God's Eye View
Intro: In many video games there is something called, "God's Eye View." What they mean by that is seeing things from a much better perspective and vantage point. For example, if we had a battle scene, there is the perspective of the individual soldier facing enemies that his limited field of view can show him. But if we had a camera in a drone, high in the sky, we could see the whole battlefield, and would have a much better and fuller understanding of what is going on.
This morning I want to talk, in part, about seeing things from a God's eye view, and ask that God would let us have more of His perspective on things. We begin with a text in Mark, and for now will only share part of the story, and then we will move on to the rest of it.
Mr 6:46 And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.
Mr 6:47 And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land.
Mr 6:48 And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them:
Jesus has gone up to a mountain to pray. He had just finished feeding the 5k, and had sent His disciples by boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He needed some down time with Him and His Father. Near dusk He looks out from the mountain top and spots the disciples having a hard time crossing the sea. From His vantage point He could see how far they had gone, and how far they had yet to go, and He could get an overall picture of the boating and weather conditions.
God's eye view allows us to contextualize and understand where we are, where we have been, and what we will likely encounter where we are going next.
The only part of a plane ride I really enjoy is when I can see the landscape below and it is not obscured by clouds. The higher view makes it much easier to understand the direction and flow of highways. From the ground you can't always understand why a road twists and turns as easily as you can from the sky. I trust by now that you are tracking with me that God understands much more the twists and turns of life than we do.
Mountains have a way of taking us out of our own little world and helping us to see the much larger picture around us.
There is a saying, you can't see the forest for the trees. What it means is that we can get so fixated on the trees near us, we lose sight of the forest as a whole. We lose perspective, we lose sense of the true reality.
This is especially true with young people, and with people who are suffering from depression.
This forest will never end, is their view of things. This trouble will never leave me... My situation will never change...
It will get better, this is not a never ending forest.
God's eye view frees us from discouragement and gives hope. You may be closer to getting out of the woods than your feelings are telling you.
Mt Pisgah is the mountain top of a hope filled future. This mountain top enabled Moses to see the vision of the Israelites inheritance, the promised land flowing with milk and honey.
It enabled him to see how close it really was, that they wouldn't always be desert wanderers, that God really did have better in mind for them.
For 40 years the Jews had seen nothing but snakes in the desert, constant work just to barely survive in a desert life, going in circles, and a life that never seemed to get anywhere. Then God says to Moses, "Moses come here I want to show you something."
Now let's begin to look at our text and I want to share three insights it gives.
The first is that seeing things from a mountain top (God's eye view) gives us the ability to care for others.
He saw what they were going through. He saw them toiling in rowing.
Sympathy is your pain in my heart.
If you get close to God, a little of Him will rub off on you and you will care more for others. When Jesus was alone with God, He got a vision of the difficulty and trouble that the apostles were having on their journey.
We live in a very numbing Christian age. Because of the Internet we are bombarded with needs, and critical condition situations. Who has time to pray for all the requests that come on Facebook every day? There is a danger that we get a callous heart towards the hurts of others. Because we were not made to be able to emotionally carry all these needs, there is a certain numbness we develop. As a pastor I could preach every year from the text that we have lost our first love. I also believe the same could be said of our need to love and feel empathy for others who are suffering. Jesus gets in His prayer closet and the only thing God wants to tell us about that is that Jesus became aware of those who were, "toiling in rowing." I think that is significant.
I wonder how many here could relate to be "toiling in rowing?" O that God would open our eyes and our hearts to the pain of others.
2ndly the God's eye perspective helps us to see not only the suffering of others but can also show us the cause of their suffering.
Now here is where many people make a critical mistake in their thinking. The mistake is this, we tend to see the surface cause, but God sees the true cause. I feel like the Lord has shown me something amazing from this passage of scripture, and I need you to pay close attention for the next few moments.
Here is what we quickly grasp as the reason they were "toiling in rowing":
He saw them toiling in rowing FOR THE WIND WAS CONTRARY TO THEM.
Ah, it is the winds fault. But wait, is there a deeper spiritual meaning being conferred here? Let's look further to the root cause. The devil is the prince of the power of the air, (Ephesians 2:2) it is the devil who is behind it! Don't be too quick to jump on that bandwagon. I do believe there is a devil, but he is not the source of many of life's ills.
A lot of people spend their lives looking for and blaming circumstances, the devil, generational curses, whatever. These can be a part of the problem, but in truth the problem was really in the disciples themselves. Jesus' actions indicate the problem wasn't with the wind, but with them and their faith.
Lets read the whole story now, and you will see where I am getting that from.
Mr 6:48 And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.
Mr 6:49 But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out:
Mr 6:50 For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.
Mr 6:51 And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.
Mr 6:52 For they considered not [the miracle] of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.
Jesus would have passed them by, even after becoming aware they were having a hard time caused by contrary winds. Why? That doesn't seem to make sense, why would He have passed them by without stopping to help?
My first inclination was to attribute it to the seek/reward principle found in this passage:
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
One of the things we MUST believe about God is that He rewards those who EARNESTLY seek Him. IOW God is not obligated to force His help on us, or to force Himself on us. This is hinted at in Exodus 3 'where we are told that God appeared in a burning bush, but didn't say a word to Moses until... Ex 3:4 And when the LORD SAW THAT HE TURNED ASIDE TO SEE, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here [am] I
Also in Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus Jesus is said to pretend to want to go in a different direction when they came to a fork in the road. The two disciples, "constrained," Him to stay and shortly thereafter He revealed Himself as the risen Christ. I don't think they would have had that experience if they had not constrained Him to stay.
Years ago when I had studied this passage in Mark, I thought the reason Jesus would have passed them by was because of that seek/reward principle I just mentioned. I thought Jesus was merely trying to teach them that even though they are His disciples they still need to press in sometimes to get the help they want. That may be part of what was going on, but I now think it is more likely another reason.
The immediate need is dealing with the storm that is harassing them. The long term need is that Jesus would not always be physically with them, and they needed to learn how to deal with things with their own faith. That is what you come away with, when you see this passage from a God's eye view.
Jesus knew He wasn't supposed to fight all their battles for them. Do you see verse 52?
Mr 6:52 For they considered not [the miracle] of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.
It is giving us the key to understand Jesus' actions in this passage. (**Pastor's see my note at very end of message.) Just prior to this, they were in need, they were hungry, they were without food, they had insufficient resources to solve the problem. He miraculously provided it.
Now they are in a similar but slightly different situation. They were in need, they were in a storm, their resources were insufficient for the problem. If they had learned from the previous miracle they would have fought the storm with their faith.
Jesus understood that the real problem wasn't the storm, or the wind, or the hardship and struggle of rowing in such conditions, the real problem was they hadn't yet learned to stand on their own faith. Sure He could stop that storm, but it is not His intention to do everything for us. This is nothing more than parenting 101. If a toddler is scared of the dark, you comfort and console, but there comes a day that you have to let them face the darkness and learn not to be afraid of it. You can dress your two year old, but if you are still dressing your 15 year old, the two of you need serious counseling.
First from the God's eye view we learn to have sympathy for sufferers, and then secondly, God helps us with insight on what the real problem is that we have to deal with, and now ...
The third and final thing we learn from this story, is that even though Jesus wants you to stand on your own, He won't let your drown when you are in a life threatening situation..
There is a place for tough love, and then there is a place for tender love.
Tough love He would have passed them by, tender love He couldn't pass them by when they were scared to death.
The text says that they cried out in fear, "and immediately..." Some lessons in life can be put off for a while. A good parent knows when to knuckle down, and when they can see genuine fear in their children's eyes. You don't turn your back on genuine fear and tell your child to tough it out. Yes we want them to stand on their own two feet, but sometimes it is more important to show your love, than it is to teach them a lesson.
Close: Prayer points
I can relate to toiling in rowing, I need God's help with these contrary winds.
I need to get to God's mountain top to get some perspective and wisdom on some situations.
I need to connect with God so that in a fresh and new way I see and catch a burden for those who are toiling in rowing.
I need grace to know when to practice tough love, and when to practice tender love. (Especially parents of teenagers.)
Possible discussion questions for care groups:
Can you share an experience where you weren't sure how to respond to someone God gave you wisdom in your time of need?
Can you share a time when you were discouraged and God gave you something to help you through? (For example Paul - "My strength is made perfect in weakness."
Do you think that sometimes we become dull of feeling and need God's help to reconnect with the suffering of others?
Do you think people respond better to tough love, or tender love?
**Most commentators attribute verse 52 to verse 51 and the disciples amazement. That is probably true, at least in part. But, it doesn't hint at any explanation on why He would have passed them by. My explanation is a guess, but it seems to fit the circumstances and offer an explanation for why He would have passed them by.
Also earlier in the book of Mark, something very similar had happened. Jesus was asleep in the boat, a storm came, the disciple freaked out, and woke Him up. He rebuked the storm, and their unbelief. I find it strange that verse 52 didn't reference this earlier storm and rebuking of it. In both stories the wind ceased, and there was great amazement that He had power over the wind and the waves. If it was simply a matter of their hearts being hardened and them not gaining insight from a previous miracle it would seem that they should have already realized Jesus has control over the wind and waves. Granted in this portion He is doing something extraordinary in walking on the water, but I fail to see how feeding 5000 people was picked out of the miracles as being the one that should have helped them believe more.
