Preached Sunday, July 6, 2014 from Mark 6:45-52
Theme: This passage teaches us about Jesus’ help when we strain against the frustrations of life.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
A couple of weeks ago, we looked together at a story from the Bible about the Lord Jesus’ interaction with the disciples while in a boat in the midst of a storm. This morning, I ask that we take a look at another ‘boat’ story. This one is found in Mark 6:45-52.
It tells of something that happened just after our Lord’s miraculous feeding of 5,000 men. We’re told in another Gospel that those men had their wives and their children with them too; so the actual number may have been closer than 20,000 people altogether. And yet, He fed that great multitude with just five small loaves of bread and two small fish. When everyone had enough, the disciples gathered up twelve baskets of fragments—the most famous ‘leftovers’ in all of dining history!
Everyone was astonished. And I think that one of the reasons that we’re told that it was 5,000 men is because—as one of the other Gospel writers tells—all the men were beginning to realize who this man Jesus was, and were preparing to force Him to be their ‘king’! But Jesus did not come to this earth so that men may make Him their political leader. He came in order to die on the cross to save people’s souls.
It may even be that, to some degree, His disciples were beginning to get caught up in the move to make Jesus king. And that’s probably why Mark begins his story with the word “immediately”. We’re told;
Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away. And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray. Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by. And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 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 heart was hardened. (Mark 6:45-52).
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Now; this is a story about the disciples rowing a boat. Occasionally, when I read it, I think back to when I was a little boy in a boat with my father as we went fishing.
My dad would bundle me up in one of those big, thick, bright orange life-jackets—so that I could barely move; and he would sometimes let me row the boat. But I don’t think I was ever very good at it. We didn’t get around very far or very fast; because I usually couldn’t get the oars in the water correctly. My dad told to me that the oars weren’t ‘catching the water’ right. That sure sounded funny to me—’catching water’; since I thought we were there to catch something else. And as if that wasn’t strange enough, he also told me that, instead, I was ‘catching crabs’. He meant that the oars, instead of drawing us along in the water, were acting as breaks and slowing us down. But that’s not the image that came to my mind. I was very concerned that those crabs—wherever they were.
Well; you probably already know that I’m not much of an outdoorsman. I suppose I gained that reputation pretty early on. Several of the disciples in the boat, however, were very experienced fishermen. They knew a thing or two about rowing a boat. But I think that the best word to use to describe their experience of rowing on this particular night was ‘frustrating’. It was as if they were rowing and rowing and rowing—but hardly making any progress across the water at all.
Look at what the Bible tells us. While Jesus sent the multitudes away, before the men in the crowd had tried to make Him king by force, He told His disciples to quickly get into the boat and make their way to the other side. They were in the city of Capernaum by the shores of the Sea of Galilee—which, of course, is a lake that some of those disciples had traveled across perhaps several hundreds of times in their lives. The place that He was sending them was to Bethsaida. Traveling straight across the lake, that would have been a trip of just under six miles. Most of the fishermen in the group could have pulled the boat across that distance in less than an hour’s time—and without working up hardly any kind of a sweat (and probably without ‘catching any crabs’, either).
But even though, as this passage tells us, they appear to have been sent out by Jesus before ‘evening’ had come (and that would mean around 6 pm), they were still in the middle of the lake by the time evening had fallen. In fact, we’re told that Jesus had started to walk out to them by the fourth watch of the night—which would have been somewhere between 3 and 4 in the morning! In other words, a journey that should have taken less than an hour was something they were still working hard on—and not even halfway through with yet—after about eight hours of rowing! The wind, we’re told, was against them; and they were “straining at the rowing”—literally, they ‘tortured’ or ‘tormented’ in it. I don’t think they were just slightly annoyed. I believe they were agonized in their efforts, and were profoundly frustrated, and confused, and deeply fatigued, and perhaps even a little fearful.
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What a picture! Have you ever been there, dear fellow saint? (Well; I don’t even have to ask really, do I?) I think it’s a remarkable picture of a profound kind of frustration that we all have felt many times in life as followers of Jesus—a picture of knowing where it is that the Lord wants us to be, and of sincerely giving all that we have to get there, and of feeling like we’re making absolutely no progress whatsoever!
Think of those times at work when you’re trying to get something done; and it just seems as if everything is against you. You want to do a good job, because that’s right to do; but all the circumstances seem to fight against you and frustrate your efforts. You try and try, but is seems as if you’re making no progress at all. Or think of those times when you’re trying hard to get ahead financially—trying to get the bills paid, and get out of debt, and maybe even have a little saved up. You work hard and plan responsibly because it’s the right thing to do. But along comes one unexpected emergency after another, and your plans are frustrated, and you’re back at square-one. Or think of the times you are trying to make progress in your health—doing all that you can to get better. And yet, it seems as if you get over one thing only to be plagued by another—never seeming to get to that healthy place you want to be. It’s hard to have a good ‘Christian’ attitude at such times.
Or, let’s get even a bit more personal. Perhaps you have a sinful habit in your life—something that you know good and well God wants you to conquer and get rid of. And you try and try and try; but for every step forward, it seems like you slip two steps backward. Perhaps you have an attitude of resentment toward someone that you just can’t seem to get past. You try to change your way of thinking about that person. You sincerely try to forgive them. But you keep finding yourself drifting back to the places of resentment and bitterness—never seeming to get over the pain and the hurt. Or perhaps you have been fighting a problem with lust in the area of the thought life. You know God wants your inner being to be pure in His sight. But even though you try to stay away from certain kinds of thoughts, or from gazing at certain things, you still find yourself going back again and again—having, it seems, gotten nowhere. Or perhaps you struggle with contentment. You know that God wants you to be happy with what He has given you. But just when you think you’ve got it conquered, you find yourself growing envious; and you covet what God has given to someone else—or you find yourself spending money you don’t have, and getting further into debt because of material things that will never satisfy.
Or, let’s get even more serious than that. Let’s suppose it’s way past being characterized as just a sinful habit. Suppose you find yourself trapped in a cycle of addiction that is literally killing you. It may be a substance—such as alcohol, or tobacco, or pot, or pain medications, or heroin or cocaine or meth. Perhaps you think you’ve conquered an addiction to one chemical, only to find yourself ensnared by an addiction to another. Or it may be sex. You’ve crossed a line somewhere with someone—maybe several lines several times with several someones. You’ve done some things that you know God says not to do; and now find yourself under the grip of something that you’re unable to free yourself from. And now, you find that you are trying to maintain a secret life; or that you are ‘redefining’ yourself in order to accommodate and justify what you can’t stop doing. Perhaps it’s an addiction to video games, or an addiction to gambling, or an addiction to the Internet, or an addiction to shopping, or an addiction to angry outbursts; or perhaps you’ve become addicted to hurting yourself in some way and can’t seem to stop. Whatever it may be, the word that best describes feeling is ‘frustration’.
May I suggest to you that this story in Mark’s Gospel—as charming and quaint as it may seem in the religious paintings and Bible story books—actually tells us something life-transforming about all those very experiences of frustration in life? It offers us the hope of liberty through our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s go back through this passage, and see what it teaches us about Jesus’ help when we strain against even the deepest frustrations of life.
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Now first, I ask you to notice what we’re told in verse 45. Mark said, “He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side . . .” In other words, they are on their way to do as He commanded. They are obeying Him. But that’s when they ran into frustration.
I am speaking here to my brothers and sisters in Christ. We sometimes think that if we pick up Jesus’ list of instructions to us, and run out to obey them, then we’ll never run into troubles. But that’s a terrible mistake. Let’s not think that we can ever just run out and obey Jesus’ instructions as ‘free-agents’; that is to say, without a constant, continual, personal sense of dependency upon Him. Do you remember what He told us in John 15:5?—“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” We cannot do anything—not even obey Him—without Him!
Personally, I think that’s what this story is meant to illustrate to us. Jesus sent His disciples out to obey Him—while He Himself stayed behind. They went out without Him, in obedience to Him, to illustrate to us how much it is so that we cannot do anything without Him. When we try to walk the path He gives us, or try to conquer the sins in our lives that he calls us to conquer, or to do the things that He calls us to do, and try to do it—all the while—without Him, we will just end up in frustration every time.
It’s fascinating, then, to note that Jesus stayed behind, went up to a mountain to pray, and was able—the whole time long from the mountaintop—to watch them as the storm arose, and as the winds blew, and as they rowed and rowed for hours and grew increasingly frustrated without Him.
And the first thing that I believe this passage teaches us about those frustrating “rowing” experiences is . . .
1. JESUS WATCHES PRAYERFULLY OVER US IN OUR TIMES OF FRUSTRATION.
Look at verses 46-48. We’re told, “He departed to the mountain to pray. Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them.” Do you see what He was doing during that whole time while He was watching them rowing? He was praying.
What do you suppose He was praying for? Was He praying for the wind to stop? We know already from the previous ‘boat’ story that we studied that He could command the winds and the waves to have stopped at any time. Was He praying for them to make it across? Personally, I don’t think so. I believe He was about to teach them that they cannot do anything without Him; and their struggle was key to that lesson. Was He praying for their safety? I certainly believe that is possible—although I also think He knew that they would not die. To my mind, what is most likely of all the options is that He was praying for them to be faithful to the things that they already knew about Him, and that they would learn the lessons about Himself that they were just about to be taught.
The Bible tells us that our resurrected and glorified Lord Jesus sitting—right now—at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us (Romans 8:34). And I wonder if that’s what He is praying for, right now, for you and me. Do you suppose that He prays for us that we will not fail Him; and that we will learn the lessons about Himself that those frustrating times are meant to teach us?
Let’s remember that in our times of frustration, our Lord is never ignorant of our situation. He is always mindful of us, and is always praying for us. We can trust Him, quiet our hearts under His sovereign care, and allow Him to teach us the lessons He is wanting to teach us about Himself.
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A second thing is that . . .
2. JESUS WAITS FOR US TO INVITE HIM TO JOIN US IN OUR STRUGGLES.
It’s sad that we try to go through those struggles without Him—never calling upon Him, never asking for His help. He waits patiently for us to do so. Look at what Mark tells us in verse 48; “Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by.” What a marvelous miracle! Nothing stops our Lord! Nothing can keep Him from offering Himself to us!
Now; I have to tell you; I have pondered for years over those last few words—”and would have passed them by”. I don’t want to ever treat the story irreverently; but it creates a pretty funny picture in my mind. The disciples were rowing with all their might—and had been doing so for hours. But the Lord Jesus just came strolling by; as if He was about to say, “Row harder, fellas; I’ll meet you at Bethsaida.” I feel pretty certain that His appearance of passing by was, in part, His way of showing them that what He commanded them to do was certainly not difficult for Him to do. But was He joking with them? Was He funnin’ around with them just a little bit? I don’t think so.
I’m indebted to a commentator that pointed out another occasion in the Gospels when our Lord did something like this. Do you remember how, after He was raised from the dead, He appeared to the two men on the road to Emmaus? They didn’t know that it was Him; and as they walked along, they talked with Him about how sad they were that their beloved Lord and Master had been crucified; and He—apparently disguised to them—told them how everything that had happened to Him was just what the Scriptures promised would happen. And in Luke 24:28-29, we read these words: “Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, ‘Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.’” I don’t think He really was going to leave them though; do you? I think He was waiting for them to invite Him into their home. They did; and what an evening it was! He vanished from their sight; and they realized later on that this Stranger who had walked along with them had been the Lord all along!
I suspect that that’s something like what Jesus was doing for His disciples in the boat. He may have looked as if He was going to go on across the lake alone, and leave His disciples to continue their frustrating rowing. But He wasn’t really going to leave them. What He was really waiting patiently for was to be asked into the boat. And I think that, just as our Lord watches over us and prays for us, He also waits for us to ask Him into our problems and difficulties—so that He, who is so easily able to do what He commands us to do, can Himself do it all in and through and for us.
May I share with you how I learned this personally not long ago? I was—in all honesty—struggling with something in my thought life. It was only in my thought life; and I in no way acted on it or sought to feed it. But it was a nuisance to me and I wanted to make these thoughts quit coming to my mind. (Have you ever tried to NOT make thoughts come to your mind? Talk about frustrating—!) And as I was driving along one day, finding these thoughts popping once again into my head, I finally gave up and prayed about it and said, “Lord Jesus; these thoughts are not pleasing to You, but I can’t seem to make them stop coming across my mind. Would You please help me? I can’t do it in my own power. Please just take them away from me and set me free from them.” And He did!—immediately! Perhaps that was what He was waiting for all along. It was a simple lesson; but I learned afresh the difference it makes when I simply invite Jesus into the frustrating circumstance with me, and ask Him to solve the problem for me.
You know; as Christians—early on—we’re taught to say that we became saved when we ‘asked Jesus into our hearts’. I truly like that way of putting the decision we make to trust Jesus; and I think it’s a good thing to say. But I wonder if it should really be viewed as only the beginning of our asking. Jesus is glad to come into our hearts; but He doesn’t want to be invited into our hearts . . . and nowhere else. I believe He wants us to ask Him into our work at our jobs. He wants us to ask Him into our relationships in our families. He wants us to ask Him into our politics, and into our leisure times, and into our social relationships.
Have you ever thought of inviting Jesus into your times of temptation and struggles with sin? Have you ever thought of inviting Him into your doubts and fears? Have you ever thought—and this is bold!—of inviting Jesus into your addictions? Why shouldn’t we? He’s not afraid of going there. In fact, I believe He is waiting—very patiently, but very longingly—for us to quit struggling on our own in those frustrations and invite Him into them!
What a difference it makes when we finally invite Him into the frustrating places of our lives.
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So; Jesus was walking by the boat in the midst of the blowing wind and crashing waves—perhaps illuminated by the moonlight. And the sight of it caused the disciples to completely freak-out—so much so, in fact, that they cried out in terror. (I think that’s one way we can know it’s a true story. Someone who was just trying to make up a story to impress us might not have told us about the ‘freak-out’ part.)
Why were they freaking-out? Well; let’s face it. They had been rowing fervently and frustratingly for eight hours straight. They were exhausted and tired and hungry and sleepy. They were already at the breaking point as it was. And they certainly weren’t expecting to see a man walking across the waves to them! Mark tells us that they thought they were seeing a ghost. Perhaps we should give them a break. I’m not so sure you and I wouldn’t have been freaking-out too.
But look then at the next lesson we learn for such times of frustration; that . . .
3. JESUS OFFERS US COURAGE AND CHEER WHENEVER HE DRAWS NEAR.
Look at how kind and tender He was to them. He didn’t upset them further. He calmed them down. He told them: “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” I can’t help but think that He had a warm, loving smile as He spoke those words.
The word that Jesus used—translated “good cheer” in the translation I’m using—is one that actually means, to ‘be courageous’, to ‘take courage’. And it wasn’t that Jesus was trying to tell them to ‘buck-up’ and ‘man-up’ in their own power. He gave them reason to be of good courage. “It is I; do not be afraid.” He was no phantom. He was their beloved Lord and Master—the very One who had shown them, not long ago, that He is able to command the wind and the waves to do His bidding.
I love what our Lord says in in John 16:33; “These things I have spoken to you , that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” You and I can calm down in those frustrating times, and even be at peace in the midst of them, and even be happy. When we invite Jesus into them with us, He takes us up on the offer; and tells us, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
Believe me; I would certainly prefer not to have frustrating times at all. But He’s my only true source of courage and cheer; and if I’m thinking rightly about it, I’d much rather go through frustrating times with Him than have times of smooth-sailing without Him; wouldn’t you?
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Now; perhaps one of the disciples could have seen Jesus walking by (I’m thinking, for some reason, that it would have most likely been Peter!), and could have thrown the Lord a rope and said, “Hey, Lord; You don’t seem to have any trouble crossing this lake. Would you mind pulling us along?” I suppose the Lord could have done that, but that’s not really enough for our Him. He wants to get into the “boat” with us, and be with us, and empower us as we obey Him. And that’s what He did. We’re told, “Then He went up into the boat to them . . .” And look what happened as soon as He did! We’re told, “and the wind ceased” (v. 51a).
This, I believe, teaches us that . . .
4. OUR FRUSTRATING TIMES BECOME MUCH EASIER WHENEVER JESUS STEPS INTO THEM.
John, in His Gospel, tells us that “immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.” I wouldn’t think that meant that the disciples didn’t still have to do some rowing. I don’t believe Jesus turned it into a powerboat. But the wind died down, the waves were no longer thrashing the boat around, and the rowing was quick and easy. The second half of the journey was completed in a matter of minutes.
What a picture! Like Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
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Now; in closing, let’s notice one final thing. We’re told that the disciples “were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled.” Mark seems to go out of his way to describe how astonished they were. But I submit to you that their profound astonishment wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Mark goes on to tell us the reason for their astonishment when he writes, “For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.” There were, apparently, some lessons they should have learned about the Lord in all this that they had not yet allowed to sink into their hearts. There were some ways in which they were not calling upon the truths about the Lord that they should have already known.
And so, one final thing that this passage teaches us is that . . .
5. THE CRUCIAL THING TO JESUS IN FRUSTRATING TIMES IS THE CONDITION OF OUR HEARTS.
The frustrations themselves are never a frustration to Him. But I believe that the condition of our hearts sometimes is a frustration to Him.
Just a short while later in Mark’s Gospel—not long after this story—there was another feeding of the multitudes. This time, 4,000 people were fed by the Lord with only seven loaves of bread and a few small fish—pretty much the same kind of meal. And this time, they gathered twelve large baskets of leftovers. And as they got into a boat a little later, they were worried that they had forgotten to bring bread with them. Jesus told them,
“Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” “Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?” And they said, “Seven.” So He said to them, “How is it you do not understand?” (Mark 8:17-21).
There are so many lessons the Lord wants to teach us about Himself in the frustrating times of life. But if our hearts aren’t in the right condition of receptivity toward Him—if we’re not paying attention to the things He has done in the past, and learning to draw appropriate conclusions from them as to what He could do for us in the present—then we will fail to ‘understand’. We will fail to invite Him into the frustrations of life with us at the very beginning, and fail to see Him work in us for our good and for His glory. We will foolishly try to go it alone in the greatest trials and temptations of life—even as we try to obey Him in our own power; and will continually find ourselves frustrated and defeated.
I really think that’s what this whole story is meant to teach us. What a wonderful Helper the Lord Jesus is! During frustrating times, let’s invite Him into the boat with us! It’s the only way to row!