“Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves
beyond measure, and marveled. For they
had not understood about the loaves, because their hearts were hardened.”
Now this scripture could have just stopped at how the
disciples marveled. Jesus had just
walked on water, passing them by as they labored to row against the contrary
seas generated by the great wind. Peter
stepped out of the boat and walked on water, at least until he doubted (see
Matthew 14: 28-31). There was plenty to
be amazed at and much to make them marvel.
However, the scripture goes on to say that they marveled because they
had not understood about the loaves.
Further, and most telling, is that they did not understand about the
loaves because their hearts were hardened.
My friend, sometimes we do not understand something Jesus does. If the disciples, who were around Jesus all
day every day, could have a hardened heart – how is there any hope for us?
Let us look at what God means by a hard heart. It is the desires of our heart that drive our
mind to consider a thing, whatever that thing might be. In other words the heart can drive intellect,
or some might say lack thereof. When a heart
is hardened, it closes off to the truth before it. “A man
may be very sincere in believing a lie, and he will be so much the more sincere
as his heart is the more hard. If his heart is very hard, he will lay aside all
candor and will settle down in the belief of a lie so firmly that no evidence
of any truth, however palpable, will in the least, move him from his falsehood.
It will not be impossible for him to believe any lie, however palpable; and he
will not only believe it, but he will give himself entirely up to its control;
and the harder his heart is, the more confidence will he have in it, and the
fewer misgivings as to its truth.” (Charles Grandison Finney)
We saw Pharaoh’s heart was hardened against the truth about
what he must do with God’s people. “And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the
hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his
heart, he and his servants.” (Exodus
9:34) Of course, God had a purpose in
that. He wanted to show His signs before
Pharaoh and the people of Israel “and
that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty
things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that
you may know that I am the LORD.”
(Exodus 10:2) Yes, God wants us
to recount generation to generation the miracles He has done for us. But that is for another post.
Later in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus upbraids the disciples
when He is teaching them a truth and they miss the point. “But
Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, ‘Why do you reason because you have no
bread? Do you not yet perceive nor
understand? Is your heart still
hardened?’” (Mark 8:17)
These examples should be sufficient to help us understand the
definition of a hard heart. What is not
explained in this particular passage is why.
Why did the disciples have a hard heart?
Why was their heart so hard that they considered not the miracle of the
loaves?
Have you ever come to the shocking realization that your
heart had been hard? I have. Let me give you a few reasons you may
recognize: pride, fear, anger,
selfishness, and resentment. There could
be more, but those five are fairly interrelated and certainly cover a lot of
ground. They are powerful, dangerous and
destructive emotions. All self-centered.
Just suppose that the disciples resented the five thousand
that Jesus fed. Consider the order of
events leading up to the hardened hearts. The disciples had just been sent
out two by two, and been given power over unclean spirits. They taught repentance, cast out many demons and healed many
people. Afterward they came to tell Jesus
all they did and taught. It was an
exciting time. Likely the disciples were
finishing each other sentences as they could not wait to tell Jesus what had
occurred. Jesus told them to come aside
by themselves to a deserted place so they could rest. They had been so busy no one had even eaten
yet. But when they went to a deserted
place, the multitudes saw them and ran there on foot from all the cities. The disciples’ time with Jesus was again
interrupted. When the day was almost
over, the disciples came to Jesus and said “This
is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. Send them away, that they
may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for
they have nothing to eat.” (Mark
6:35a-36) But Jesus instead told the
disciples to give the multitude something to eat. When they gathered some provisions, five
loaves and two fish, Jesus had the disciples organize the people, then He
blessed the food, and then He had the disciples set it before the people. “So
they all ate and were filled.” (Mark
6:42) It is not a far stretch of the
imagination that the disciples could have resented the multitude for
interrupting their meeting with Jesus. Or
maybe it was pride about all they had accomplished on their mission for Jesus. They could have each had a different reason
for hardening their hearts.
Whatever emotion it was that influenced the hearts of the
disciples, their heart was hard and they missed the miracle of the loaves. They missed understanding the divine nature
of Jesus. “It was because they considered
not the miracle of the loaves; had they given that its due weight, they
would not have been so much surprised at this; for his multiplying the bread
was as great an instance of his power as his walking on the water. They were
strangely stupid and unthinking, and their heart was hardened, or else they
would not have thought it a thing incredible that Christ should command a calm.
It is for want of a right understanding of Christ’s former works, that we are
transported at the thought of his present works, as if there never were the
like before.” (Matthew Henry)
After Christ was glorified, he sent us the Holy Spirit. One of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to help
us discern the truth. We have the
advantage of praying earnestly for God to melt our hearts to the truth. “The influence of hardness of heart, is seen
in the different effects which the same truth produces on the mind at different
times. How striking is this difference? Perhaps a truth which has been heard an
hundred times without any conscious effect, comes, of a sudden, to absorb the
whole soul; and why is this? It is because the heart is softened and then the
intellect is placed in the attitude of attention, and the truth pours its focal
blaze upon the sensibility, and warms it, and melts it, and makes it as liquid
as water.” (Charles Grandison Finney)
Even Christians can harden their hearts. When you find yourself in some type of
controversy, ask yourself: ‘Is my
opinion being formed under the influence of a hard heart?’ If you find yourself disregarding or disagreeing
with a precept in God’s Holy Word, ask yourself: ‘Is my opinion being formed under the
influence of a hard heart?’ When you
find you cannot tolerate being in the same room with a brother or sister in
Christ, ask yourself: ‘Is my opinion
being formed under the influence of a hard heart?’ When you doubt the testimony of a person that
has been healed by God, ask yourself: ‘Is
my opinion being formed under the influence of a hard heart?’
If you are growing weary of the ministry in which you serve,
take care brothers and sisters. If we are
out serving God and for some reason our heart is hard, we are not going to understand
about the miracles of God around us. We
will miss out on so much, including the joy of serving Him. We may even be like the disciples and find ourselves
laboring to row against the wind and waves, making little progress, and then be
frightened and not recognize Jesus when He passes by.
May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
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