Read: Mark 7:24-8:21; Matthew 15:29-16:12
Jesus said things and did things to reveal men’s hearts. Jesus told the Gentile woman that he couldn’t heal her son because healing was the children’s bread. The children were the Jewish people. Her reply revealed her tenacious spirit. Jesus loved it and gave her what he had intended to give all the time. Sometimes he just wants to know how bad we want it, or better said, how much we believe him. Jesus came to bring salvation to the whole world but it was going to be done through his disciples. This woman pulled on Jesus and got hers early.
Jesus was always trying to escape a crowd. I wonder if he wasn’t hoping to gain disciples instead of large masses of takers. I will give it to the people: they stayed for three days without food to listen to Jesus teach and watch him do miracles. That did show some commitment. For their faithfulness, Jesus fed them spiritually and naturally. He will always feed the hungry.
After feeding them, he went to the other side of the lake. The Pharisees met him and badgered him for a sign from heaven as if healing the sick, casting out demons and multiplying food wasn’t a good enough sign. Jesus got so fed up with them he got right back in his boat and went back to the other side. On the way Jesus spoke to his disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees. The disciples were on a natural level so they thought he was rebuking them for not bringing bread. Jesus was a little exasperated at the disciples. He had proved to them that he could meet their natural needs…he wasn’t talking about natural bread. He was referring to the wrong teachings of the Pharisees. It was like yeast that spread throughout the loaf causing the whole loaf to rise up. Jesus knew that if he had stayed on the side with the Pharisee, their wrong teachings and hate for him would have spread to the people and he would not have been able to do anything.
Lord, let us walk in a heart of belief and trust in You.
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