A Hard Heart
Do not be hard hearted in relationship to Jesus
Did you know that Jesus’ disciples witnessed miracles that should have convinced them that He was the Son of God - God in flesh dwelling among them - but their hardened hearts prevented them from seeing and accepting this truth.
In the book of Mark, we see a back-to-back example of this heard heartedness:
FEEDING THE 5000
Mark 6:40-44 NASBS
[40] They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. [41] And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. [42] They all ate and were satisfied, [43] and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. [44] There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.
WALKING ON WATER
Mark 6:45-52 NASBS
[45] Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. [46] After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. [47] When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. [48] Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. [49] But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; [50] for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, "Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid." [51] Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, [52] for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.
The Focus
Consider these two preceding passages. In the first passage, the focus is thus not on the miracle itself but on the one who worked it. Jesus is not merely a prophet; he acts as God acts.
The feeding of the 5,000 reinforces Jesus’ proclamation: after feeding them the Word of God (v. 34), they now miraculously receive bread and fish (basic foods; see Luke 24:42; John 21:9). Once again the question of Jesus’ true identity is raised; and once again (on account of their hard-heartedness), the disciples do not understand (see Mark 6:52; 8:18–21).
In the second passage “He meant to pass by them,” not so that they would fail to see him (in which case he would have stayed farther away from them), but so that they would see him “pass by” (Gk. parerchomai), walking on the water, thus giving visible evidence of his deity (and thus answering the question they asked after he stilled the sea in Mark 4:41: “Who then is this … ?”).
This passage echoes the incident where God “passed” before Moses (the same verb, parerchomai, occurs in the Septuagint of Ex. 33:19, 22; 34:6), giving a glimpse of his glory. But it also echoes Job 9, where Job says that it is God who “trampled the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8; the Septuagint has peripatōn … epi thalassēs, “walking on the sea,” using the same words as Mark 6:48, peripatōn epi tēs thalassēs) and then also says, “he passes by me” (Job 9:11, Gk. parerchomai). There is an implicit claim to divinity in Jesus’ actions.
6:49–50 The disciples are overwhelmed by what appears to be a ghost (see note on Matt. 14:26). Like God in the OT, Jesus calms their troubled hearts by identifying himself (“It is I” echoes Ex. 3:14).
6:51–52 the wind ceased. Cf. 4:35–41. their hearts were hardened.
When Jesus calmed the storm earlier, the disciples had struggled with faith vs. fear (4:40); now, they struggled with faith vs. fear plus hard-heartedness.
Mark explains that multiplying the loaves should have demonstrated Jesus’ true identity to them (cf. 8:18–21), but neither that miracle nor the appearance of Jesus on the water could open their hearts to the reality of his divine nature.
Today, we are blessed to be able to read God’s word and to understand the context and purpose of Jesus and the reaction of His disciples. We can find ourselves in their confusion and heard-heartedness and pray that Jesus give us grace and mercy and open our eyes to His truth and to not be hardened in our hearts when we read His word and instead through our abiding we are drawn closer to Him and are able to discern His will and purpose and our opportunity to serve Him in all that we do.
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