Take Courage! It Is
Mark 6:45-56
When they saw Jesus walking
on the water, the disciples went through a shock. In the beginning, they
thought they saw something like a spirit and were afraid. Jesus said three things,
“Take courage! It is
If your remember last Sunday I mentioned how Moses led his people out of
The first event: God gave food (meat and bread) to the Israelites (The
feeding of the five thousand).
The second event: God opened via Moses the
Dr. Bailey finds a similar
story in this passage. The disciples were
passing through the water. Jesus came to
them as their leader helping them to pass through the stormy water.
In Exodus 14, we read that
Israelites were very upset when they faced the sea, while the Egyptian
army was coming behind them.
Moses spoke God’s message, “Do
not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance
the Lord will bring you today” (Exodus 14:13).
The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew. However,
there was a translation of the Old Testament in Greek called the Septuagint
translation. It was abbreviated as LXX.
The verse, Exodus 14:13,
when you read in Greek it says: “Have courage”
Same verse in Hebrew
says, “Do not be afraid.”
When Moses
asked the voice out of the burning bush, “Who are you?” God said, “I AM.”
The words of Jesus included
both the Greek and Hebrew versions of the same sentence as well as what God said to Moses on the mountain.
“Take COURAGE,
It is I (I AM).
Do not be afraid.”
Do you see what Jesus said to
his audience who knew the story of Moses very well?
They knew very well what “Do
not be afraid, I am, and take courage” meant. They
had heard this story thousand times. Exodus
for the Israelites was a turning point in their life. It was deliverance. Now, they see not a prophet,
but more than prophet. God is
with them. Not just the Son of God,
but the God the Son.
In chapter 6, Mark put the following stories in a big mosaic in a
wonderful way.
- Sending the disciples two
by two,
- The banquet of Herod and
the execution of John (sad ending of that story when the disciples put the body
in grave),
- The disciples coming back
again with stories from the mission field,
- The feeding of the 5000 the
new banquet of life,
- Passing
through the rough waters.
Jesus the authority, the
presence of God is with them, among them.
Where is the peak of the story?
“Then he climbed into the
boat with them, and the wind died down.” (51)
In the story of the banquet
of life, Jesus said the people were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he asked them to lie down in green
pastures. Now he is passing them through
the calm waters.
“He makes me lie down in
green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.” (Psalm 23).
“Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death…” The disciples were in turmoil. They were facing the storm. Jesus is saying, “I am the GOOD SHEPHERD who
says to his flock: ‘Take courage, I AM, don’t be afraid.’”
This should encourage us when
we are in turmoil and storm. We face all
kinds of difficulties. Jesus is in
control. All these
difficulties “under His feet.” He has authority over all things
Let me
quote from the Bible some verses how Jesus has things “under his feet”:
1 Corinthians 15:27 “For he "has put everything under his feet."”
Ephesians
1:22 “And God placed all things under
his feet and appointed him to be
head over everything for the church.” Hebrews
2:8 “and put everything under
his feet. In putting everything under him,
God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.”
After all these wonderful events, one would
say that the disciples were rejoicing. Not exactly.
Listen to what Mark writes. Jesus climbed to the boat, the wind died down,
“they were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves;
their hearts were hardened.” (52)
Mark went back to the banquet, the meat and
the bread. The disciples still have a hard
time understanding what was going on. After
witnessing the presence of God in so many ways, their heart is still hardened.
Does this word ring a bell? Whose heart was hardened in the story of
Exodus?
Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. Mark is
saying to us, “Stop looking for the problems outside. Our problem is not “Pharaoh, or Herod.”
Our
problem is inside the boat. You disciples, who are witnessing all these,
cannot see the real Jesus.”
I examined the word “hardened” in the biblical
dictionary. The Greek word is pōroō.
1. the first
meaning: to cover with thick skin, to harden by covering with a callus. 2. the second
meaning:
a- to make heart dull. The Armenian translation is temradz. b- to grow hard,
callous, become dull, lose the power of understanding.1
When are we going to wake up from a long
sleep? Witnessing Jesus
doing miracles does not guarantee that one can see Jesus Christ the Son of God
the embodiment of God in this world.
Do you know where the danger is? When
we are too busy doing the work of God, but on the
other hand we do not allow the Holy Spirit to work in us to teach us, to give
us the sight. Being in the church is not
enough. What do we need?
Allowing the Holy Spirit
to work in us. The same
disciples were like fire after receiving the Holy Spirit. Allowing the Word of God to be internalized in us is a very important step in
seeing Jesus. So
we need to stop looking outside for the problem; the problem was in the “boat”.
It starts with me and
you. It starts where we stand in
our belief.
Why don’t we allow
the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives?
This sermon is a sermon of hope and encouragement. The storms are hitting us all over. Our leader Jesus Christ is our shepherd who
is walking through the rough waters. Let us be in tune with our leader. Let us
learn to hear his voice.
1
http://www.blueletterbible.org/