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?
[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.
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