Sermon on Mark 6:45-56 - "It Is I"

The disciples were terrified. If the rough waters and the strain of keeping the boat afloat were not enough, there was this apparition, this vision, this ghostlike figure walking across the sea. Their fear only grew; they could understand the feelings of the psalmist in Psalm 69:1-2 … “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.”

At the time in which we read, these disciples are in the middle of something really big. They’ve attached themselves to Jesus, and crowds keep flocking around them. And Jesus keeps sending them off to share the message of his coming. Yet, they’re in a bit of a quandary, because they don’t really understand who this Jesus is. Here they are risking their lives in a boat travelling to a scary place across the sea just because Jesus said to go … and now look at the situation they’re in!

We ourselves have no doubt aligned ourselves with Christianity and accepted Jesus into our lives for a variety of reasons:

· Maybe our life was going really badly and Jesus seemed a good alternative;
· Maybe we had been thinking through the meaning of life and the claims of the Bible really made sense to us;
· Maybe we had grown up with really good Christian examples around us, and we just followed in the same pattern;
· Maybe we had a real sense of Jesus speaking to us and calling us to God.

Whichever route we came through, we find ourselves in the cut and thrust of life … referring to Jesus as our Saviour, Friend, Guide or Lord.

The disciples had left everything behind to follow Jesus, yet this it seems was more in hope and trust than it was in understanding who Jesus was.

Let’s refer back to the last time that the disciples were in trouble on the sea (Mark 4:35-41). On this earlier occasion of travelling by boat to the Gentile side of the sea, Jesus joined the disciples in the boat but went to sleep completely at peace about the journey ahead. When the windstorm came, and waves got up, and the disciples really felt in danger, they woke Jesus up. Despite being accused of not caring, Jesus calmed the wind and settled the waves, and the danger passed. With Jesus on board there would be no problem crossing and ministering on the other side. Yet for the disciples fear had got in the way of faith – indeed fear, or perhaps the unwillingness to take risks, gets in the way of faith growing into something substantial. But the disciples’ final thoughts are the real concern – “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him”? They know Jesus as a person they respect, but at this point, not much more!

Then we cast our minds back to the passage we studied last week, concerning the ‘feeding of the five thousand’. Here we saw the disciples’ reluctance to get involved with offering hospitality to the crowd because they thought they had too little resources. How could you have too little resources with Jesus around! You would have hoped that as these disciples participated in the distribution of loaves and fish to the crowd of five thousand in the form of the never empty packet of tim-tams, that they would have appreciated more what was happening and who Jesus was. The ‘feeding of the five thousand’ was a demonstration of God’s universal offer of hospitality to humankind.

But, today’s passage tells us that they didn’t get it – verse 52 … “for they did not understand about the loaves”. I guess 2,000 years down the track we find this amazing! But then it was all very new and different and ‘out there’ and unexpected. This lack of understanding is recorded for us so that we might just consider whether any of the disciples’ uncertainty (or maybe hesitation) resides in us. Worse than not understanding “about the loaves”, was the comment that followed in verse 52 … “their hearts were hardened”. This is something not previously said about any follower of Jesus, but rather only said about the opponents of Jesus (like the Pharisees) or said about ancient opponents of God (like the Pharaoh of Egypt)! Surely the disciples who had left everything could not possibly be seen in this light could they? How could they be!

What could possibly turn a follower of Jesus into an opponent of Jesus???

· Counting the cost and finding it to be too high!
· Fearing any repercussions that may come from expressing one’s faith!

Fearing repercussions in the human arena … is the enemy of faith. Or better said, when fear is allowed to close one’s eyes to a significant movement of God’s Spirit, the growth of faith is stunted.

It is natural to feel somewhat anxious when you are called upon to explain why your lifestyle is different, or your priorities clash with the prevailing culture, or why your moral position stands out from the crowd. I often feel anxious when I know that moment is approaching when there is no way back from sharing my faith position. The problem lies when that anxiety or fear gets the better of me.

And exactly that has happened to me more times than I want to remember. Do I then crawl into my shell to never surface again. I hope not … I rather learn from this, and seek to discover what I need to know to stand more firm in my faith in the future.

Jesus never gave up on seeking to demonstrate to his disciples who he was, and what that meant!! And we know that when they got it (after the resurrection), they really got it, and together with the later convert Paul, they changed the world! When we look at this text, and realise who Jesus is, and what this means, then we are whole … we are truly saved … we are really free!!

Following the big meal in that deserted cove, the disciples were “made” by Jesus to get into the boat and head for the other side. The Greek word translated “made” here indicates that Jesus ‘urged them strongly’, or ‘put pressure on them’ to go, or even ‘forced’ them; and off they went in the boat. For himself, Jesus needed to withdraw in prayer.

Possibly Jesus was going to see how the disciples went on their own ministering to Gentile peoples (after his success over there in 5:1-20, and the disciples’ own success on the Jewish side in 6:7-13). Possibly Jesus wanted to see how they would go on their own initiative. Possibly Jesus was going to catch up with his disciples on the other side the next day – but this is not that important.

What is important is that these disciples were never far from Jesus’ thoughts and prayers. And when Jesus knew that they were in trouble again with the wind and waves, he went out on the water (without the need of a boat) to draw closer to them.

Interestingly, we read that Jesus “intended to pass them by” (v.48). Was this perhaps because he felt they could probably still handle the boat in the storm and survive by themselves? Was this because Jesus felt that just the simple act of letting the disciples see him close by would be enough to restore their strength? It was not until they failed to recognise Jesus that he had to really step in. The sight of what the disciples thought was a ghost of some kind intensified their fear. So even though the disciples had slipped up here, Jesus was there to save them!

In the dull light of morning, the disciples didn’t recognise it was Jesus, indeed they weren’t expecting it to be Jesus for they hadn’t “understood about the loaves” – their eyes were closed to this possibility. Yet Jesus loved them, and in the midst of their faith denying fear, said “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid” (verse 50).

“It is I” from the Greek “ego eimi” meaning literally “I am”.

This is the Greek equivalent to the words that God used for self-identification through the Old Testament text; e.g. in Exodus 3:4 … when God spoke out of the burning bush to Moses, God said “Here I am”.

These are the words used in John’s Gospel where we read Jesus stating: “I am the bread of life / I am the light of the world / I am the good shepherd / I am the way the truth and the life”.

What Jesus was really saying in two little words was “I am God” or “God is here” or “Here is God” or “It is God”. “So here meeting your desperate need and fear is God”. “Take heart, God is here, do not be afraid” or “Take heart, I am, do not be afraid”. “Cheer up, have courage, do not fear, I am God”. “I know that you are feeling really disturbed and anxious, but I am here to help you, like no other can help you”. If Jesus is indeed the one in whom God reveals himself, it follows that Jesus can and will remove any hindrance that gets in the way of us doing God’s work … including fear.

Does anyone have an example of Jesus drawing close in one of your darkest moments???

Jesus entered the disciples’ boat and the windstorm ceased. And when the boat ultimately arrived on the other side of the lake all who encountered Jesus were healed. And Jesus continues to use and train these disciples despite the fact that they had so much to learn. Whatever frustration Jesus felt towards his disciples at times, he never went back and chose a new set!

We should neither:
· Give up trying to know Jesus better; nor
· Stop being active for Jesus because we don’t seem to know him enough.

Something else very interesting! There are two uses of the word translated “immediately” in this text.
· First in verse 45, there was the urgency to take Jesus’ message to the Gentile peoples on the other side of the lake.
· Then in verse 50, when the task at hand had become thoroughly difficult and fearful for the disciples, the saving presence of Jesus arrived “immediately”. The need for a ‘shepherd’ for those who are lost is urgent, and the presence of God amongst those who go out in search of the lost will be immediate.