Mark 6 records two tremendous revelations of the power of Christ -- (1) His never ending supply in that He fed 5,000 people from a few loaves and two fishes; and (2) His power over nature in that He walked on water and immediately calmed a storm. In reading this chapter again, I saw something that literally jumped off the page at me. Verse 52, which immediately follows His walking on the water, reads: "For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened." Why would such a statement be made following such a tremendous miracle?
As I pondered this statement, I went to Mark 8:13-21 which further added to the puzzle. Following another example of His never ending supply where He feeds 4,000 from seven loaves, Christ tells the disciples to avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, which leads the disciples to reason He said so because they failed to bring bread with them. Christ turns to them asking "How is it you do not understand?" But, His examples are specifically the feedings of the 5,000 and the 4,000. Both of those instances go back to the statement Mark made in 6:52 -- "the had not understood about the loaves." So, what is this about the loaves??
Mark 6 opens as Christ is sending out His disciples in pairs to preach repentance and to cast out demons. He tells them to "take nothing for the journey" meaning that they needed to place their complete trust in God to take care of them. In verse 30, they return to Christ and have a moment of braggadocio sharing "both what they had done and what they had taught." It was at this point, that the feeding of the 5,000 occurred. Christ saw the mass of people and had compassion on them, but it was the disciples that wanted to send them away to get food for themselves. The disciples estimated that it would take 200 days wages to feed this crowd, but in verse 37, Christ says "you give them something to eat."
At this point, their faith faltered. They had just come from a victorious mountaintop, but how quickly they forgot the trust in God that was required of them. Christ gave them another chance with the situation on the sea, but again, their faith faltered. Look at the last phrase of verse 48: "and would have passed them by." However, Jesus saw that their faith was lacking and He had to go them to comfort them and shore up their faith.
In Mark 8:17, Christ says their heart is "still hardened." Here, hardened references a covering by a thick skin; so an outside agent is being allowed to inhibit their understanding. We use an adage of "pulling the wool over someone's eyes," and that example here works. It was like the disciples allowed a shroud to conceal what they had learned while depending totally upon God while preaching for Him. Instead, they held on to, as John Gill said, their "anxieties, doubts, and unbelief."
What was it that they did not understand or remember? The Blackaby Study Bible commentary says it nicely: "God can surround our lives with miracles, but we must take time to process them to be prepared for His next work. God's activity is an expression of His character -- it is not just for our benefit. Therefore, we should always consider carefully what His work reveals to us." History does repeat itself, so we must implement in the future what we have learned from the past.
These disciples that so quickly practiced I Peter 5:7 while in pairs preaching the Gospel should have been able to revert back to that trust in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. How easy we smirk at this lack of faith they exhibited, but how easily our faith is shaken as well. May we learn from their example and remember, during the tough times, all the Jesus has done for us in the past. He has not yet failed us, nor will He.
