Mark 6:46-52 & Matthew 14:22-33

I used to think, “If only I could have lived during the first century, watching Jesus, observing His miracles, listening to His teaching. No doubt my heart would always be engaged, always passionate for Him, never waning.” But we discover that those early disciples were just as human as we are. Mark 6 records the miraculous feeding of over 5,000 people with a few loaves and fishes. The reaction of the Lord’s closest followers, the inner circle? Meh.

No doubt they were tired. Had they become so familiar with the sacred that spiritual things had lost their edge? Had the miraculous become common place? What would shake them from this apathy?

Matthew says that Jesus “constrained” them to get into a boat. He was very very insistant. The storm they would face while on the sea would once again bring them to the end of themselves and put them in a place where they could see the Lord more clearly.

Mark 6:52 tells us that “they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.” Through time their heart had become calloused, petrified — insensitive to what the Lord was doing and what He was teaching.

In the midst of the storm (the second they would face) Jesus came to them in a manner they had never experienced nor imagined. When I was in church as a child we, with the eyes of faith, watched Jesus walk on the water about four times a year. This was a fresh experience for the disciples — they had never seen the flannel graph depiction and did not know how it would all end. They were terrified to their core. What does Jesus offer to them in their terror and anxiety? Does He promise to calm the storm? No! Does He tell them to trust their skills? No! Instead He interjects Himself into their storm and says, “Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.” Their calm and comfort would come from His presence.

Because of time, we will stop here and ponder this: Their calm and comfort was to come, not from their circumstances or environment but from His presence. Could it be that our peace is in direct proportion to our proximity to the Saviour? We lack peace and joy when we are distant from Him. Yet you and I know people, around whom storms would swirl, and yet they had this incredible calm and unshakable joy–why? Because they were close to Him. I too have known some of those times. I trust you have as well.