Hardened Hearts

Mark 6:45-52[1]


This is not a part of the sermon series on commitment from Mark 6:30-44, but the story here happens immediately after the feeding of the five thousand.

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

⁴⁷ Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. ⁴⁸ He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, ⁴⁹ but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, ⁵⁰ because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, ⁵² for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

What strikes me in the passage is 6:51-52, where Mark tells us that the disciples were so amazed because they had not understood about the loaves, and because their hearts were hardened. What does this verse mean?

Darkened Mind

The Gospel author, Mark, tells us that the disciples were amazed because they had not understood about the loaves. The description used about the disciples was that they were very and exceedingly (lian ek perissou) astonished (6:49-50a). There is nothing wrong with being surprised, but the problem is that the astonishment of the disciples was not grounded in awe but in ignorance. The disciples should not be surprised anymore at this point, having experienced Jesus’s miracles. Their obvious ignorance and inability to understand Jesus Christ is also already evidenced by (1) their previous inability to recognize Jesus Christ while he was walking on water (6:49; as if there was someone else who can walk on water); and (2) the fact that they become so terrified when they saw him (6:50b).

The disciples were eyewitnesses of the miracles of Christ, yet they did not understand who he is. The feeding of the five thousand is just singled out because it is the most immediate miracle. The miracle happened on the same day, just a little less than five hours ago, and yet the miraculous display almost did not leave an impression on them.

The gospel of Mark reeks with other stories that paint how dumb the disciples were:

• the parable of the sower (4:1-20): “When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables… ¹³ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?’” (4:10, 13)
• the calming of the storm (4:35-41): “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (4:41)
• unclean and unclean (7:1-23): “After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. ¹⁸ ‘Are you so dull?’ he asked” (7:17-18)
• the parable of yeast (8:14-21): “Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”…  ²¹ He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (8:17-19, 21)

It seems that we can be with Jesus, and yet fail to understand who He is and what He does. We may have seen and experienced how he worked in our lives and yet feel distant from him. It can be like staring at a physics magazine, with all the amazing symbols and equations explaining the wonders of the universe, and yet in all their splendor we do not understand it. Or it is like staring at a canvass, and your friends are saying how magnificent the art is in its meaning and significance, and yet no matter how much you try, you have no idea what they are talking about. Or it is like being in one of my classes, where I am teaching the grand mysteries of God’s Being and Work, and my students are just staring at me and having no idea what in the world I am talking about.

This is what was happening to the disciples. They were in the presence of “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24), “the Son of the most High God” (Luke 1:32), “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Heb 1:3), the One who was “with God in the beginning” (John 1:1-2), “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev 1:8, 17-18; 21:6-7; 22:13). They were in the presence of “the mystery once hidden from the past ages and generations… which is Christ” (Col 1:26-27). The only problem was that they did not understand who He is! Jesus’ words to Peter applied to all of them: “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Mark 8:33).

This can be our experience too. We can be staring at the words of the Bible, and yet we do not understand what it means. We can be staring at the mighty work of God in our midst, in our family, in our church, in our neighborhood, in our school, and yet we do not understand or have an idea what is going on. We can be staring at the face of God himself through a child in need of help, and completely ignore Him. We may be listening to the words of God Himself through His servants, and yet we are oblivious and clueless about it. In fact, we may be at God’s sanctuary and yet our minds are absolutely blank.

Hardened Heart

The reason the disciples did not understand, according to Mark, was because their hearts are hardened. This is a scary thing to say. The train of thought of Mark is like this:

            Petrified body: The disciples were terrified and astonished.

            Why petrified? Darkened mind: They lacked understanding.

            Why darkened? Hardened heart: They have hardened hearts.

What does it mean for the disciples to have a hardened heart? This question becomes more interesting especially in the light of the fact that Jesus says to some Pharisees in Mark 10:5 that they also have hearts that were hard: “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law” (Mark 10:5). This means that in terms of their hearts, the disciples were no different from the Pharisees!

The Bible is rich with allusions about hardened hearts. The most popular is the hardened heart of the pharaoh (Exo 4:21 7:3, 13; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8). According to the prophet Samuel, God did not harden the pharaoh’s heart; the pharaoh hardened it himself: “Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did?” (1 Sam 6:6). Samuel belongs to the minority group here, because others think otherwise. Joshua has a different interpretation: “For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses” (Josh 11:20). Paul defends God’s sovereignty: “God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden” (Rom 9:18)

According to Joshua and Paul, it is God himself who hardens the hearts of people! But why would God do such a thing? If God will harden people’s heart, there is no way they can understand, repent, and be saved. This is absolutely frightening! In fact, this same frightening realization can be seen in Isaiah 6. When we read Isaiah 6, we usually stop at verse 8, but the succeeding verses actually spell bad news:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

⁹ He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;

be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people calloused;

make their ears dull

and close their eyes. 

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears, 

understand with their hearts, 

and turn and be healed” (Isa 6:8-10)

Why would God do such a thing as to harden anybody’s heart so that they, in turn, cannot be saved? (Isa 6:10). I can rationalize it, and say “surely God’s grace is greater,” but this would mean that the Scripture lied. In the first place, what is so special about us and how different are we from pharaoh that God would exempt us from having hardened hearts?

We can free God from terrible accusations when we understand what it means to have a hardened heart. For God to harden people’s heart does not mean that God takes away people’s capacity to choose God and do what is right. It does not mean that God makes people’s hearts to become so calloused that they become immune to God’s conviction.

Rather, it means that because we have ignored God’s conviction so many times, God decided to leave us alone. The Holy Spirit who convicts our hearts about sin and judgment has withdrawn from us, not because He arbitrarily chose to, but because we have not been listening anyway. This, I think, was what happened to pharaoh, who was so double-minded that although he felt convicted several times, he decided to go against his better judgment. So finally, God hardened his heart, meaning, He withdrew his convicting presence from him, so that he might receive the punishment of his disobedience. 

This is hard teaching, and I tremble at its truth: because of our own doing and because we have continuously grieved the Spirit, God chose to withdraw the Spirit so that we no longer feel conviction. I do not want to judge anybody, but I see this everywhere (including myself). I see believers claiming to be reading their Bibles, are hearing deep sermons, and are being challenged by many about many things, and yet do nothing appropriate in response. They have become experts in disobeying God that God’s words no longer reach them. Their hearts are now calloused. They have now returned to their previous lifestyle and they are either denying it or are clueless about it. Paul writes about the evidence of a hardened heart: “I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed” (Eph 4:17-19).

Is There Hope?

Failure to understand and to possess hardened hearts are looming possibilities for every follower of Jesus Christ. The disciples experienced these things, despite their unique calling (1:16-20; 3:13-19), privileged instruction (3:31-35; 4:13-20, 34), commissioning, gift of miracle-working power, and participation in Jesus’ ministry (6:7-13, 30, 35-44).[2]

But is there hope for those who fail?

Mark was not ashamed to record the failures of the disciples, but this was not because he wanted to make a vendetta against them. It seems that Mark was so honest in his accounts in order to encourage his readers that discipleship does not entail perfect knowledge and obedience all the time. Like the disciples of Jesus Christ, followers of Christ today may fail every now and then. But even so, there is hope. The gospel ends with a note that even though the disciples were scattered when Jesus was crucified (14:27-28), they will be gathered back after the resurrection:  “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you’” (16:6-7). That Peter is especially mentioned in important, because it means that even the one who denied Him vigorously can be restored (Mark 14:66-72). Peter made a blunder big time, but he too can be restored.  

Jesus’ disciples are called back to Him. Amidst our failures and culpable mistakes, He still calls us to himself and meets us. So if you feel like or know that you have drifted apart from God, and the evidence is that you have lost your once passionate desire to worship and serve God, or you feel as if you are no longer convicted about many things in life, Jesus wants to meet with you. Why don’t you meet Him in Galilee, where He is going ahead of you?

The gospel of Mark is an astonishing mirror though which succeeding disciples might see themselves. The gospel seems to teach us that even though the disciples failed so many times, they were still Jesus’ close friends, servants and apostles. This means that despite our failures, we can continue to be Jesus’ servants. Jesus is not looking for perfect disciples; He is looking for willing disciples. So as Jesus commissioned His disciples, imperfect they may be, we are also commissioned to teach, proclaim, and heal as we go back to our own places.

[1] Commentaries consulted include Robert T. Stein, Mark (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 320-29; and William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 233-39.

[2] Stein, Mark, 329. 

Reward of Commitment

Mark 6:30-44

This is the third of my three sermons on commitment, based on Mark 6:30-44. In this sermon, we will be dealing with the rewards of commitment.

In Part I of our sermon series on commitment, the passionate commitment of the people to be with Jesus Christ was highlighted. The people were so committed to being with Him that they ran 10-13 kilometers just to be with Him. They were not hindered by personal exhaustion and external obstacles. They kept running towards Him. We emphasized that the foundation of commitment is intense and active love for Jesus Christ.

In the second sermon, we realized that the people did not only follow Jesus Christ. They also remained. And they remained until it was already dark. If the foundation of commitment is passion for God, the evidence of commitment is remaining in Him. Christianity is not just about an initial encounter with God. In fact, it is the act of remaining in Him that constitutes the more difficult part of our Christian life.

The story picks up and continues:

By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

³⁸ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

³⁹ Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

What I like about the last part of the story is summarized in verse 42: “they all ate and were satisfied.” Following after Jesus Christ, no matter the obstacles may be, and remaining in Him no matter what happens, results in being filled and satisfied. This is the reward of commitment: fulfilment and satisfaction.

I like this part of the story because fulfilment is hard to come by these days. As we progress through history, it seems that our needs have increased, and being satisfied seems like an illusory dream. The moment we attain what we think we want, something new and better comes out and our hearts are depressed again. Our lives today are characterized by painful ironies: (1) we own a lot (including non-essentials and possibly garbage), but we feel we are poor; (2) we are surrounded by food and food providers, but hunger persists; (3) subdivisions rise here and there, and yet we are surrounded by the homeless or people with less-than-home living condition; (4) we have access to a lot of information, but ignorance is still bliss; and (5) the rich become richer and the poor are still poor.

Self-fulfilment and satisfaction are words and realities that are almost too ideal to achieve. If Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is true, then achieving self-fulfilment is next to impossible for many. But also, even Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is now outdated. Revisions had to be done with it (like adding Wifi and Battery, as humorous editors like to add). 

So because the story ends with a note that all the people who remained with Jesus ate and were all satisfied, I feel excited! There is fulfilment and satisfaction when we remain in Christ! The Christian life is not only characterized by tiringly running after Him and painful waiting with bugs. To use a common metaphor, there is a rainbow at the end of the rain. The world will never satisfy us, no matter how much we remain in it, love it, dwell in it, embrace it, or even abuse it. But those who commit themselves to the Lord will be satisfied. We will be filled. As the writer of Hebrews wrote, “He rewards those who earnestly seek Him” (Heb 11:6).

The Art of Waiting

What’s interesting is that the people did not know that Jesus had planned to feed them. They stayed, knowing that there was no food around. They just stayed for the sake of listening. They stayed not because they knew Jesus would feed them. None of them knew that Jesus would perform a miracle. Even the disciples were anxious because they did not know the plans of Jesus Christ. We can learn from these people. The Christian life is a matter of remaining in Christ, even when we do not know His immediate plans about our future. It is a matter of having faith, and trusting that God knows our needs. We just keep on remaining in Him even when the details of how He would satisfy us are not so clear. Sometimes, all we have to do is to wait and be patient. The promise of waiting is spelled by the prophet Isaiah:

“Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary; 

they will walk and not be faint” (Isa 40:30-31).

We live in a fast-paced world, so waiting is not really our strength. We are an impatient generation. We want results, and we want them immediately. We even have some sort of a strict timeline about what will happen when. We all get tired, and quitting is always an alternative. There are better things to do. There is possibly a greener future waiting. We can take chances, pack our things, and leave. But this simple statement in verse 42 is extremely encouraging: those who remain will someday be filled. Remaining committed to God is important, because the reward of our faith is sometimes waiting at death: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward” (2 John 1:7-8).

Our comfort is that when we remain in Him, we know that we will be filled and satisfied. We do not know when or how, but we know that we will be satisfied.

What is Satisfaction?

But what does satisfaction mean? When we look back at the story, there was nothing special about bread and fish. The bread was probably stale and the fish was probably some sort of dried fish. They can get such things from somewhere else. They were nothing special. Yet they became filled and satisfied with what was given to them by Jesus Christ. No complaints. So the questions for us are: If God gives us something that can fill us, will we be satisfied? Will we be content?

According to an anonymous thinker, “Happiness isn’t getting all that you want. It’s enjoying all that you have.” This is certainly true. Sometimes we become unhappy because we are looking at what others have. Another person wrote: “Know that the people who are richest are not those who have the most, but those who need the least.” This hits the bulls eye. People are unhappy because they think they need a lot; when in fact, what depresses them are luxuries and pleasures they do not need in the first place. It is when we desire for more that we feel discontent and poor. This is why the Scriptures admonish us:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb 13:5).

“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless” (Ecc 5:10).

Twelve Extra Baskets

The people were all filled and were satisfied. In fact, there were twelve basketfuls after everyone ate. For some of us, maybe we are still at that stage when we are remaining in Christ while enduring our hunger. We are still waiting for Jesus Christ to make a miracle in our lives.

But maybe for some of us we are already experiencing the fullness and satisfaction as rewards of our commitment to Christ. I can confess that I belong to this group. God has been so gracious to me and He has blessed me abundantly. I have had my share of hunger and suffering. When I decided to follow Christ and become a minister, I experienced not eating for several days while I was at the Bible College. In order for me to wash my clothes, I had to scrape the soap leftovers of others. But because I followed Jesus Christ, and continued to remain in Him, I am now able to eat three times a day, and I have money to buy soap for my laundry. I am not rich, but I know that I am blessed. I am very satisfied with what God has given me.

Did you ever wonder why there were still twelve basketfuls of leftovers? Among 15,000 people, 12 basketfuls is nothing. It will probably only take 500 people to eat 12 baskets of bread. Also, the people could have decided to just keep the leftovers to themselves. There were leftovers that the disciples were able to gather because the people experienced contentment and satisfaction. I think the only way that we are able to give back to the Lord and give to others is when we are truly satisfied. When we are not satisfied with our lives, we can tend to hold back our leftovers and keep them for ourselves. 

Evidence of Commitment

Mark 6:30-44, esp 31-35


This is the second of my three sermons on commitment, based on Mark 6:30-44. In this sermon, we will be dealing with the evidence of commitment. 

In Part I of our sermon series on commitment, we started looking at the story in Mark 6:30-44, and we realized that the people who ran after Jesus actually ran 10-13 kilometers. About fifteen thousand people ran from Bethsaida to Tabgha. There were children, young people, and adults in the crowd. There were elderly and those with physical limitations. There were people carrying their children, sick friends, and relatives as they were trying their very best to be where Jesus was going. Such was their desire and longing to be with Jesus that they did not take notice of their sweat, exhaustion, and even aching bodies. Nothing in the universe—be it external forces (like the terrain, dust on their faces, heat of the sun, etc.) or internal challenges (like exhaustion, short breath, muscle cramps, etc.) was able to stop them from running after Jesus Christ. They were committed to be with Him—and the foundation for such a commitment is a strong desire to be with Him.

The story continues to say that when Jesus landed on the shore near Tabgha, the people were already there waiting for them: “‘When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. ³⁵ By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. ‘This is a remote place,’ they said, ‘and it’s already very late’” (Mark 6:33-35). These verses, like verse 33, try to summarize what happened at a long period of time. Mark was not really interested in the details of the occasion. He was probably only interested in the miracle of the feeding of the fifteen thousand that he considered the other details of the story as peripheral.

Verse 34 says that Jesus had compassion on the people, so he began teaching them “many things.” We do not know what Jesus taught the people, but one thing is for sure: Jesus taught them many things, which is why the disciples in verse 35 complained that “it’s already very late.” This means that the people did not only follow Jesus, they also remained when they found Him. If the foundation of commitment is a passionate desire to be with Jesus, the evidence of commitment is remaining in Him.

Christianity is not just about finding Jesus or coming to Him. Finding and meeting Him as the Lord and Savior is just the beginning of the relationship that we can have with Him. Of course it is important that people have a genuine encounter with Jesus Christ, but after the encounter, what is important is our remaining in Him. The related commands to follow, find, and cling to God were already spoken of by God to the Israelites: “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him” (Deut 13:4, NASB). When Joshua was about to die and he was giving his farewell speech to the Israelites, his admonition was the same: “Cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day” (Josh 23:8, NASB). Joshua’s admonition was not really kept by the Israelites. In fact, many decades later, Yahweh complained: “‘As the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they did not listen’” (Jer 13:11, NASB).

The failure of the Israelites during the time of Jeremiah to cling or remain with Yahweh can easily become the experience of many people. The reality is that even disciples of Christ can choose to not remain in Him. There is a fascinating contrast between John 6 and Mark 6. In Mark 6, Jesus taught the people many things and the people remained until it was already dark (then they were fed with bread). In John 6, however, Jesus taught about Himself being the bread of life, and after challenging them to partake of Him, they grumbled: “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Then the narrative continues to say that “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:60, 66).

Then after many of His disciples deserted Him, Jesus turned to His disciples:

⁶⁷ “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰ Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” ⁷¹ (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.) (John 6:67-71)

As Christians, we are all hand-picked and chosen by the Lord to be saved. Each one of us here are the Lord’s disciple. He has called us out of darkness into His light, and reconciled us to Himself. What He asks is that we remain in Him. If the people at Tabgha remained in Him without being asked, how much more should we remain in Him now that Jesus is asking us to remain in Him? The night before Jesus was crucified, this was one of His admonitions to His disciples:

 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples (John 15:5-8).

In this passage, several things are very clear:

1.      we become nobodies and useless if we do not remain in Him (15:5)

2.      our salvation is dependent on remaining in Him (15:6)

3.      remaining in Him is a pre-requisite for answered prayers (15:7)

When we go back to the story in Mark 6, we can easily identify reasons why the people did not need to remain with Christ. Perhaps Jesus already healed the sick, and having been already healed, they had no more business staying. They received what they wanted and got what they came for. This is the attitude of many people even in the face of God: they run toward Him in theirr need and flee from Him as quickly as they came when all has become well. Let us assume that there were people who already went home after they have been healed, but still: about fifteen thousand people remained!

The fact that people remained until it was very late is quite fascinating. Just as there were difficult challenges that hindered them from following Jesus, they also faced challenges in remaining with Jesus Christ. If they were in the meadow in grass, there would have been bugs crawling around. There could have been mosquitos and other itch-producing bug bites. Secondly, there were no comfortable chairs. The people would have been sitting uncomfortably or standing throughout the whole lecture. Thirdly, they were in the open air. There was no roof to protect them from the heat of the day. It would have been very hot and humid, since they were beside the sea. Finally, Jesus was teaching. What if Jesus was a boring teacher? There were no sound system, microphones, powerpoint presentations, video illustrations, and other awesome pedagogical tools that we have and use today.

Apart from the physical setting of the place and the challenges it brings, there were also other factors that could have led the people to not remain with Jesus. Some of them would have thought about returning to their work or their farm. Some of them might be thinking about the family members they have left just to follow Jesus. These would have been valid reasons to go home.

But let us look at another dimension of the story. It is true that the people remained in Christ, but we must not forget that Jesus also remained with them. We must remember that the story begins with a note about the exhaustion that Jesus and the disciples had after their ministries around the villages. Jesus did not need to stay. He was experiencing all the inconveniences the people were also experiencing. He was as hungry as the rest of them. He was more tired than any of them. He had better things to do like all of them. But He stayed. He remained with them. That is the love of God for us. He is compassionate through and through. He does not think about His comfort first. He thinks of the needs of others. He remains committed to His mission to humanity amidst all odds.

We can foolishly ask: “Why do I have to remain with Jesus?” but the same could be asked of us: “Why should Jesus remain with us?” Kathy Troccoli sang:

It’s Your stubborn love that never lets go of me

I don't understand how You can stay

Perfect love embracing the worst in me

How I long for Your stubborn love

Just as Christ wishes to remain with You, will your remain in Him? Let us look at the crowd around Jesus. Do you see yourself there, soaking in His words? If there are things that are hindering you from remaining in Christ, why don’t we ask the Spirit to reveal them to us, least they become the reason we are cut off from the Vine and burned in eternal fire?

Foundation of Commitment

Mark 6:30-34

This is the first of my three sermons on commitment, based on Mark 6:30-44. In this story, we will look at the foundation, evidence, and reward of commitment. In this sermon, we will be dealing with the foundation of commitment.

Mark 6:30-44 begins with the gathering of the twelve disciples and Jesus: “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught” (Mark 6:30). The disciples just came from their respective ministries. Earlier, Jesus sent the disciples in two with the authority to cast out evil spirits, and that was precisely what they did (Mark 6:7, 12-23). With all these things Jesus and the disciples had done, they were certainly very tired. After everything they have done, and after telling their exciting victories to one another, their adrenaline has finally run out, and they desired nothing else but to have a good rest.

Unfortunately, the tiring ministry of the disciples did not end in their travels. People were still coming to them: “so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat” (Mark 6:31). Well, people were still coming to Jesus, and since the disciples were with Jesus, they were implicated in whatever Jesus experienced. They were already so tired, and perhaps in their hearts they were wishing that these super annoying people would leave them alone for a while. They were most certainly glad when Jesus finally said: “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” and as the story unfolded, ^“they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place” (Mark 6:31-32).

The problem, however, was that the people were really so passionate to be with Jesus that they did not want Him to leave them. The story continues to narrate: “But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them” (Mark 6:33). This verse is actually the crucial one in this sermon. It is a very short sentence, summing up the event following the departure of Jesus and the disciples. Perhaps Mark summarized the story and did not go into the details in the interest of saving space, but there are actually a lot of things going on in the verse. This verse actually reveals to us the most important foundation of commitment: deep and intense longing for Jesus Christ.

Let us unpack verse 33.

The verse says that “the people ran on foot from all the towns” (6:33) in order to be where Jesus was going. According to tradition, the feeding of the five thousand took place at Tabgha, and we can assume that Jesus and the disciples were coming from Bethsaida, where Jesus had performed many miracles in his early Galilean ministry. By going on foot, assuming that the people were running along the shore of the sea, the people actually ran about 10-13 kilometers.  (SM Megamall, from Tikling, is 10.4 kilometers.) Commentaries indicate that Jesus and the disciples may have their boat cruising in the sight of the people, which was why they were able to know where they were going. But still, the fact remains that they run 10-13 kilometers. This is not an easy feat to do. Even I do not have the capacity to run 10 kilometers.

Who are these runners? Imagine with me, and let us look at the scene at a wide angle. There were many people. In fact, the story indicates at the end that there was a total of five thousand men who were fed by Jesus Christ. Let us assume that there were also five thousand women and five thousand children. This means that a crowd approximately numbering fifteen thousand was running 10 kilometers. This is an awesome fun run. That is a lot of people. Imagine 15,000 people running from Tikling to SM Megamall.

Let us look at the crowd more closely. Let us take our cameras and focus on some of the runners. I am sure there were children, youth, and adults in the crowd. The adults were carrying their children. There were also pregnant women. There were grandpas and grandmas. Also, because Jesus and the disciples were known healers, there were probably sick people in the crowd. There were blind, lame, and all sorts of bodily disfigured people. And so, like the four men who lowered their friends through the roof (Matt 9:2-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26), there were sick people being carried by their families or friends.

But if we zoom in our cameras and look at their faces, we will see that amidst all the long distance they were running and amidst their physical limitations and burdens, there was great eagerness for them to continue. Again, these people ran 10 kilometers, whether running on their own or running with their family members or running while carrying other people on their backs. Yes, they have already run a long ways; but there is no hint of hesitation. Yes, they are stretching their physical capacities; but there is no regret about what they are doing. Yes, they are tired; but there is joy in their eyes. Yes, they are suffering; but there is peace in their eyes. There is a strong conviction in their eyes that this is the right thing to do. Their feet are now blistered, but they still want to go on. Their bodies are sweating, but they still want to go on. Their hands are cramped because of whatever they are carrying, but they still want to go on. Their lungs are almost out of breath, but they still want to go on. Their muscles are sore already, but they still want to go on. They are running not on good roads but on sand, making it more difficult to run, but they still want to go on. They are already inhaling dust and bad odor, but they still want to go on. They are navigating through thorns and thistles and shrubs, but they still want to go on.

There were a lot of difficulties and challenges in running after Jesus Christ: physical, psychological, economic, but the people just went on and on. There was still joy in their hearts.

We must ask the question: why are they still running? Because they are passionate about Jesus. They are longing to be with Jesus. They only reason for their continued and undying commitment to what they are doing is their desire to be with Jesus Christ.

Have we experienced being in love with someone that all we want to do is be with that someone? And regardless of the hardships, difficulties, and challenges, we still want to be with him or her. We will climb the highest mountain, swim the widest ocean, walk the longest road, just to be with the one we love so much? No matter what comes our ways, when we are so in love with what we are doing, nothing can hinder us.

This is the foundation of commitment: love, passion, desire, and longing for whatever or whoever we are committed to. This is found over and over again in the examples of awesome people in the Bible. Noah was asked by God to build a big ark because He said He would flood the whole earth. Noah obeyed. I can imagine people laughing at him, taunting him to his face, maybe even receiving criticisms from his own family and friends. And yet he continued on doing what he was asked to do. He was committed to his calling (Gen 5:9-9:17). Moses remained committed to his calling as the leader of the Israelites, despite the many grumblings and hardships he encountered at the hands of his own people. Job’s commitment and faith to God was impeccable. He loved God more than riches and his family. Even in economic, social, familial, and physical difficulties, he remained in love with God. Paul loved Jesus Christ so much that amidst all the persecution, hardship, beating, shipwrecks, brutal assaults, rejection, and even imprisonment, he remained strong in the faith, proclaiming the gospel everywhere. Jesus loved humanity so much that He endured shame and even death. All along, He was thinking about us. Like these exemplars, the crowd in our story deeply desired to be with Jesus, and nothing can stop them from running after Him.

Mark says that “the people ran on foot from all the towns” (6:33). We can perhaps imagine that the number of people from Bethsaida was three thousand, but because they were running along the shore and across towns, they attracted other people to run with them. This is one of the fruits of commitment: when people see that we are passionate about something, people begin to ask what is there? As a social experiment, while walking on the street, just stop for a bit and begin to stare at the sky. Just stay staring, and people will also stop and stare where you are staring. Another social experiment: Talk passionately about how evil someone is, and you will notice that your hearers will also begin to hate the person you are talking about.

When we are excited about something, people will catch our vision and passion about it. As a concrete example, when we are excited to go to church and our neighbors see that, they are intrigued what is so important about going to church. But when they see our lukewarm attitude on Sunday morning, and they even hear us say something like--“Oh, I did not even realize it is Sunday today. Oh man! I have to go to church!”—people around us will definitely follow our emotions.

When people see our commitment, they too will catch our faith virus.  

Let us ask ourselves today: How is my love for God? Do I still have that burning passion to be with Him, worship Him, and serve Him when I first made the decision to follow Him? Or has the flame of my love slowly died down because of the pressures of the world, of work, of family, of friends, or of other competing desires?

Let us look back at the story. Do you see yourselves in the crowd of fifteen thousand people running after Jesus? Do you see yourself sweaty, tired, and in pain, and yet still eager to run after Jesus because you know deep in your heart that you love Him so much?