Jesus
Testing His Disciples
During the
time of His ministry on earth, Jesus taught His disciples many lessons, which
are our lessons to learn as well.
One of the
greatest is learning to trust in God rather than our own strengths and
abilities, to view the world with eyes of faith rather than relying on our
weak, imperfect sight.
The disciples witnessed many of Christ’s
miracles, and they knew that He was sent by God.
But time
after time, when circumstance gave opportunity for them to exercise faith and
trust God…they blew it.
By the time
Christ chose His twelve disciples, recorded in Mark chapter three, He had
performed many miracles. In choosing the twelve, He sent them out preaching and
in Mark 3:15 we read:
“ 15and to have authority to cast out
the demons.”
So, after witnessing His miracles,
He gave them authority to do some themselves. You would think that their faith
in Christ would be rock solid. They were casting out demons!
But in the very next chapter of Mark,
Christ tested their faith, and they failed.
In Mark 4:35-41 we read:
“35On that day, when evening came, He said* to
them, “Let us go over to the other side.”
36Leaving the crowd, they took* Him along with them in
the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.
37And there arose* a fierce gale of wind, and the waves
were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
38Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they
woke* Him and said* to Him, “Teacher, do You not care
that we are perishing?”
39And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the
sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly
calm.
40And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? How is it that you
have no faith?”
41They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is
this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
“How is it that you have no faith?” He had performed miracles. They had
been given authority to perform miracles. But a storm came up and waves crashed
against their boat and they forgot all of that.
In Mark 6:7-13 we read, 7And He summoned* the twelve and began to send
them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits;
8and He instructed them that they should take nothing for their
journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt—
9but to wear sandals; and He added, “Do
not put on two £tunics.”
10And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there
until you leave town.
11“Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go
out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony
against them.”
12They went out and preached that men should
repent.
13And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil
many sick people and healing them.
Miracles. Things not wrought by human
endeavor. Things way beyond their ability to accomplish.
We see them return to Jesus in verse
30:
“30The apostles gathered* together with Jesus; and
they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.
So they
reported to Christ what they had done. They KNEW, from their own experience,
that God was working. They had Faith.
Their next lesson takes place at the
feeding of the five thousand, which we read of beginning in chapter six, verse
33:
33The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there
together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.
34When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt
compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He
began to teach them many things.
35When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and
said, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late;
36send them away so that they may go into the surrounding
countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
The disciples thought that they were
being logical and compassionate, but they were looking at the situation without
exercising faith.
Remember-they had seen miracles performed by Jesus, and had
done miraculous things themselves. Didn’t matter-they judged the
circumstance by worldly wisdom, and Jesus used the opportunity to give them
another lesson.
“37But He answered
them, “You give them something
to eat!” verse 37a.
Did they say, “Okay, Lord-we will
whip up some food by a miracle! Watch this!”
NOPE.
“And they said* to Him, “Shall we go and spend two
hundred £denarii on bread and give them something
to eat?” verse 37b.
Human efforts, human reasoning on
display, trusting in their own understanding, and not in Christ.
Jesus asks: “38And He said* to them, “How many loaves do
you have? Go look!”
Notice that “Go look!”. If they were
going to depend on their own limited vision rather than exercising faith, Jesus
tells them to “Go look.”
And when they found out, they said*, “Five, and two
fish.”
39And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green
grass.
40They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.
41And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up
toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept
giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up
the two fish among them all.
42They all ate and were satisfied,
43and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and
also of the fish.
44There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.”
A wonderful miracle, and notice that
Jesus gave the food to the disciples to distribute, so they were once more
witnesses and participants in a miracle.
The next part of the story is very
interesting:
Mark 6:45-46
“45Immediately 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.
46After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray.”
In front of the five thousand, Jesus
dismissed His disciples, told them to get in the boat and go.
Have you ever been disciplined by
being sent home, sent away? Doesn’t feel good. Kind of spoiled the picnic for
the disciples. Jesus then sent the crowds away Himself.
After bidding them farewell, He left.
We have no record of what the
disciples talked about in the boat, but we do read that Jesus was watching them
from the land:
47When it was evening, the boat was in
the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land.
48Seeing 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.”
Think about that. He had dismissed
them publically, and now, as He is walking on the water, He walks by as if He ‘intended to pass by them’.
Mark explains why Christ did as He
did in the next section:
49But when they saw Him walking on the
sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out;
50for 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.”
51Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and
they were utterly astonished,
52for they had not gained any insight from the incident of
the loaves, but their heart was hardened.”
It was no harder for Christ to walk
on water than to feed five thousand people. He could cast out demons as easily
as He raised the dead. But their hearts were still hardened. They had not
gained any insight.
In Mark chapter eight Jesus tests the
disciples once more and, no surprise, they fail:
Mark 8:1-3
1In those days, when there was again a
large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said*
to them,
2“I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with
Me now three days and have nothing to eat.
3If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the
way; and some of them have come from a great distance.”
We know that this is a different
event, another large crowd, but about a thousand less people.
And again, the disciples see the
circumstance rather than the opportunity:
“4And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be
able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy
these people?””
Classic fail. Jesus fed the four
thousand. The disciples didn’t know it, but they were about to get their
mid-term exam.
The Pharisees came, confronting
Jesus, asking Him to perform a sign in their presence.
12Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said*, “Why
does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given
to this generation.”
13Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side.
14And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than
one loaf in the boat with them.
15And He was giving orders to them, saying, “Watch out! Beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
Obviously Christ was warning against
the false religion of the hard hearted Pharisees. But what did the disciples
hear?
Mark 8:16-21
“16They began to discuss with one another the
fact that they had no bread.
17And Jesus, aware of this, said* to them, “Why do
you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or
understand? Do you have a hardened heart?
18“Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not
hear? And do you not remember,
19when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many
baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They said* to Him,
“Twelve.”
20“When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how
many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they said*
to Him, “Seven.”
21And He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?”
Do we understand?
Do we look at situations as God does,
or are we frightened by storms and waves? When we are in tough situations, is
our first move to cry out to God or must we bull ahead on our strengths and
fail first?
Jesus said that Faith can move
mountains. We know that God is in charge of every situation, so our response
should be different than that of the disciples in this section of Mark’s Gospel
or of the world which cannot understand the things of God.
When things look impossible, they are
impossible for US. Not for God.
Remember Gideon? God’s ‘valiant
warrior’? God pared down Gideon’s army so that Gideon knew that success was
only possible by God’s intervening in circumstance.
Perhaps God has pared down your
helpers.
Has He set you in a stormy sea or two
to test your faith and encourage you to trust Him more?
We learn lessons best not by reading,
hearing and puzzling things out. We learn best by experience.
May God give you as much wisdom as
you need with as little trouble as possible.
