Are You Missing It?
It’s not uncommon in our family for me to yell this question across my home: “What was that?” Whatever “that” was, I missed it. Between my four children and all their various personalities, conversations never cease in our home. It is beautiful and difficult to keep up with at times. If I’m in another room sometimes I only catch part of a conversation. When I miss something, I want to know what I missed, hence my very “dad-like” question. If its possible for us to miss out when we are having conversations with our family, it is also possible for us to miss something when God speaks.
Jesus’ disciples are a classic case of missing it. And not just anything. The disciples of Jesus actually miss out on the significance of a miracle. How could they miss something so obvious?
In Mark 6, Jesus taught a great multitude of people. The Gospels record over 5,000 men were present listening to Jesus teach. As happens in any gathering of people, they became hungry after listening for some time. Jesus took the small about of food on hand and multiplied it to feed the 5,000. He even provided enough that the disciples were able to gather 12 baskets of leftovers. A miracle of this magnitude would surely leave a strong impression on everyone present, including the disciples.
Immediately after this, Jesus sent His disciples on ahead of Him across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus dismissed the crowd and went up the mountain to spend time alone in prayer. Eventually, He went to rejoin His disciples on the Sea of Galilee, not by boat but on foot...on the water. The disciples saw Jesus walking across the Sea of Galilee and they were terrified and stunned.
Mark 6:52 records the reason the disciples responded this way: “for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.” The disciples missed out on the significance of the feeding of the 5,000 because their hearts were hard. If the hearts of the men who were closest to Jesus on this earth could be hardened, we should take care ourselves that we are not missing out on something God is trying to teach about Himself. A hard heart is a spiritual condition that blinds us to the work of God and to the truth of God. Through the miracle of the feeding, Jesus was revealing something about His identity, yet the disciples couldn’t see it. They saw the miracle but missed the message and the Messiah. If a hard heart can keep us from understanding the significance of a miracle, how much more could a hard heart cause us to miss the significance of how God is working in the mundane.
Lord, open my eyes. Keep me from a hard heart. Help me to see what you’re doing in my life and in the world around me. I don’t want to miss You.