OIA 8.1-26

Observations

• Who: Jesus, 4000 hungry, disciples, Pharisees, some people, a blind man
• Where: Decapolis
• When: Following Jesus return from Tyre and Sidon, and another eye/ear miracle
• What: another bread miracle; more Pharisaical resistance; confused disciples; another blind man healed
• Connections: the second feeding miracle; again an ambiguous response by the disciples who are the agents of this miracle, even though they cannot see the bakery for the bread; hardening Jewish religious conflict;
• Responses to Jesus:
• The crowd is obedient, and blessed
• The disciples ask, and receive, and are still a bit clueless
• They Pharisees resist, question,
• The man is healed

Interpretation

• This section rounds off a cycle of bread in the wilderness, Jewish conflict/Gentile acceptance, disciples confusion, and miracles to restore the ability to see and hear. Part of the significance of this section has to do with the disciples continuing inability to see and understand; only by the touch, and second touch of Jesus do the disciples finally catch a glimpse of Jesus: yes, the Christ; but still they see only dimly: Jesus is not the messiah they are looking for; and the next several chapters focus on the values of Jesus’ kingdom in contrast to the expectations of not only the disciples but the entire Jewish religious culture.
• Jesus remains in Gentile regions. Again the response here is contrasted with the leaven of Israel’s political and religious leadership. The next story, the great confession, also occurs in Gentile areas, in fact in Herod’s brother’s city.
• Sight, including spiritual sight comes only by Jesus’ direct intervention.
• Jewish inability to recognize Jesus, like Gentile blindness, moves Jesus to sighs of exasperation. The Pharisee’s request for a sign may be in response to Jesus’ Moses-like miracle given freely to a non-Jewish audience. Jesus’ sigh may be an expression of frustration at the Jewish preoccupation with themselves, and continual rejection of their role as a light to the nations, and preoccupation with their own flawed understanding of God’s stated intent in His blessing, and plan for Abraham’s descendants.
• What was Herod’s leaven? Perhaps double-mindedness, and inability to respond. Herod heard John gladly but refused to respond in repentance. Instead his fear of looking weak and diluting his temporal power led Herod to kill God’s messenger, and reject God’s invitation to repent.
• What was the leaven of the Pharisees? They had God in a box of their own theological presuppositions, and refused to adjust their ideas to God’s. Their purity was ritualistic; their religion self- and nationally exclusive.
• Both double-mindedness, and nationalistic self-righteousness are to be avoided.

Application

• Jesus is the bread of life. Like Moses, Jesus gives bread in the wilderness.
• Our religious/nationalistic presuppositions can have the same impact on us as they did on the Pharisees and the disciples: we miss Jesus’ mission to the nations, provoking exasperation on Jesus’ part. We, like the Pharisees and disciples, risk becoming marginalized for God’s kingdom if we will not let go of our flawed understanding of God’s intentions and purposes.
• Deaf ears, and dumb tongues, can only be opened by Jesus’ special touch. He may have to touch us more than once, and bathe us in his bodily fluids, before we can catch even a glimpse of who he really is.