Blinded Faith

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.