Wednesday, June
27, 2018
Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into
the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida, while he sent the people home. After telling everyone
good-bye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Late that night, the disciples were in their
boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land. He
saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the
wind and waves. About three o’clock in
the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. He intended to go past them, but when they saw him
walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost. They were all terrified
when they saw him. But Jesus spoke to
them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he
said. “Take courage! I am here!” Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed, for they still
didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in. Mark 6:45-52(NLT)
When I put myself in the
boat with the disciples, and it’s 3:00 AM, and the storm is about to swamp our
little boat, AND with all our scurrying around to keep the boat from sinking,
suddenly there’s a guy strolling around ON the water as calm as your
neighbor out walking the dog…well, it’s just a little weird, thank you!
But if that first sighting
was weird, what came next had to have made every disciple wonder if maybe they
need to see a psychiatrist. It turned
out to be Jesus, and their master simply says, chill out, I’m here. And then he climbs in the boat and the wind
stops; they’re safe, all is well, and they hardly notice it because their minds
are reeling from having seen a man walking across the water. (Mind you, this is well before hover
boards!).
Mark reminds us that the
reason the disciples were so confused is because their minds were still reeling
from the previous day when Jesus fed a crowd of many thousands with just a boy’s
lunch.
The explanation Mark
tacks-on about why the disciples had such a hard time getting their minds
around what just happened was a severe case of weak faith, due to hardened
hearts. Mark was in a position to judge
this; it’s difficult to admit hard-heart syndrome, but this apostle’s truthful
assessment of his own heart, and that of his brothers in the boat, makes sense,
because it happens to all of us. Let’s
face it, when troubled waters threaten, we all do the same things:
1. We worry – the disciples
couldn’t help remembering all those other times those familiar, unfriendly
waters had threatened life and limb. We
all have our troubled waters. We worry,
and…
2. We waffle – the men in the
boat were doing what they knew to do, struggling against the waves. Just the day before they had witnessed the
miracle of Jesus caring for the crowd, multiplying fish and loaves to feed
them. And now, it was back to life as
usual. And that’s the issue with
waffling; the miracle was to teach all of us that Jesus wants us to look to Him
much more than struggle with waves! We
worry, waffle, and…
3. We wonder – the disciples didn’t
know what to think because they were wondering HOW Jesus could do
that…calm the waves of an angry sea just by showing up. They had their eyes on the miracle instead of
the Master.
Our hearts can be either hard,
or receptive. The key ingredient is a mind
trained to look past the circumstances to the heart of the One behind the
circumstances. It’s not so much WHAT
is happening to you; it’s more a matter of WHO is driving what’s
happening to you.
The mere fact that Mark
opens his own life for our inspection, that we might see a heart that had not
yet fully-trusted Christ, should speak loudly to what must be done. If you’re going to follow Jesus, there must
be a surrender of the heart…fully. Just
this week I heard it (again) in a sermon that the Lord requires our commitment
to Him if we would be His disciples. And
the only kind of commitment that is genuine is 100%.[2] Lacking that, we will always wind up
worrying, waffling, and wondering what happened.
For You Today
As you walk through this day, if the
water gets more than a little troubled, remember Jesus will walk on it – or anything
else He needs to – to come to you. So,
don’t worry, waffle, or wonder; it’s not the waves He’s watching, it’s
you! Return the look; keep your eyes on
Him.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
[2] Paul Leland, Bishop, Western
NC, United Methodist Church, Annual Conference sermon, 6/24/18 (my paraphrase
of the Bishop’s remarks)
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