In yesterday’s Gospel narration Jesus became quite disturbed. The Pharisees were demanding an extraordinary event of some sort as a sign. The idea was that through the sign God would indicate his pleasure with what Jesus was preaching and doing. In today’s Gospel Jesus gets angry with his disciples because they don’t recognize the signs that he has already given them.
Jesus and his disciples are in a small boat crossing the lake. The apostles forgot to bring food with them and all they had was a loaf of bread. While this anxiety is at the top of their minds, Jesus, who’s concerned about more serious matters, suddenly warns them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. So the disciples let their worries go, figuring that his talk about leaven means how they’ll get their next meal. Jesus explodes: “Can’t you get your minds off your bellies? What about the signs I gave you when twice I fed thousands with a couple of loaves and a few fish? And you’re worried about your next meal? You still don’t understand, do you?”
What Jesus is suggesting here is that the disciples (and we) look to their (and our) past experiences. Our past experiences are signs given us by God, assuring us that we are safely held in his hands. We’ve all suffered deep sorrows. Yet in the past God has always been with us, helping us to survive the pain. We’ve undergone serious illnesses and recovered. We’ve faced insoluble problems and somehow we solved them. We’ve been confronted by irresistible temptations and somehow we managed to resist them. We need to realize that God is worthy of trust and that he will continue to be
with us to the end.
