DISCIPLES IN THE MAKING pt 3
Mark 6:30-56
The last couple of weeks we have been looking at the struggles and pressures the disciples faced. First there was the pressure of unbelief, then the pressure of assignments, then people-pressure. There is a fourth pressure on the disciples in Mark 6, the pressure of an uncertain political situation.
That can be very unnerving. Several years ago some prophets of doom predicted that a huge earthquake was coming and California would slide into the ocean. I remember some people taking off and buying land in Arizona, just across the border. These were Christians. Their excuse was that they needed to go to Arizona that weekend.
The real reason was they believed that prophecy was going to come to pass. They were afraid of an uncertain situation. It could be political or environmental or whatever. These are really scary times in which to live if you think about it.
Political Uncertainty
As I was thinking about uncertain times, I started counting how many coup’s I’ve lived through. At last count it was nine. Uncertain political times. And then I wonder about our country, how long will this fragile frame work of democracy last and keep the powers of godlessness and anarchy at bay.
The disciples are also coping with an uncertain political situation. As they go out telling the good news, they are going through Herod’s territory, he’s responsible for one of the world’s most brutal murders of a prophet. What if Herod decides to do to them what he did to John?
You certainly don’t want to say anything about Herod’s family, especially his new wife. That cost John his head. Talk about having to be politically correct. And you thought we were crazy today being politically correct.
I think you can better understand why Jesus did not say a word when he stood before Herod at his arraignment, after his arrest and trial before the Sanhedrin and Pilate. Jesus didn’t say a word. Herod had received all the word from God he was going to get, and until he acted on the word of John the Baptist, Jesus wasn’t going to say a thing.
An uncertain political situation. Yet in the midst of whatever uncertainty exists, the disciples still have the responsibility for going out. They are not to dig holes in the ground and hide. They’re not to find caves and disappear. They are to be present in the world no matter what the cost, whatever the danger.
Theological Uncertainty
The disciples not only faced an uncertain political situation, but in the death of John the Baptist, they faced the pressure of coming to grips with the fact that God sometimes does not prevent personal disasters.
Many of Jesus’ disciples had been John’s disciples. I can only imagine the sense of loss they felt. And then to think that this righteous man was buried headless, surely that’s not what God wanted! Add to that all the miracles that Jesus was doing in Galilee, and he hadn’t acted to prevent John’s death.
Following Jesus is not for those who think he’ll make life easy. Any disciple who follows Jesus begins to understand that there are things which happen in life for which there are no easy answers. In fact, sometimes there aren’t any answers at all.
But there is a basic truth behind all the problems that come up. God is absolutely trustworthy! Everyday the disciples saw evidence of the Lord’s working. As you and I continually see evidence of the Lord’s working, even when we don’t understand, it reminds us to continue following him. It is because of the disciples willingness to serve the Lord, without having all the answers, that the word of the gospel becomes known in the court of King Herod.
What a ministry trip that must have been, the whole province is aware of what’s going on. Mark doesn’t give us the statistics of this report, how many people were saved, how many were healed, how many miracles were done. The important thing is they obeyed Jesus’ instructions. Now everyone wants to meet Jesus.
The disciples still have lots of questions, they didn’t understand everything, but they obeyed. I still have questions that I don’t have an answer for. Why are some healed and others not? Why do some go through tragedy and others do not? Why do some disciples apparently carry heavier loads of responsibility? And why is it that as you look through the Bible you see that those who draw closest to God carry the greatest struggles?
How do I go on when I don’t understand? I know that God has everything in his hands. Everything I see is temporary, and everything that God does is eternal. His word lasts forever, period. Also, all my questions will be answered one day, until then, I trust him!
Physical Exhaustion
The next pressure on the disciples is the pressure of physical exhaustion. Have you ever felt tired in serving Jesus? If you’ve never had that experience, you need to have it. I would encourage you to get tired serving Jesus. It’s one of the most joyful things that you can do. Not tired serving yourself, or tired doing things, but tired because you’re doing what he asked you to.
The disciples have that experience. They’ve been out on this training mission traveling every day. If you’ve ever traveled and changed locations every night or two, and not being able to shower every evening, you begin to get the idea. They’re exhausted. They come back from a month or two of traveling and Jesus says, let’s go to a quiet place and get some rest. Everybody needs to rest once in a while.
They get in the boat and go to the north side of the Lake of Galilee. The crowds see them heading that way and they race around on foot and beat them there, it must have been a slow boat. What a crowd. I can already hear the disciples, We were going to have a vacation, can you believe this?
So they put up with the Lord teaching them for a day. Maybe they don’t have to do too much while he was teaching. They can sit and snooze while Jesus teaches. Maybe they’d heard this sermon before. So, when evening comes they’re concerned about their rest. They’re saying to Jesus, Send the people away so they can get some food. Jesus responds, You give them something to eat.
They look around and said, that would take eight months wages! It could be that they had that amount of money because they ask rather sarcastically, do you want us to go buy that much bread? Have you ever been so tired and then someone asks you to do one more thing? Your attitude usually isn’t that great!
But they were willing, if Jesus insisted. That’s what Jesus always looks for, willingness. He asks what they have. Andrew has been looking around and he brings a young boy who is willing to give his food, five loaves and two fish. Jesus takes five loaves and two fish and holds them before them. Then the disciples are given the task of being the waiters for this large crowd. That in itself must have been an exhausting assignment. Jesus directed them to sit down in groups.
While this is going on, Jesus is taking the loaves and fishes and he’s multiplying them. The one who is doing the loaves and the fishes is the same one who causes the rain to fall upon the earth, the seed to grow, the grain to mature, to be harvested and ground to be made into bread. That’s normally a four or five month process from seedtime to bread time. He simply is able to take those four or five months, collapse them with his supernatural power into a microscopic moment of time where he puts out loaves and the same with fishes.
Jesus feeds the crowd. It’s a good thing the crowd was seated, if not they would have rushed Jesus to see how he was doing it! Can you imagine the TV cameras trying to zoom in on his hands to see what was going on?
When Jesus starts doing something I think the tiredness of the disciples must have lifted. Nothing like this had ever happened before. It’s amazing. When you see the Lord at work no matter how tired you are it just gives you the energy to go on.
All of us are so much like the disciples. When faced with limited resources and the size of the crowd we say, there’s nothing I can do. What difference will it make with that many people?
There’s three sure ways to be a failure in anything you try. Look at the size of the job, look at the little you have, and leave Jesus out of the equation. You’ll fail every time. But Jesus takes the insignificant bread and fish and feeds over 5,000 people. And, each disciple winds up with a basket full of food left over.
The burst of energy is now gone and they’re physical fatigue is back. Jesus makes the disciples get in the boat and head out. Why? John explains it in his gospel.
After feeding the crowd they’re ready to make him king, right then and there. He could make bread for them. They wouldn’t have to work any more. That’s all that the heady experience the disciples needed, to get behind Jesus and make him king and each of them would have a throne and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus said, Nothing doing. You guys get in the boat, you’re out of here. And he dismissed the crowd.
They got in the boat, their political ambitions got in with them and they started across the lake. Jesus goes off to pray. He’d have to pray in a circumstance like that. So Jesus is praying and the disciples are straining at the oars. It’s about the fourth watch in the night, that’s between 3 and 6 in the morning, Jesus heads out towards the disciples. They are straining at the oars. They couldn’t see Jesus, but he could see them. We can’t see Jesus either when we’re stress out, but he can always see us.
Unlearned lessons
The disciples got into the boat around sunset. They had come off a long trip. They had sailed cross the lake, they had spent the day with the crowds which is a tiring experience. They had fed the crowds and that had worn them out. Now they had been rowing for at least eight hours. They were straining at the oars because the wind was against them.
Have you ever felt that way? Working and praying, working and praying, and getting nowhere? Totally stressed out? Then Jesus appears walking on the water. Mark says he intended to pass them by. I don’t know why, maybe he wanted to get in front of the boat where they could get a good view of him and they wouldn’t be so frightened when they saw him. Or maybe he was passing them by waiting for some kind of invitation from them. But he came to pass them by walking on the water.
This is the second miracle of a storm at sea in the gospel of Mark and it’s important in what it shows us. When we don’t learn a lesson the first time, he puts us through an experience which is like the first one where we have to repeat the lesson we should have learned the first time around.
In the last storm Jesus was in the boat with them, but they had become afraid and were panicking. Jesus rebuked them and said they didn’t have faith. Now here they are again. He made them get in the boat and go to the other side, and they’d forgotten again. Jesus puts them through the same lesson in order that they might learn something about faith.
The disciples had a problem quite similar to ours. They have a tough time understanding the truth that just as God has worked in the past he will continue to work in our present and our future.
All of us have had experiences in our life where God has intervened to provide for us. Here’s the problem, when you get in a new jam you forget what God did, or it becomes a faint memory. The Lord wants the disciples, who are sitting on their basket full of miracles, to know that he’ll take care of them. They’ve got 12 baskets full of bread from the feeding of the 5000. But in the storm they’ve forgotten that the previous miracle was on board. So Jesus shows up, they’re terrified, until he steps into the boat and says, it’s me guys, don’t be afraid.
They just didn’t get it. Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. Mark 6:51-52
What is even sadder to me is that we don’t get it! Here is the example right in front of us and we forget it. God will always provide and he will always make a way. Right that down, engrave on your forehead, what ever you need to do so that you won’t forget it!
The lesson for the disciples and for us is that God uses our struggles and pressures to shape us, to make us like Jesus. The disciples were shaped by pressures to know that unbelief cannot take away their belief. That the political pressures cannot take away their need for ministry. That unexplained theological problems cannot diminish their service for the Lord. And in the midst of physical fatigue the Lord will renew their spirit and give them added strength to go on.
Our chapter closes with them arriving safely at Gennesaret, about a mile south of Capernaum. There Jesus begins to experience one of the greatest activities and releases of miraculous power that has been demonstrated thus far in the gospel.
As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went – into villages, towns or countryside – they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed. Mark 6:54-56
How do you live to see a day in which Jesus works in unparalleled dimensions? By being faithful where you’re at now. There were a number of times where the disciples could have turned around in the midst of pressure and walked away from their responsibilities to the Lord.
They could have sided with the town of Nazareth in unbelief when they saw few miracles. When they were told that some cities would not receive him they could have gotten discouraged and walked away from the task. When John the Baptist had been beheaded they could have walked away in sorrow and discouragement.
When they were straining at the oars they could have just said, What’s the use, we might as well give up and die. They could have been critical and negative when Jesus promised rest and they didn’t get it. And, when they had finally crossed over to the other side and thought that that maybe at last they’d get a break, it proved only instead to be the busiest time of Jesus’ ministry. But all of that willingness to stay in under pressure, to stay with the Lord means that a day of incredible activity on the part of Jesus reached them.
You need to be faithful to the Lord in the midst of pressure and trial. If you walk away now, you will never seen anything else he does. But as you are faithful and true to your responsibilities you will see great things. It’s the Lord’s way of working. Paul puts it this way, ...we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us... Romans 5:3-5
