Mark 8:11-13

Find a way to separate yourself from whatever’s going on around you so you can fully enter into today’s passage. if you haven’t read the introduction to Mark’s Gospel, read it here.

This is a short passage, so read Mark 8:11-13 a couple of times paying attention to the emotions Jesus exhibits.

Even miracles require faith. We’ve seen that Jesus couldn’t do many miracles in his hometown because of the lack of faith there, and we’ve seen Jesus cast out demons from the daughter of a Gentile woman whose faith was solid and persistent. But faith is also required to recognize a miracle.

The Pharisees weren’t in the boat when Jesus calmed the storm on the lake, and they didn’t witness the healings or the miraculous feeding of the crowd in the land of Canaan (the Decapolis). But they had to be aware of the other healings and miracles that happened in their own backyard.

The thing about miracles is that they often don’t look very flashy. Someone is sick and then they aren’t. Jesus breaks bread and it just keeps coming. A person is plagued by demon-induced mental illness and then they are sane. There is no flash of lightning nor voice from the sky, there is only a person healed and whole, a lake peaceful and serene, a crowd of people sleepy from a good meal. Miracles can be explained away unless a person has eyes of faith.

Read Mark 8:11-13 again trying to imagine what kind of sign the Pharisees were asking for.

How would you label the emotion Jesus is feeling in this passage? How would you prefer Jesus to feel about your faith in him?

Have you ever had something good happen that seemed impossible? Maybe a near miss? An unexpected provision? Something else? To what did you attribute it?

Take a few minutes and talk to Jesus about the level of your faith. You might want to ask Jesus to open your eyes to the miracles he is already doing in your life, or you may want to ask Jesus to increase your faith so that you trust him in ordinary times when you don’t see flashy signs of his love and care.                                      

End this time by thanking Jesus for the miracle of your relationship with him.

If these meditations are helpful to you, please forward them to couple of friends.

Interested in going deeper? Check out The Everyday Jesus Follower’s Guide and blog.