Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me
Many of the mysteries of life can be explained only by understanding the person or people involved. For instance, my parents just returned home from a twenty-four hour, sixteen-hundred-mile trip from Williams, Arizona where Dad preached at an event at the West Branch of the Bill Rice Ranch. I have an app where I can snoop on the people I love, so I was watching my parents progress across the country. For most people it would be a two- or three-day trip, but my parents drove hard. When it was late at night I thought, “They will probably stop for the evening.” They didn’t. I thought an hour later, “Maybe they will stop now.” They didn’t; they kept charging. They took a nap for a few hours in the travel trailer they were pulling at a church in Amarillo, Texas, and then headed on before 6 o’clock the next morning. When I woke up this morning, they were home. The speed of that trip should be a mystery, except that I understand my parents. They are the most hard-charging travelers I have ever met. That is a mystery explained by the people involved.
Your response to the events of life hinges on your understanding of Christ. Mark 8 has multiple examples of how this works. There are at least three stories with Jesus and His disciples and how they comprehended what was happening only to the extent that they understood the Lord Jesus. For example, in Mark 8:1 there was a great multitude following Christ and they had no food to eat. Jesus had compassion, as He often did with large crowds, and said, “I don’t want to send them away hungry.” The disciples answered Him, “From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” It is the wrong place, the wilderness, the wrong time, getting late in the day, with a great crowd. They wondered where they would find food. That was a question they had because they still did not comprehend the Lord Jesus.
Your response to need comes down to how you understand Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “How much do you have?” They answered, “Seven loaves.” Jesus took what they had, blessed it, divided it, and distributed it to the crowd. They had enough for everyone to be filled and took up seven baskets of leftovers. There was more left over than there was to begin with after Jesus had taken care of it. If you are on your own, you are panicked. If you realize the character, ability, and nature of the Lord Jesus, that changes things quite a bit.
In verse 14 we find another example of the disciples and their understanding of Jesus Christ. They were all in a boat heading to another shore when they realized they forgot to take food. About this time, Jesus started teaching them about the hypocrisies of the Pharisees. He said, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” He was using leaven as an example of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Because leaven is something that can be in bread and they were thinking about bread and not Jesus’ ability, they instantly assumed Jesus was worried that they didn’t have enough food.
Think about it. Jesus had fed a multitude, more than 4,000 people, with seven loaves, and now the disciples assumed He was inadequate to feed thirteen people, Jesus and His disciples, with one loaf of bread. What was the problem? Jesus went on to say, “Why do you reason? How come you do not perceive? Why don’t you understand? Why is your heart hard? Why do you have eyes but do not see and ears but not hear? Do you not remember?” All this was a matter of their having a hard heart. So, they had a difficult time learning what they were being taught because they forgot the character of the one teaching.
Many times in my life I am missing the lessons of today because I failed to grasp the lesson of yesterday. The lesson of the feeding of the multitude is that Jesus is capable of taking care of our needs. The next lesson should have been to beware of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, but because the disciples forgot who Jesus was, they had a hard time responding to the teaching He was giving.
Verse 27 gives a third example of what we comprehend based on our understanding of Jesus Christ. Jesus asked the disciples, “Whom do men say that I am?” Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ.” Then Jesus began to tell them how He was going to suffer many things, be rejected by the religious leaders, be killed, and after three days rise again. Peter responded by rebuking Him. Peter had just given Him a good answer about who He was, Jesus was the Christ, but a moment later he rebuked Christ for speaking of dying and being buried. Peter forgot what it meant for Jesus to be the Christ.
Satan was behind this because Satan “savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.” The devil did not want Peter to follow Jesus at any cost. No one would follow Jesus at any cost if they do not realize who Jesus is. Jesus responded by saying, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Why would you follow Christ if it is going to cost you something? You will only do it if you remember who Jesus is and comprehend the person of Jesus Christ.
Your response to the events of life hinges on your understanding of Christ. Your response to need, your response to teaching, your response to God’s call are all things you can only take in if you remember who Jesus Christ is. If Jesus is just a good teacher, He cannot meet your need, guide your life, and is not worth following. If Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, God the Son, then He is the one who can meet our needs, who is worthy of teaching us, and who is worthy of our following Him because He is worthy to lead us in our lives.