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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 16:8 - 16:12
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The reproof and explanation:
v. 8. Which when Jesus perceived, He said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves because ye have brought no bread?
v. 9. Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
v. 10. Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
v. 11. How is it that ye do not understand that I speak it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
v. 12. Then understood they how that He bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Jesus could not help but notice their lack of understanding. Even if their conversation was carried on in voices too low for Him to hear, He read what went on in their minds. His reproach is sad, almost stern: He charges them with little understanding, with hardness of heart. Mar_8:17-18, with little faith. That they are concerned about, and gravely discuss, a question of bodily food, when dangers are confronting their faith! He challenges their understanding, their memory, in the matter of the feeding of the five thousand and, shortly after that, of the four thousand. He wants them to recall how many baskets of fragments they picked up in either case: Are ye still too dull to draw conclusions? The question of a sufficient supply of bread had in no way entered into the situation. It was a matter solely of their imagination and their care for the body that prompted them to think as they had. "Here we see that Christ deals in a most loving manner with those that do not tempt Him, but are ready, absolutely and simply to be instructed of Him. For, behold, how much patience He has with the ignorance of the apostles in the Word and with their weakness in the faith. He did not go away and leave them, as He did the Pharisees; but He bears and heals their foolishness in a most kindly manner and is obliged to explain Himself over against them as against children with clear words in regard to that which He had said, and accommodate Himself to their ability. And they also do not cast away the love, the trust, and the respect toward Him, but they, as true disciples, gladly bear His reproof and become better through it. " Their understanding having thus been opened, they were no longer at a loss as to the meaning of the word "leaven. " As the yeast, or leaven, which is added to the meal, though it may be small in amount, yet exerts its power upon the whole mass, so it is with false doctrine. It may be an apparently small matter, a doubt as to the validity of a Scripture-passage, a false understanding of a fundamental truth; and the entire structure of faith is liable to be undermined. The disciples now understood that He warned them against the false doctrine of the Pharisees, including their hypocrisy, pride, envy, self-righteousness, and arrogance, and that of the Sadducees in denying the existence of the spiritual world, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and the providence of God. "He reminded them that they must hold the Word and faith firmly against the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. As though He would say: Why are ye worried on account of the bread for the body? Strive to be concerned for the bread of the spirit, for the Word and faith, against false doctrine and faith. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that ye may not, through false teachers, be misled into the kingdom of the devil and error. For this true bread ye must be concerned."