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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading, Jesus Walking on the Water. You may be seated.
You have thought the same thought that I have thought, and that is, what if? And one of the thoughts about what if is, what if I had lived at the time of Jesus? What if I had observed many of his miracles? Would it be I would be a different person had I physically witnessed his miracles compared to the person that I am today? But after much thought, I’m very thankful that I hadn’t. And the reason that I’m thankful that I hadn’t lived was because of these words that only Mark gives us insight into these apostles’ hearts. And it’s this phrase, “And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”
Sometimes we think it would have been so easy to be a believer during Jesus’ life, and yet these twelve men, Mark gives us insight that though they are his twelve that he chose, Mark says their hearts were hardened. I can relate to that. I think you can too. Because I think that you, like me, can remember and recall times when your heart is hardened. Hardened because of anger, resentment. Hardened because you don’t get it. Because our minds are so small that we can’t grasp God’s great plans. And fear and anxiety wells up within us and gurgles forth like a spring in the desert. We, like these 12 men, have seen and experienced God’s great miracles. And even though we have experienced and seen God’s great miracles, still we don’t understand it all, do we? Like they didn’t understand about the loaves. And still our hearts are hardened, aren’t they?
It’s interesting. These men had seen and experienced the stormy sea, as experienced sailors feared the… And there sat Jesus asleep in the bow of the ship, and with one word calms the seas. And yet they don’t understand about the loaves, and their hearts were hardened. These men had seen 15,000 to 20,000 people sitting on verdant green pastures, being fed from five loaves and two fish, with a basket full left over for each single one of them. And yet they didn’t understand about the loaves. And yet they didn’t have hearts that were soft. They were hardened.
So now you can see why that it may not have been any better for you or for me to have lived at that time. Your mind and my mind cannot grasp what God has done, let alone what will be done for us. You know, we’re kind of interesting people, you and me. We have this thought that if only this would happen, things would be different in my life. If only this would happen, then the struggle wouldn’t be there. If only this would be what I was given, then I would not be who I am and struggle as I do. And yet we can’t even grasp what he’s done, past tense. And we’re thinking about something future? Future? You see how we are, you and me? We can’t even grasp what he’s done in the past, like these disciples could not grasp about the loaves, and their hearts were hardened.
Now, why didn’t he just throw these guys away and find 12 more? Because obviously their hearts were hardened. What can you do with a person with a hardened heart? That’s a good question because that person with a hardened heart is me and you. And what does he do with you and me and the twelve with hardened hearts who don’t even understand all of the great things that God has done for us to this point in our life? He continues to train us. That’s what he does. He continues to train us in spite of us.
Notice what he does in this text. Remarkable indeed. He tells them, go to the other side, and he doesn’t tell them how he’s going to get there. But it’s an understood promise that he would meet them somehow on the other side. And they, by faith, salute and go on and head across the waters at night. But the wind was so powerful that for hours, not just a few, long hours, did they row and row and row and could not make headway while he was up on the mountain praying. But like a loving shepherd, he does not lose sight of you, just like he did not lose sight of them in their struggle. And he watches them from the mountaintop, just like he watches you.
And even though you may be stepping out in faith, like many of us do at various times, without even us realizing we’re stepping out in faith, and we get tired, and we feel like we’re going nowhere, and we’re rowing, and we’re rowing, and we’re rowing. So did God find them. God found them in their rowing, just like he finds you at the end of your rope, tired and weary, thinking, I can’t go on. And you know what he does? He doesn’t wave a magic wand, and he doesn’t pray for a miracle to occur to them without his presence. He goes down to them.
And of all the ways that he could come to them, of all the ways he could come to them, he chooses to walk on water. Now this is very important because this miracle is spoken of in the prophet Job’s book. Job chapter 9 is spoken about. And in Job chapter 9, it says this about God. Jesus is the fulfillment of that statement. Job calls God, “…who alone trampled the waves of the sea…” Of all the ways it could have been said. “…trampled the waves of the sea…” Who, that is God, does great things beyond searching out and marvelous things beyond number. The next verse in Job, behold, he passes by me. Just as it says in this morning’s text, Jesus was walking on the water to pass by them.
Except this. In Job, it says, and I see him not though he passes by and he moves but I don’t perceive him. But in Jesus, God is perceived in flesh and blood. And in Jesus, God is seen in flesh and blood. So of all the ways that Jesus could reveal himself to his disciples who were weary and tired, pulling at those oars as they were, he walks on water. But look at their response. They don’t rejoice and say, Look, it’s Jesus! Like they do after his resurrection when he’s on the shore. Look. With food already cooked for them, they’re afraid. They can’t even grasp the miracle that Jesus is doing right before their very eyes. Their little minds cannot grasp it.
And if we say their little minds can’t grasp it, then we better say my little mind can’t grasp it either. The great things that he has done in my life, in my family’s life, in this world, in this church, among us as people, I can’t grasp it. I’m just like those men. I do not understand about the loaves, and my heart is hardened, just like those 12 men about whom Mark writes this great text.
When Jesus does this, it’s in the middle of the night, the fourth watch, somewhere between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., an ungodly hour to be awake, and they’re tired, and he appears to them. And when they are fearful, in the midst of all of their smallness of mind, Jesus doesn’t go, Would you guys wake up? With harshness and sarcasm, but in kindness and in gentleness, he cries out to them instead, “Take heart, it is I.” Or in other words, “Take heart, I am.” Like the great I am. “Do not be afraid.”
Take heart, He speaks to their fears that moment. He could stop there and keep walking, couldn’t he, if he didn’t have to get in the boat? He chooses to not only come into their suffering by speaking peace to them, he comes into their suffering by getting into the boat with them. The very place where they’re suffering. Just like in your life. The very place where you suffer. Did they get it? Do you think they got it? No. Scripture tells us many times toward the end of each of those gospel writers, they understood what was said of him, and it refers to something that happened a year, two years, three years earlier.
Isn’t that how it works for you and me? We’re very quick to say hindsight is 20-20, whenever we’re given hindsight. Because somehow you and I don’t always get hindsight even. And we’re like these men who it says very clearly we did not understand. Whatever that miracle is, and our hearts were hardened. I can relate to that. I don’t know about you.
What does God do with men and women whose minds are so small? And what does God do with men and women whose hearts are so filled with fear and anxiety, even though we’ve witnessed miracles in our lives and before our very eyes every Sunday? What does God do with such people as we? He gives us something small and simple to believe in, and he knows that his Holy Spirit will continue to reveal it over and over and over again. Sometimes people say, oh, you Lutherans, you say the same things over and over. I, for one, am glad because this skull is pretty darn thick and I need to hear it again and again and again so that I get it.
How many times did Jesus say to these men, do not be afraid? Just a couple? And he thought, oh, they’ve got it now. How many times did he find them in their mystifying aspect of their life where they didn’t understand something? All the time. And how many times were their hearts hardened? Here’s the mystery. All the time. Because there is no way in God’s green earth that your heart can ever be pure of hardness until you die. And though you believe with all your heart, just as I believe with all my heart, I’ve also got a lot of hardness.
And I need him to come crashing through to my little mind like these 12 men needed, like you need, and speak these words. “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.” Simple words for simple minds that are hardened and simple minds that don’t understand all that God has done in our past.
Now, Paul says it in a very unique way in the epistle reading. Listen. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or imagine according to the power at work within us, just that statement is saying everything. We can’t even grasp what he can and has done and will do. And that that power is already at work within us, unaware so much of the time.
Do you know how much God is working in your heart? Not until all of a sudden you have those V8 moments and you go, Oh, simply because you recognize it, does it make it true? And before you recognized it, was it not true? That’s scary if we limit God in such a small way, according to our mind’s abilities. God be praised that he works with simple minds because as you know the more gray hairs we get, the more you realize our minds are not as complex as we once thought. They’re pretty simple, aren’t they? They don’t always know everything, and fears where there weren’t fears before now are fears, and places where we could care less now we do care, and places where we did care we don’t care anymore.
To him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or imagine according to the power at work within us. And all we can say, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
