Mark 6:45-52
Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.” Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.
If the disciples had gained the insight they should have from the incident with the loaves, what should their response have been to Jesus walking on the sea? Instead of astonishment what reaction would have been appropriate? Mild relief? “Master, if that is you, let us toss you a line. You can tow us. We are hardly making any progress!”
What did Jesus intend to convey to his disciples that would somehow mute astonishment and earn some other reaction? I have to conclude, at the very least, it was that the rules have been changed! Things just weren’t happening as they previously had; the sick are healed, food just materializes, Jesus walks on top of the waves, tax collectors repent. Suddenly there is a new baseline for normal; All things are apparently possible now with Jesus!
Could the disciples have just switched some volitional switch within and believed – simply clapping approval (instead of soiling their robes) at each successive miracle? There is a problem with this; it is their hearts. Jesus said they had not gained insight because “their hearts were hardened”. Oh what a troublesome phrase! Lord, surely you meant they hardened their hearts….right? They chose to switch off their “believer”….right? You didn’t do that to them did you?
I believe the plot thickens here for all of us. Regarding our hearts…Whose domain is our hearts, God’s or ours? Who has access and responsibility for the circuitry of our hearts? Who wired them in the first place? Let’s begin by agreeing (hopefully) that God was the Master Engineer on this project and that his prototype (Adam) was perfect. We could say that this heart is the CPU (Central Processing Unit) of every human and that God has a keen interest in how it functions.
If we are to watch over these hearts of ours with all diligence (as we are instructed in Pr 4:23), what would that look like? Are we to study and memorize the Bible in order to repair the damaged wiring? Are we to confess God’s words to solder all the loose ends back together and make things happen? Are we to just change fuses when we blow a circuit?
We know these disciples heart’s were hardened, but I wonder…whose heart is not hardened? Did we not all come out of the garden with our wiring harnesses fried? The disciples were just embarking on their lives of faith with Jesus. Perhaps they (and ourselves as well) are all hardened in our hearts, especially so as we take our initial steps with Him – walking in the Spirit.
When we are born again do we get a rebuilt heart -one that has been worked on, reissued and is now warrantied by the factory? I would abandon that line of thought altogether. We are not going to be made into the image of Christ with used parts. A crucial element of the New covenant is that we receive new hearts – hearts that are capable of relating rightly to God. I would like to say that since this new heart is nothing less than Christ in us, that the circuitry we need is now perfected and there will be no further heart problems, but I can’t. If this were so, then we could flip that switch, default to auto-heart pilot and cruise through life and right in through the pearly gates. No turbulence. No fear and trembling. This would preclude however our responsibility to watch over our hearts.
No, in the presence of commands (requiring a response), whatever goes on in our hearts is some kind of mysterious joint-venture between God and ourselves. There is now some type of shared responsibility for this domain. Since all life flows from our heart-CPU’s, it essential we have some idea of what our responsibility is and what is God’s.
When the first members of the human race disobeyed, they put their finger on the switch and they flipped it for the wrong reason. It is critical to keep in mind that God, in his fearfully mysterious way, arranged it such that it was essential that man have access to this switch. Man had to be able to choose. This was essential to the king’s children as well as to the ultimate kingdom power grid. Since the kingdom’s power was based in love and choice was essential to love, the plan necessitated human access to the switch.
In essence, God, who is Love, gave Adam and Eve the desires of their hearts. A no doubt heartbroken father and intimate friend watched his beloved turn out their own lights. Where God himself had been central in the wiring of their perfectly created hearts, they now were central. This shorted the circuitry and the currents of life that had been so native to them in the garden ceased to flow. You might say, the Bible (and human history) answers the question,”Oh Man, as a no-wattage bulb, how is this working out for you?”
At the core of our new hearts – our CPU’s, is Jesus himself. If you take away nothing else, understand this; Christ is our life. I promise you, this reality includes but is infinitely bigger than Jesus is our Savior. This is why the New Covenant is superior to the old. Jesus is now central in the wiring of our hearts. This was the mystery hidden from ages past, entrusted to the apostles and handed down through faithful saints to us.
While this wiring project is finished, we are left to work salvation out in our flesh. This is designed to happen in the context of relationship with God throughout the balance of our lives. Our part involves allowing God to show us where (phantom?) currents are still powering aspects of our lives. Why God has wired things so, I can only speculate that he is inviting us to exercise the right he preserved for us to access the switch (this time for the right reasons) since love is involved. When we let go of our right to flip this switch when and where we want (even with our unrestricted access) a grace is released within the new heart. Grace mysteriously makes a way for Jesus, from the central part of our being, to express himself outwardly to the world.
It is crude, but perhaps we can say that our part in watching over our heart-circuitry is to first recognize that Jesus is at the center and that our hearts are now good – formatted to process Truth. However, our minds are another matter. They must be renewed. There are synapses and relays in our minds that are being powered back up as they are properly reconnected to God through Jesus. As the connections are made, we are transformed, one circuit at a time, back into the image of God in Christ.
So our job as stewards (in joint-venture partnership with God) is to, in simple humility, yield those circuits to God where its obvious his abundant life is not yet flowing, asking him to have his way in restoring us to the original schematic – His image.
Father, I confess that I do not think a little terror or astonishment would at all hurt us. When the rules governing reality are altered, I am sure there will be some fear and trembling (at least on my part). Please let us be the generation who learns to live from your new baseline for normal -where our hearts are not hardened but have acknowledged that now all things are truly possible with you. Help us to see that in Christ, the kingdom is now within us and is expanding into all creation from that launching pad. Help us to see that as heirs, this kingdom is our domain – yours and ours. May we watch over this domain jealously as would a friend intent on nurturing a cherished relationship. Teach us to live the type of yielded and humble lives that allow grace to flow from the inside out to the world. Help us to renew our minds that we may be radiant with your glory and shine into all the dark places around us. Amen.