1. Literal bread multiplied from a few loafs to basketfuls in the feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000.
2. Shortly after the feeding of the 5,000:
- the crowd reminded Jesus of the literal manna from heaven. This seemed to mean they wanted lots of free meals
- Jesus referred to himself as the bread of heaven and that they (I.e., the crowd) should eat his flesh and drink his blood. This disgusts the crowd.
3. Jesus associates the teaching of the Pharisees as bad leavening.
So, we have at least three uses in a short span of time:
1. a supernatural production of bread (loaf multiplication and manna)
2. A "proto-Communion" teaching on bread, that one must eat Jesus (the bread from heaven)
3. Bad bread produced from the bad leavening of the Pharisees
All I can say is that no wonder the disciples are confused whenever Jesus discusses bread.
One final note, Jesus also seems to be giving up on the Pharisees and Sadducees as groups of people. This is not only clear from his statement that they are wicked generations, but by discussing their teachings as "leavening". A little leavening can spread through an entire batch of bread. So, in a way, Jesus seems to be saying that the beliefs of the Pharisees and Sadducees are too polluted as a group.
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