Grace and Peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in
the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
The Eighth
Sunday after Pentecost (2009)
Jesus Our Rescuer from Hardened
Hearts
Mark 6:45-56 (ESV)
Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to
the other side, to
[53] When
they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the
shore. [54] And when they got out of the
boat, the people immediately recognized him [55] and ran about the whole region
and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he
was. [56] And wherever he came, in
villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and
implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many
as touched it were made well.
So often we think of life as
a series of trials and tribulations. It’s typical, that when we think everything
is going smoothly and life is a happy experience; something always pops up to
unsettle our tranquility. Oh, it doesn’t have to be some major catastrophe,
such as being victimized by the weather or a critical illness. No, it can be as
small as not getting a good grade on that last exam, or failing to get that
promotion at work. Or it could be getting something we really wanted, something
we had planned and saved for, but after getting it we find it’s not all it was
cracked up to be. Life’s tragedies, trials, and disappointments come as an
unexpected storm and usually, when they do, we want to put the blame on God.
Oh, not that we blaspheme our Lord, but our human knowledge asserts that He is
the creator, He causes all things to happen, He alone has the foreknowledge of
life, and then we ask; Why Lord? Why did you let this happen?
Such is the case for the
disciples as they find themselves in a strong storm on the
Such an understanding of
today’s Gospel Reading is not uncommon. We see in this account from the
evangelist Mark, our Lord rescuing His disciples from an angry sea and possible
death. However, far too many miss the importance of this Gospel which is
unveiled in versus 51 and 52, “And they were utterly astounded, for they
did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened” Therefore,
one has to ask, did the disciples ever really think that Jesus would come to
their rescue?
Just prior to getting into
their boat to begin their journey across the Sea of Galilee, the disciples were
eyewitnesses to Jesus feeding the five-thousand with only five loaves of bread
and two small fish. Yet, seeing and participating in this miracle had no effect
on their hearts. They still did not understand just who Jesus truly was. To get
a better idea of what has happened to place the disciples into this
predicament, we turn to the Gospel of John. There the apostle tells us that
after Jesus had fed the five-thousand, “the people saw the sign that he had done,
they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’
Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him
king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself” (John 6:14-15 ESV).
Jesus dismisses the crowd
because they misunderstood who He was as they wanted to make Him an earthly
king. They thought surely here is the prophet spoken of by Moses who will lead
us out of bondage to the Romans and restore the majesty of the
Moreover, the disciples had
also fallen under this spell of Satan, agreeing with the crowd that Jesus must
be this long sought after prophet who would restore
The disciples were not
immune to Satan’s wily attempts to pull them away from our Lord Jesus. All too
often we see in the Gospel accounts where the disciples failed to understand
our Lord and sought earthly things instead. We witness it when their boat is
caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee and they believe they’re sinking,
waking our Lord to save them He rebukes their unbelief, “Why are you afraid, O you of
little faith?” (Matthew 8:26 ESV). We see it again when our Lord tells
them, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of
this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life
of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51 ESV). Many who called themselves
His disciples found these words of our Lord too difficult to comprehend, and
with hardened hearts, they, “turned back and no longer walked with him”
(John 6:66 ESV). Thomas refused to believe our Lord’s resurrection
unless he could place his fingers in the holes the nails had made in our
Savior’s hand and place his hand in the spear wound. Three years of witnessing
our Lord’s miracles and listening to His teaching wasn’t enough to overcome Thomas’
lack of faith. However, each and every time the disciples faith failed them,
our Lord rescued them from certain disaster by being where they needed Him. He
was always their Rescuer
from Hardened Hearts.
When our Lord has dismissed
the crowd and the disciples, He seeks solitude, away from the distractions of
men, away from the badgering of Satan, to be alone, in prayer, with His
heavenly Father. Now, being all alone,
Jesus took the opportunity to pray to His heavenly Father. On the hill
overlooking the lake, in the darkness and loneliness, He poured out His heart
and obtained new strength from above.
Although Scripture does not tell us what our Lord
prayed for, it would be in His keeping to gives thanks to God for blessing Him
with the power to rebuff Satan, rejecting his attempts at leading Him away from
His divine mission to save all mankind from sin. Knowing the importance and
reason for His ministry, our Lord desired all men to be partakers of the
forgiveness which His life, death, and resurrection would bring. Nor would it
be unusual to believe that our Lord prayed for His disciples and for the people,
those on whom Satan desired to work his will. He prayed that they, too, would
be strengthened through faith and that they would rebuff Satan as well. Thus, here
is an important lesson for us. Emulating Jesus, we learn that the surest way of
acquiring the necessary strength to overcome difficult situations and bitter
experiences is to bring it to the Lord in prayer. Moreover, we also pray for
those who are being tempted by Satan, that they would be granted faith to turn
from that temptation to Christ, seeking His protection from the wiles and evil
of Satan.
Unfortunately, just like the
disciples and those who were fed on the mountain with only five loaves and two
small fish, we, too, are not immune from Satan’s wily attempts at pulling us
away from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Often, even while we stand in His
presence, we cannot see Him. Our hearts are hardened by life and the allurement
of the world. Oh, sure, when things are going good we offer Him our thanks, but
when they turn sour, we turn to ourselves before we ever turn to Him. Thus, our
reliance on Jesus is a matter of heart. Will we turn a blind eye and a hardened
heart to our rescue, or will we, in faith, turn to Jesus the only Rescuer for a Hardened Heart?
Hebrews thought of the heart as the sum total of a
person personality. It was the very essence of the individual. However, the
testimony of Holy Scripture reveals that the heart of man was tragically warped
by the Fall. Sin entered the world separating man from God and darkened human
understanding, twisted human motives, crippled the human will, and distorted
human emotions. The grip of sin on each of us is deadly. With utmost cunning,
it traps us in the dark realm of illusion where truth becomes distorted and we become
blinded by our desire. We see this clearly in today’s Gospel where even the
disciples, who had been so close to Jesus, were crippled by darkened and
hardened hearts.
Failing miserably against the wind and the waves, the
disciples had to think the end was near. Although our Lord is atop the mountain
where He had gone to pray He had never truly left His disciples; He knew their
plight; but He did nothing immediately to help them. Our Lord understood, often
it is not enough simply to reveal Himself. To affect a lasting rescue, our Lord
Jesus knows He must first deal with deadened, hardened human hearts.
It is not uncommon for God to send His children into
difficult and fearful situations in order to strengthen our faith in His
presence and His power to deliver us from peril. This is so, because it is only
by relying on His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to overcome these
difficulties and conquer the hard places of life, that a lasting Christian
character can be formed. Just as our Lord Jesus knew of the travail of the
disciples, He is also fully aware of the dangers and pitfalls in our lives.
When we find ourselves being pressed on all sides by the forces of this world,
there is but one source of certain rescue, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Rescuer of Hardened Hearts.
Early in the morning, during the fourth watch of the
night (for those on local time that is between three and six AM), our Lord
walked out to the disciples. Exhibiting His divine powers and the fact that He
is the Master of Creation and all things serve His Will, He goes out to the
disciples walking on water. Wherever He stepped, the water became calm and He
walked as if stepping on dry ground. He is about to pass the boat by when the
disciples see Him.
Upon seeing our Lord, a panic overcomes all aboard the
boat. Superstition and fear made them believe they were seeing a ghost. Some,
if not all must have thought, we are truly dead men for now we see those in the
after life. However, our Lord calms their fear as He calls out to them, “Take heart; it is I. Do not
be afraid” (v. 50). Then He walks to the boat, calming the waters around it, and steps into the boat and immediately the
storm ceases and all is calm. Exhausted from their all night ordeal the
disciples are truly grateful for Jesus for bringing peace to everything and
they exclaim, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33 ESV). He fed the
five-thousand and the disciples did not see Him. The miracle of the loaves had
not been understood by them, nor had it entered their hearts. Its meaning
escaped them, and their hearts were still far from being in a condition to understand
the miracle of our Lord. However, rescue
them from the clutches of a fierce storm, and the disciples know immediately
who He is.
Is this not ourselves? We are witnesses to the great
deeds of the Lord which pass before us in Holy Scripture, but often they do not
make the impression upon our hearts that they should. However, our Savior is a
patience Savior, not wanting any to perish but all to come the knowledge of the
truth. Thus, He constantly renews and repeats His teaching in Word and
Sacrament until we understand; Jesus
is Our Rescuer from Hardened Hearts.
As we cower in fear or seethe in anger, as we fall
prey to the temptations of Satan, our Lord Jesus is always near, holding out
His nail scarred hands, beckoning us to come to Him. Yes, we may think we are
not worthy and He is passing us by, but nothing could be further from the
truth. We see Him because He is always with us, ready to come to our rescue.
Our Lord, Jesus melts hardened hearts through the gift of faith which promises His
everlasting love and eternal life.
Faith is the key. The disciples’ hearts had been willing, but hardened, the
people had been fed but didn’t understand the truth of the Messiah, and we are
too willing to set our faith aside and rely on our own righteousness.
Tragically, when we turn from faith we find ourselves alone, floating on an
angry sea of human emotion, far from God. What can be done to heal such
sin-infected hearts?
As Jesus went upon the mountain to pray, we, too, need
to turn to our Lord every day, in prayer, seeking forgiveness for our sins
through repentance and contrition. Living the Baptized life, we take great
comfort in knowing “that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4 ESV). Moreover,
having been called and given the gift of faith, we must come to Him,
recognizing that we have no claim on His grace, but fully expecting Him to be gracious.
Acknowledging Him to be our Lord, Jesus Himself will heal our spiritually diseased
hearts, and bring us new life. He will indeed Rescue us from Hardened Hearts. Amen.
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.