Lent 3 - Friday - Who Is This Guy?

Text: Mark 6:47-56 (see below)

Today’s lesson is about an epiphany of sorts: Jesus again revealing himself to his disciples in the midst of yet another raging storm on the Sea of Galilee. The point is not that Jesus can walk on water – an amazing feat in and of itself. This story is really about the disciples and their reaction to Jesus and their hardness of heart.

Let’s quickly review: Since the end of the fourth chapter and the last storm at sea, the author of Mark’s Gospel has been trying to answer the question raised by the disciples in the boat: “Who is this guy?” (Mark 4:41). From that question there has been one event after another in dizzying speed – teachings and healings, driving away demons, raising children from the dead, feeding thousands of people with little or nothing, more healings and teachings, and then walking on water.

“Who is this guy?”

It is clear from the disciples’ reaction that they have not yet understood the immensity of the nature and power of Jesus. This is the first time that Mark has said something negative about the disciples: “They did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.” Trust me; it will not be the last time!

While it is easy to dump on the disciples, let’s speak plainly with one another. Do you and I understand about the loaves? Are our hearts hardened? Do we really know who this guy is?

These final weeks of Lent offer to us an opportunity to pause and answer for ourselves the question set before us by the disciples: “Who is this guy?” It is important that each of us, who claim the name Christian, is able to answer this question with integrity, confidence and faith. As N.T. Wright offers in his commentary on Mark’s Gospel, “To grasp all this will need more than suspension of disbelief, it will take a complete change of heart” (Mark for everyone, page 84).

You have heard the stories. You have witnessed the miracles. You have experienced the epiphanies. Is your heart still hardened?

Who is this guy?

Love One Another - Brian

All is a Miracle

Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Monk and Activist

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

Source: Thinkexist.com

Mark 6:47-56

When evening came, the boat was out on the lake, and Jesus was alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the lake. He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Then Jesus got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever Jesus went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.