Opinion on a few verses from Mark

[Mastermind]

What does Jesus mean here?

RSV

Mark 8

17: And being aware of it, Jesus said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts 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 broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve."
20: "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven."
21: And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

[The edge]

My humble opinion.
They got into a ship & they found only 1 loft of bread. The disciple was afriad that Jesus would blame them for not bringing enough food when Jesus was refering to the leaven bread of the pharisees.
Jesus was disappointed by their reaction....& goes somewhat like:

Why can't you still understand what I mean? If I could multiplied the food in the last miracle, why would I be concern about having enough food to eat. Can't you see I mean something else?

[Christian2]

Dear Mastermind,

I think the point that Jesus is trying to make has to do with faith. The disciples forgetting the lunch is important to the story. First they respond to Jesus' warning by telling one another that Jesus said this "because we have no bread." Their comment shows how completely they are missing what Jesus is talking about. Their worrying about having no bread shows that from Jesus' feeding multitudes twice and from their own gathering twelve and seven baskets of leftovers they had learned nothing about Jesus' power to save and provide. If these wondrous events do not disclose the meaning of Jesus, what will?

If the disciples who saw Jesus calm the storm, walk on water, twice feed the multitude with a few loaves and fish still miss the meaning, then it will take something other than a supermiracle to open their eyes.

Mark is warning his contemporaries against thinking there is a sign from heaven so stupendous that faith will be replaced by sight, or at least made easier.

[Mastermind]

I thought about that(after I made this topic to be honest), but I guess I was just hoping for something deeper. I like Jesus's style of teaching.

[Christian2]

You said:

but I guess I was just hoping for something deeper.

Oh heck, we could do deeper. We could bring in Matthew's account of Jesus' walking on the water and Jesus' story of yeast (and more bread stories) and tie it all together, etc. What is interesting to me about Jesus' teaching (and I like it too) is that we really need to look at all of what Jesus taught and compare the same similar stories in all the Gospels in order to get a complete picture of what He was really trying to say.

Shalom and best wishes to you!

[Felgar]

Mark is warning his contemporaries against thinking there is a sign from heaven so stupendous that faith will be replaced by sight

Great point. I have nothing to add.