daily java

Daily Java:

When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.  (Mark 6:47-52)

Several years ago, a friend of ours was sick in the hospital. We prayed for her and, against all expectations, she was pronounced fine the next day and was released. When I told her we had prayed for her, her response was, “Well, I know prayer helps.” I said, “Sweetheart, prayer does not help. Prayer heals. You are out of the hospital, aren’t you?”

The look on her face was priceless when she realized the enormity of her illness and the fact that it had disappeared. She had indeed, against all odds, been healed.

But it was not long after the healing that it was forgotten. She still did not necessarily believe in miraculous healing even though it had touched her personally.

The apostles had just witnessed a miracle of the first order. Jesus had fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. The biggest loaves of bread around and the largest fish caught in those waters could not have provided enough food for all those people. It came from the hand of God through the hands of Jesus in the presence of a bunch of men who had trouble really believing in this kind of thing.

But – again that word which kills all belief – the apostles just didn’t understand. It wasn’t that they were stupid or unbelieving. After all, they had given up their lives to follow this man. They believed inasmuch as they could in who he was and what his mission was.

It was just that there had not been enough time for the full realization of Jesus and his power to completely sink in. They still had a barrier between them and their faith.

It is easy to criticize the apostles from our perspective. We have had 2000 years of theological filters though which to see and understand all this. We have read it in a book we know to be true, we have talked about it, been taught about it, studied on it, considered it, translated it from the original Koine Greek, accepted it and to us it is perfectly normal.

I personally have studied the feeding of the 5000 and the walking on water incident since I was a little bitty child. I cannot imagine a world in which it did not happen. But in their world, it was the first time.

One of the Jesus movies faced a problem like this in the filming. The problem was: how do you say and do the things needed to make it a good movie as though it was the first time they were ever done or said? How do you keep it fresh sounding? We have heard and read these things so many times that it becomes old hat.

What if it were you who saw this for the first time? And you needed time to process it? You would look rather hard of heart yourself.

But how exciting it would have been. The storm, the fear, then Jesus comes walking on the water and you thought that maybe it was an omen of your impending death. Then he gets in the boat and everything stops.

It would sure be something to process in your mind for a while before you really came to grips with it.