Idols Make Our Hearts Hard

Late that night, the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land. He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. He intended to go past them, but when they saw him walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost. They were all terrified when they saw him. But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here!” Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed, for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in. [Mark 6.47-52]

Today is not the first time I have set out to discuss this passage. It just keeps giving!

Why were the disciples amazed? They were amazed because they did not understand! And, what did they not understand? The significance of the miracle of the loaves.

While there is much to glean from the miracle of the loaves (let alone, Jesus walking on the water then stopping the wind upon entering the boat), perhaps the significance of it is that Jesus originally told the disciples to feed the people.

Okay, here we go...

Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.” But Jesus said, “You feed them.” “With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!” [Mark 6.35-37]

I know, I know, I am wearing the topic of idols out... But with only a slightly deeper look at this event as recorded in Mark's Gospel, it becomes clear that the disciples totally misinterpreted Jesus' instructions to feed the people themselves. Instead of simply and obediently ignoring reason and logic by proceeding to break up and pass out the 5 loaves and 2 fish, the disciples resorted to the very idols of reason and logic as justification to question Jesus' command, “You feed them.” Their hearts were hard.

Idols make our hearts hard too. The same driving forces of reason and logic that the disciples resorted to eventually gave birth to debt, insurance, medicine and technology in our modern time. So hard have people's hearts become with these highly-developed idols that they oftentimes try to validate their use of them by saying, "God gave them," (at best), but, increasingly more (at worst), people completely deny God's power in them at all.

Although Jesus ignored the disciples' idolatrous thinking and fed the people with a miracle of epic proportion anyway, the disciples' idolatrous reason and logic hard-heartedly blew right past the miracle of the loaves accompanying them afterwards out on the lake in the boat. There, their idolatry, once again, interfered with a perfect opportunity to defy reason and logic by calming the storm themselves. But again, they failed. Their hearts were hard - albeit, amazed.

When people resort to human reason and logic above God's Word, as it was in the disciples' case, is in our case, and always will be, it is disappointing to God because only faith pleases God. And, if Israel's recorded history teaches us anything, it is that God does not tolerate mixed faith (part idols, part Him). God was distinct and precise in His command:

You must not have any other god but me. [Exodus 20.3]

Most of us would agree that we don't want a hard heart. However, when it comes to identifying and discarding the instigators of hard-heartedness, human reason and logic (as manifested in debt, insurance, medicine and technology), few of us are willing to part with them. Consequently, we are amazed when God breaks through with a miracle, but nothing changes in our perception of the world in which we live. Instead of seeing the world through the eyes of The Creator, we resort to our fallen reason and logic as if they are trustworthy (i.e. worth trusting instead of God... i.e. idols).

There is no hope of God-pleasing faith while holding onto and protecting the idols of our lives. Idols make our hearts hard. The parable of the sower teaches us (as the foundation of understanding all other parables) that hard ground produces no harvest whatsoever. No harvest = no salvation.

We are faced with some big decisions.

Father, forgive me for holding onto idols based on reason and logic that serve to keep my heart hard. Help me to see clearly how to systematically remove idols from my life thus plowing the hard soil of my heart so that Your Word might thrive in me!