Week 4 - Hardness of Heart

Happy Father’s Day, to all you dads, grandads, uncles, great uncles, and to those of you who are like a dad to so many. Thank you for investing in the lives of those around you, and I pray that God equips you to be a godly man in that role My dad died in 2004. He was a good dad, and I feel so blessed that he knew his Lord personally I’m very proud of our son, and our two sons-in-law, who are all fantastic dads. And I’m especially proud of our son Cam, who is dealing with what it means to be a dad through a recent diagnosis for their 4 month old Mila. May God be honoured in our family and yours I want to share with you today, one of my many and varied de ciencies My brain does not do numbers at all well. There have been so many times over our married life when Chris has tried to explain to me what actually happens with a nancial spreadsheet, liabilities and assets, what’s the difference between a pro t and loss and a Balance sheet. I listen, I try to understand, I ask questions, and then I have a go at explaining it back, and even when I do that, about an hour later, I have simply forgotten everything. Not retained a thing I’m ne with a budget, but a P&L or Balance Sheet? Simply just don’t get the difference and why we need both. This de ciency has proved unhelpful over the years. Most months the subtleties of the nancial statements at parish council are a blur. And for 12 years I was on the Council of a diocesan school - a bigger nancial deal than most local churches, and I would read the nancial report but ……. Fortunately the system schools use also has a summary sheet, with a traf c light system on different aspects of the report. A little red dot indicates a ag that a particular area needs focus and not everything is as it should be, an orange dot is a warning, and a green dot told me that everything was looking good. If I looked at a report and saw a line of green dots, I was so happy. If I saw a red dot, I knew I’d have to pour over these papers a lot more to do my job properly. But I’d also be relying on other people, without my de ciency, to help me All these years, and I still don’t get it! Today in this passage, we see more people like me. People who still don’t get it. The disciples, yet again. And the Pharisees, yet again This reading is related to last week’s, as it happens right after that great miracle of Jesus feeding the 4,000, and interestingly, the subject matter is still bread They’ve had a boat trip to the other side of the Lake, and the pharisees come with questions. And their motivation was questionable - they came to test Jesus Now even if the Pharisees hadn’t heard about the most recent miracle on the other side of the lake, with all that Jesus had done which they had witnessed, why would they be asking for a sign? Surely what they have seen would be sign enough. What else do they want? . . fi . fi fi . . . fl fi . t ! fi fi . n . 1 1 fi fi Page 1 of 4 fi fi September 5, 202 I can see clearly now - Hardness of Hear Mark 8:11-2 Rev’d Lynda Johnso But they don’t really want a sign, they want to trick him. And Jesus’ reaction - v.12 - He sighed deeply. For the shortest of the four gospels, Mark is giving us some amazing detail here. Jesus sighed deeply The Gk term re ects a weariness and impatience with the Pharisees And then Jesus goes on with an interesting phrase - ‘Truly I tell you. This is very strong language, and it basically amounts to a solemn oath. It shows both the heat of the argument and the strength of the condemnation of the Pharisees’ request They may have been asking Jesus for a sign, but in actual fact, they were giving him a sign. A sign that they were determined to continue denying the evidence God was giving them. A sign that the religious were ignoring the religion they were professing Not only does Jesus decline to give them a sign, but his frustration comes out in his question ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign?’ His sigh is vocalised Jesus is incredulous, and expresses his despair at their continued disbelief. But his frustration isn’t just vocalised, it’s acted on. He doesn’t stick around, in fact he gets away from them really quickly. He’s just got out of the boat, but he turns round, gets back into the boat and they take off to the other side And it doesn’t stop there, because Jesus uses this trip for another teaching session with the disciples. Which, sadly, doesn’t go too well for them He warns them about the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod, who was the Jewish King, but appointed through Rome, the occupiers. Now because the Pharisees are presented as those who refuse to acknowledge Jesus, he talks about them as being like yeast. Yeast was used to make ordinary bread, just like we do today, but, do you remember, for the rst passover meal, the Jews were instructed to make bread without yeast because of the speed with which they had to leave Egypt. Because of the plan that God had. So to obey God in that, meant that they heard his command and followed it Interestingly, yeast was sometimes seen as a symbol of evil in the OT. Which is why Jesus is warning them to beware This is the new plan, and some are not heeding it. Beware And this then moves the conversation back to the state of the disciples. Bread was on their mind. That day they’d seen it multiplied in the miracle. And now, they mistakenly thought that Jesus was talking about the amount of bread they had. Or more to the point, the amount of bread they didn’t have. They only had one loaf, because the disciples had forgotten to bring more. Jesus res eight questions at them in quick succession. Not only is he frustrated with the Pharisees, he’s also frustrated with the disciples What does it take to get these people to understand The pharisees are clearly against him, so that’s about stubbornness But the disciples? They’ve chosen to be with him, not against him And so the questions start Why are you talking about bread? Don’t you understand Are your hearts hardened . . fi . . ” . . . . ? . . . . ? ? . fl . fi Page 2 of 4 That’s a really tough thing to hear. In the OT people with hard hearts were always condemned But that’s not all. Jesus also picks up phrases from the prophet Jeremiah. Eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear In Jeremiah, it clearly says that those who have eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear are the foolish and senseless people Jeremiah 5:21 - you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord Jesus’ further questions take the disciples to the two miraculous feedings, of the 5,000 and the 4,000 They answer the questions correctly, but Jesus responds, ‘Do you still not understand? End of awkward conversation It wasn’t because they only had one loaf of bread, nor was it about the bare answer to how many basketsful there were left over We know, that what it IS about, is who Jesus is The disciples still aren’t seeing that clearly yet, and they stumble and blunder and put their foot in it time and time again The Pharisees are seeing who Jesus is, but they are either stubbornly refusing to believe it, or they are beginning to believe it, and want to stamp it out, because Jesus is a threat to who they are. They are more concerned about who they are, than about who Jesus is The prophet Jeremiah speaks to their situation as well, in vv.23-24 which says: “These people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away. They do not say to themselves, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God. When he was writing this Gospel, I would say that Mark was wanting his readers to go back to Jeremiah and re-read it, to understand what he was trying to say about the signi cance of Jesus’ ministry and the seriousness of rejecting it His frustration with the Pharisees and rebuke of the disciples can only mean that what they should have been seeing was not something small and insigni cant, or something general, but Mark’s language tells us that they were in danger of missing something huge. The really crucial point - The secret of who Jesus is Now we’re left hanging here, with this awkward conversation nishing with Jesus saying to the disciples Do you still not understand So what application does this have for us today I would guess that most of us would more naturally resonate with the position of the disciples. That we would say, there are times when our understanding is a bit dulled. Times when we miss the point of what God is doing in our lives. Times when we get it wrong and put our foot in it, and stumble And I think we’d probably all be right We need forgiveness for our slow belief We need forgiveness for expecting far too little But I would also challenge you to consider where in your life you are more like the pharisees Where are we demanding things from God because of our stubbornness and lack of belief. What are we demanding from God that he will never do . . . ’ fi . fi . ? . . fi ? . . . . . . ? . ’ . . . Page 3 of 4 Who is demanding too much? and who is expecting too little Maybe it’s wanting God to show himself more clearly in this world so that people can’t help but respond When what God is wanting is us to show him more clearly in our lives so that people might respond Where are we asking too much? And where are we expecting too little The Pharisees made huge mistakes, the disciples made huge mistakes. We make huge mistakes The difference between the pharisees and the disciples is that the disciples came to that point of recognition, repentance and renewal Their hardness of heart was softened. For most of the Pharisees, praise the Lord not all, but for most, their hardness of heart remained, and they stubbornly and determinedly refused to accept Jesus for who he was and is My friends, if you know today, that there is something in your life which is causing you to ask of God what he has no intention of doing, and you are stubbornly resisting his work in your heart, I exhort you to repent But equally, if you are travelling with Jesus but not seeing him for who he really is, and you know you are expecting too little of him, then I exhort you to repent of that Come, humbly to the Lord of all, recognise him for who he is, repent of your own position, and wait for the renewal which he alone can bring If you want to do that today, I invite you to stand now, as a sign of public commitment. You don’t have to say anything, but stand as a witness, while I pray You may like to make this prayer your own. I’ll pray slowly, to you can name each word in your own heart Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your love for me, and for all that you have done for me Please forgive me, when I have stubbornly resisted you, when I have asked too much of you as a test. When I have asked for things that I had no right to ask And Lord, please forgive me, when I have missed all that you are, and all that you want to do, for the times when I have expected too little Thank you that I do know that you are Saviour and Lord, and today I af rm that again in my heart. I acknowledge again, - you are MY Lord, you are MY Saviour I recognise you for who you are, I repent of who I am, and I ask that you renew me and my life I am yours forever. Amen. . . . . . . . fi ? . . . . . . . ? . Page 4 of 4