When Jesus scares me. (Mark 6:45-56)
Even though Jesus really wanted the rest, he took time out for the people. The needy people. The hurt. The broken. The hungry. No politicians in that crowd. No priests. No famous people. What does this mean for me and you? Jesus cares for normal joes. He will meet our needs and teach us truth.
No matter what my mother says, The Brick Testament is pure genius.
While Jesus takes some time alone to pray, to recoup from the rigors of ministry, the disciples pile into the slow boat again and head back across the lake.
And after many hours of prayer, it is now between 3 and 6 o’clock in the morning (remember he is setting an example of how important prayer is for us). When he checks on his boys, he sees them working hard, fighting against the wind. So he goes out on the lake, walking on the water. He’s God incarnate. he can do whatever he wants.
Jesus told them he would meet them in Bethsaida, and that’s where he was headed when they saw him and cried like like school girls in fear. They thought it was a ghost. But aren’t these are the same guys that had power and authority from Jesus to cast out demons? Again, Jesus is compassionate and changes his plans to help. He calms them down and climbs in the boat with them.
The moment Jesus steps into the boat, the wind suddenly stops. To me that is scarier than the idea of a ghost on the water coming after me.
THINK:
- Do you ever think that Jesus cares about other people and will heal them or guide them but not you? Why?
- Jesus knows things about the future, right? So why does he send his disciples into lake that he knows will soon have an opposing wind? Why is he compassionate about some things, but not about other things?
- What is Jesus allowing in your life right now, that you really need him to calm you down and say,”Don’t be afraid, It’s just me!”?
- Verse 52 says that the disciples are amazed by Jesus and have hardened hearts at the very same time. What in your heart needs to be softened?
- When you realize a little more of who Jesus really is, do you get scared?
Dannards
1. It’s not even that I think that Jesus cares about others but not me. It is more that when I hear about him caring about, healing, or guiding others, it means absolutely nothing to me because it did not happen to me as plainly as that and I am me so the world revolves around me. Maybe I think that if it happened to them and not me then what they are saying is not as true as they seem to say it is. I have never “seen evil spirits in the mirror behind me”; I have never “had an invisible Jesus sit down beside me and crumple that plastic on the couch where I sat”; I never spoke in tongues; I never was miraculously healed; I never… I never… I never…
How can I believe when “I never”
2. When you say “he is compassionate about some things but not others” I hear, “People say he is compassionate to them but not me”. I suppose I could justify things and say, “If he is putting me through waiting and crappiness, he must want to teach me something (cause that is what he usually did when he put people through “high winds and waves”). Well to that I say, “Any time now, Jesus…”
3.
4. Since the world revolves around me, I need the place in my heart where I hold and judge others to be softened. Because my opinions and thoughts are obviously right and if theirs are different then they must be wrong… riiiiiiight…
5. Only scared enough to scream and moan loud enough to fill up an entire huge sanctuary and probably scare anyone within hearing distance…
Apr 25, 2009 @ 8:24 pm