2009-12-13 Sermon Title: They still did not understand
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 17:35 — hpcbc
Sermon 12/ 13/ 2009
Sermon Title: They still did not understand
講道題目：他們仍不明白
Sermon Text: Mark 6:52
講道經文：馬可福音六章五十二節
Scripture Reading: Mark 8: 14-21
讀經：馬可福音八章十四至廿一節
Today we continue with the story of Jesus after he had fed the five thousand men with five small barley loaves and two fish. After everybody had finished eating Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up a mountainside to pray. Meanwhile the disciples were in the middle of the lake staining at the oars because the wind was against them. The Bible tells us that Jesus walked on water to the boat. When the disciple saw a figure walking on water, they were terrified and thought that they had seen a ghost. Immediately Jesus 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. The Bible says, “They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.” (Mark 6: 51-52) Jesus had changed water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana (John 2:1); he had demonstrated that he had power over the quality of matter. In the feeding of the five thousands, he showed the people that he had power over the quantity of matter. He had shown his disciples that the Son of Man had power over material things. Since God alone is the creator of matter, it follows that only God can change the quality and quantity of matter. It is easy to understand that the disciples were afraid to see someone walking on water; they shouldn’t be ‘completely amazed’ when Jesus identified himself to them. After all if Jesus is God why can’t he walk on water; isn’t it true that God is also the Lord of nature too? The Bible tells us that the disciples were amazed because they had not understood the loaves. The disciples were there when Jesus fed the five thousands; they understood it was a miracle. But they did not connect the miracle with the miracle worker. What more was in it that they did not understand? The Bible tells us that the disciple had not understood about the loaves because their hearts were hardened. Hard-heartedness did not suggest that they were bad guys without compassion. It means that they were un-enlightened, thick-skull; they had problem recognizing who Jesus was. They were hard-hearted just like the Pharisees who could not accept Jesus was the promised Messiah. Hard-heartedness 心裏剛硬does not mean foolish or unkind; it means the disciples were obstinate頑固and could not break through their preconception of Jesus. The Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples picking grain in a grain field as breaking the Sabbath; they were blinded by their tradition without realizing that the Son of Man is the Lord even of the Sabbath. (Mark 2:28) They plotted to kill Jesus because Jesus healed a man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath; Jesus was doing good deeds in healing the sick, but the Pharisees were plotting evil of killing on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were hard-hearted and could not accept that Jesus was the Messiah because he had broken the traditions they believed to be in keeping with the observance of the Sabbath. Isaiah proclaimed that the Messiah was to be a glorious Messiah that was to bring deliverance and to sit on the throne of David and establish a kingdom of justice. (Isaiah 9:6-7) Even though Jesus performed many miracles in front of their eyes, the Pharisees did not consider Jesus fitting their image of the Messiah. The disciples had the same problem; they could not as yet visualize him as the Messiah. In the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he went to Nazareth and entered into a synagogue and read from the book of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of the sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1-2) That was what Jesus was doing in his ministry. Jesus was rejected in Nazareth because he was the hometown boy; people had preconception of Jesus. At time even John the Baptist who declared Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), got confused who Jesus was. He sent his disciples to ask Jesus whether he was the Messiah. Jesus said, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” (Luke 7:22-23) All those are the Messianic ministry and they testify that Jesus is the Messiah (Isaiah 35:5-6). The disciples had seen and heard all those things, yet they did not understand because their hearts were hardened and their understanding was no different from the Pharisees. Many of us also have preconceptions about Jesus. In this Christmas season, many of us will also hold onto many traditions of Christmas but forget that Christmas is about Jesus the Christ; our hearts may also be hardened as the Pharisees once was.
Jesus apparently had miraculously fed the people more than once. We can be sure that the Pharisees had witnessed those miraculous signs. Yet they asked Jesus to perform a sign from heaven for them to see. Jesus rejected their request and told his disciple, “Be careful. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. (Mark 6:15) The disciple did not understand; they thought was admonishing them for not bringing bread. Jesus asked them, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but failed to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets of pieces did you pick up? And when I broke the loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets of pieces did you pick up? Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:17-21) They did not understand what Jesus meant by the ‘yeast of the Pharisees’. Yeast usually was used as a symbol of evil and corruption. A little yeast can ferment a large amount of dough. The yeast of the Pharisees was that they asked Jesus to produce a sign to proof his divinity. They could corrupt the good conscience of the disciples by questioning the Messiahship of Jesus. The issue of the Messiah’s identity was a much debated subject in the first century. After the discourse of Jesus with the Samaritan woman, she went and told all the people in her village, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ (Messiah)?” (John 4:29) After many miracles and sign performed by Jesus and the many authoritative teaching of the Kingdom of God, there were open discussion on Jesus. Some of the people said, “Surely this man is the prophet.” Others said, “He is the Christ.” Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” (John 7:40-42) This was the reason Jesus warned his disciples of the yeast of the Pharisees who put doubt in their heart. It was not about the miraculous sign of multiply the bread and the fish; it was not about the multitude being fed. It is about the Messiahship of Jesus. Jesus asked his disciples two questions: “Who do people say I am?” and also, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:27, 29) Other people might see Jesus as a miracle doer, a magician, a great preacher, a great teacher, a prophet or a philosopher. It did not bother Jesus what other people said about him but he wanted to know what his disciples said he was. Peter said, “You are the Christ.” (Mark 8:29)
“Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah” It literally means “The anointed one”. In the Old Testament anointing had to do with installing a person into office in a way that the person will be regarded as accredited by Yahweh. (Holman’s Bible Dictionary, p.952) To the Jews in Jesus time, the Messiah was a warrior-prince who will deliver the Jews from the oppression of Rome. It carried a political connotation that Jesus tried to wean his disciples from. Jesus taught his disciples that the Messiah, Christ, would suffer rejection, suffering and humiliation and die on the cross to redeem mankind from the curse of sin. But the crucified Jewish Messiah was raised from the dead to become the resurrected Lord of the church. Paul referred Jesus as the Christ; Jesus is more than the Jewish Messiah, he is the Christ, the universal Lord.
Who is Jesus of Christmas? Is he the Santa Claus without the white heard and red robe? Is he the miracle worker or the magician like David Copperfield? We come to Jesus because we have seen miraculous signs or because we have eaten the bread and are filled. (John 6:26) The angels announced on that first Christmas day, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) Are you still celebrating Christmas without Christ? Is Jesus the Christ and Lord in your life?
