Pointing Out the Obvious

Mark 8:17-21

      Sometimes in life you just have to be straight forward and point out the obvious that someone is missing. We have to point out the elephant in the room. We must tell people that the king has no clothes. Sometimes we even have to be willing to tell the king. Or that passing on trillions of dollars of debt to our grandchildren is immoral.

      The reason this type of action is necessary in the first place is that people get comfortable believing what they believe. We tend to hang around with people who believe like we believe. We read things that reinforce our beliefs. We begin to avoid exposing ourselves to the opposition rather than engaging it.

      There are reasons we do this. I think the primary reason we do this is because we want to avoid conflict, we want to get along. But Truth will rock our world. It will change the way we think, act and feel. It will make us uncomfortable. It will move us. It will make enemies. It will offend people. It will start an argument. So, we avoid it.

      This can be true in families and even among close friends. We carefully navigate controversial topics to avoid those on the ‘forbidden’ list.

      Jesus’ disciples had become hardened in their thinking. They had become ‘one track’ thinkers. Jesus had mentioned the religious and political leaders’ yeast. The disciples had put their minds in park and focused on physical bread. And somehow they had landed in a parking lot and thought they were still driving. They hadn’t even realized that they were missing the obvious. They thought they were still on target.

      Jesus gets them to engage their brains, to put their spiritual minds back into gear and pull out of the parking lot. He does this by pointing out the obvious. He had fed 9000 people with only a few loaves and a few fish. He had proven that physical limitations like quantity weren’t limitations for Him. So He engages the disciples’ minds and spirits by bringing them back to these two events, reminding them of those moments, getting them to engage where they were parked.

      When we get stuck on a belief and are unable to engage in discussion around that without anger flaring, then we have a hard heart. We have taken up such a defensive position, dug trenches and put in defensive towers, that we keep genuine seekers at bay. No one can approach us to even ask a genuine question, one that could lead them to faith, because we sit in fear of being attacked.

      Find these defensive positions in your life. Take time to discover the reasons you retreat behind the walls. Learn enough to be able to hold a conversation around these topics, to give an answer about the faith we have. Be ready to state the obvious. State the Truth.

Hard

Mark 6:51-52

      Do you sometimes totally miss what someone is trying to tell you? If you are married, I am sure this has happened. If you have brothers or sisters, or any other humans with whom you have a relationship, I am sure they missed what you were saying at least one time.

      You are not alone. The disciples missed what Jesus was trying to communicate. Jesus had fed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish. He was able to provide. His power was enough to meet any challenge. He had control over things that normal people didn’t. He could be counted on to be there when things got tough. And yet, the disciples missed it. They hadn’t learned the lesson.

      Jesus has just walked on water and came to their rescue. He stepped aboard the boat they had been struggling to control in the wind. They had been fighting against its push for a long time, unable to overcome its power and reach their destination. And Jesus has now calmed the winds as He settled in their boat.

      Mark states that they had missed the message of the feeding of the 5000. But what was the message? I think we can guess. They allowed themselves to be overcome with fear when they thought a ghost was approaching them walking on the water. Jesus gets on board and they express their amazement. Why should they be amazed? Someone who could miraculously multiply food demonstrated that He had control over the physical universe. The waves and the wind were certainly part of the physical universe. They shouldn’t be any harder to control than the physical properties of bread and fish.

      The disciples still had a limited view of Jesus’ abilities. They had seen Him heal the sick. Check. They had seen Him cast out demons. Check. They had seen Him multiply food. Check. They had seen Him raise the dead. Check. But each of these specific areas was an isolated from the others. They had not generalized their assumptions about Jesus’ abilities. They were not able to step back and draw conclusions about other circumstances and any other challenges over which Jesus had control.

      Mark says that their hearts were hardened. The reality is that all our hearts are hardened. We don’t understand and put into practice all that we know about the LORD. We forget lessons we learn at one point in our lives, only to have to learn them again later. We stubbornly hold onto beliefs that fly in the face of faith. We leave God out of certain areas of our life, thinking He has little or no jurisdiction in the area. We attribute God’s work to evolution or chance or human will.

      Our hearts are hard. We miss the mark just like the disciples.