Jesus - Still Misunderstood? - Mark 6:45-56

Sermon Series: Spare Me the Details - Just Give Me Jesus

There’s a television show that comes on Sunday night’s called ‘Undercover Boss.’  The show follows a CEO of a major company around as he or she experiences some of the entry level jobs that make his or her company work.  The employees are told that two individuals are competing in a reality TV competition to see who can win one open position.  In order for the show to work though the CEO has to disguise his/her look, what he/she says,  and what he/she does (e.g. his/her background and current job).  While the CEO is interacting with his/her employees he/she is also trying to figure out what can be done to make the company better for the workers.  At the end of the show the employees who were working with and training the CEO are brought to the company’s headquarters where the CEO reveals his/her true identity.  Each time the CEO reveals his/her identity the employee is surprised.  They can’t believe that they spent an entire day working with and training the CEO.  The viewer isn’t surprised however because we know that the boss has been disguised. 

Imagine if the show worked a different way.  What if the CEO did not disguise himself?  What if he invited his employees to his office, told his employees to observe the things he did and listen to the things he said, and then spent the day doing CEO type stuff in the office with them present?  Then imagine at the end of the day that he reveals to his employees that he is the CEO of the company.  What would our response be if those employees were then shocked by him telling them that he was the CEO?  We would think that they were crazy, right?  All the evidence they needed was right there in front of them.  They would have had a chance to listen to what he said, watch the things he did, and see the size and décor of the office in which he worked.    If they thought he was anyone other than the CEO we would be incredibly surprised by those employees.

This type of thing happens all of the time when it comes to Jesus.  While He was present on earth (and even today) people continued to misunderstand who He was.  They continued to miss the evidence that surrounded Jesus or instead chose to pick and choose which pieces of evidence they would focus on.  What we need is to see and recognize all of the evidence concerning the person of Jesus.  We can’t pick the pieces of evidence we want and then formulate our own ideas of who Christ is – that leads to great misunderstanding.  The good news for us is that in this passage of Scripture we will see three seemingly unmistakable pieces of evidence concerning the identity of Jesus that Mark reveals to his readers.

After the feeding of the 5,000 Mark says that Jesus immediately made His disciples get into the boat and set sail for Bethsaida.  But Mark doesn’t answer the question ‘why.’  Why such an urgency to have His disciples get into the boat and take off to another place?  John’s gospel has a record of the same account and he provides us with insight into the crowd’s response to Jesus’ miracle and why there would have been a sense of urgency from Jesus.  John 6:14-15 says, “When the people saw the sign that He had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’  Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself.”  John tells us in his gospel that the crowd of people became aware of the miracle that had been done and apparently there was an excitement that was beginning to spread and to swell.  It seems that Jesus was concerned that this excitement would overcome His disciples and that they might possibly get caught up in the excitement of the crowd.  Rather than allowing the excitement to grow and allowing the crowd to act on their emotions Jesus sensed the need to send the disciples away and to dismiss the crowd back to their homes so that they would not cause undue trouble for Him or for themselves.  Had they risen up and made Jesus king then the Roman government would have stepped in using force to squelch the uprising and would have prevented Jesus from any further form of public ministry.  What I really want you to notice here is how the bookends of this passage are marked by the people’s continued misunderstanding of Jesus.  As our text begins this week the 5,000+ people who are surrounding Jesus and His disciples believe that Jesus is ‘the Prophet who is to come into the world,’ but they were still misunderstanding who Jesus was.  Jesus wasn’t a political leader who had come to set the Jewish people free from Roman control.  He wasn’t an earthly king who was going to lead the Jewish people in power and might.  But this is who the crowd believed He was and their intention it seems was to take Jesus and make Him king whether He agreed to be or not.  Later, in the last few verses of our text this week we’ll see a different misunderstanding of who Jesus is.  Keying in on these misunderstandings will help us to understand the content in between them.  While the people were continuing to misunderstand Jesus, Jesus was consistently presenting them with evidence that He was in fact God, wrapped in flesh and come to earth.  So let’s continue to walk through the text and see just who Jesus really is.

Jesus, in verse 45 sends His disciples away and dismisses the crowd back to their homes.  Then verse 46 says that Jesus went up on the mountain to pray.  Last week we said that Jesus’ fuel for ministry was fellowship and we talked about that in the context of our service.  We said the only way for our service and ministry to be empowered by Christ was if we were spending time with Him.  That is why Jesus calls His disciples away with Him in verse 31.  Notice that the same holds true for Jesus too.  Jesus had just spent the day serving a very large crowd and now He is retreating to spend time in fellowship and prayer with the Father.  Jesus’ ministry to others, just like ours, is fueled by fellowship with the Father.  In verse 48 Jesus is able to see from His position on top of the mountain that the disciples are still on the sea and making very little progress due to the fact that the wind was blowing against them.  Then it says that sometime between 3am and 6am “He came to them, walking on the sea.  He meant to pass by them . . .”  We need to camp out here for a few minutes and unpack what exactly Jesus is doing.  Why is Jesus walking on the sea?  Why not walk along the shore?  And why was His intention to pass the disciples by?  And if His intention was to pass them by we have to go back to the question of why walk on the sea where He was more likely to be seen by the disciples.  Passing them by by walking along the shore would have increased the chances of Him getting past them without being noticed.  The answer is that Jesus’ actions are loaded with OT imagery.  Listen to a few verses from the OT.  In chapter 38 of the book of Job God answers Job and says, “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?” (Job 38:16).  Psalm 77:19 says about God “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.”  And Isaiah 43:16 says, “Thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters.”  The OT provides a handful of texts in which it describes only One who is able to walk on the water – God, Himself.  When Jesus came near the disciples by walking on the water He showed that He was in fact God because He was walking where only God can walk.  His actions help us define who He is.  He’s more than an earthly king.  He’s more than a political leader.  He is in fact God.  But Mark provides even more evidence by pointing his readers once again to the OT when he tells us that Jesus meant to pass by His disciples.  In the OT God would occasionally reveal Himself to certain individuals by ‘passing by’ them.  Look at Moses’ experience with God’s self-revelation in Exodus 33:19-23; 34:6.  We see in those verses God revealing Himself to Moses by passing by Him.  Many years later God reveals Himself to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-12 by passing by Him.  In verse 48 when Mark says that Jesus meant to pass by His disciples we are again reminded of God’s actions in the OT and are again challenged to understand that Jesus’ actions serve as evidence that He is God.  The one passage of scripture that should stand out perhaps more than any other when we read about and consider Jesus’ actions here in Mark chapter 6 is Job 9:8, 11.  Those verses read, “who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea . . . Behold, He passes by me, and I see Him not; He moves on, but I do not perceive Him.”  In these verses we see both characteristics of God (walking on the water and passing by someone in order to reveal Himself) just a few verses apart.  The same things that characterize God in the OT are now being used to describe Jesus in the NT.  It becomes clear then in this passage that Jesus’ actions identify Him as none other than God, Himself. 

Mark tells us in verses 49 and 50 that Jesus is unable to simply pass by the disciples.  We see that the disciples spot Jesus, believe that He is a ghost, become terrified, and cry out in fear.  So in order to calm the disciples Mark says that Jesus immediately spoke to them, saying “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid.”  Now we lose something really significant in this response when we translate the Greek into our English grammar – something we really don’t want to miss.  Jesus says, “Take heart” and “Don’t be afraid.”  But why?  At this point they believe that He is a ghost.  What was there to take heart about?  What reason was there not to be afraid?  The answer is in the rest of Jesus’ response.  The best translation of the Greek into the English is what we have in our Bibles – “it is I.”  But what we miss is how that is said in the Greek.  If someone wanted to say “it is I” in the Greek they would say, “ego eimi.” But here’s what we miss and what is so important, the words “ego eimi” can also be translated “I am.”  Jesus spoke to the disciples and told them to take heart and to not be afraid and the reason for their reassurance was the fact that the One walking on the water, the One passing them by, was “I am” – the very name in the OT that God uses for Himself (Exodus 3:13-14).  We see in verse 50 that Jesus again gives evidence of who He was when Jesus takes the name that only God can take.  The Jews were extremely cautious when it came to God’s name.  The third commandment of the 10 commandments stated, “you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Ex. 20:7).  To guard themselves from potentially breaking this commandment the Jews refrained from using God’s name as much as possible.  Using the name of God for a person would have been considered out of the question, since no person is equal to God.  For someone to take this name for himself would not have been common and those hearing it would have known right away whose name that really was.

Verses 51 and 52 then tell us that Jesus got in the boat with the disciples and when He did the wind stopped.  Andt while the disciples were astounded we still see them struggling to realize who Jesus was.  They had seen the evidence of who Jesus was in the feeding of the 5,000 but they had not understood it, because their hearts were hardened.  More than likely they probably were struggling to understand the evidence at hand now as well.

Jesus has a lot of ‘I am’ statements throughout the gospels.  For example, Jesus says “I am the bread of life” and “I am the light of the world.”  Those statements are all incredibly important for helping us to understand who He is and what He had come to do.  But there are other times that Jesus identifies Himself by using the words “ego eimi” alone. Towards the end of Mark’s gospel we find Jesus having been taken captive and standing trial before the Sanhedrin.  In verse 61 of chapter 14 Mark says, “the high priest asked Him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’”  And in verse 62 Jesus says, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”  Now note the response of the high priest in verse 63, “And the high priest tore his garments and said . . . ‘You have heard His blasphemy.’” (Mark 14:61-63).  The high priest recognized Jesus’ response of ‘ego eimi’ (I am) to his question as Jesus taking the name of God.  That is why he responds by tearing his clothes and proclaiming that Jesus has blasphemed.  Consider also the text of John 8:57-59.  In this passage Jesus finds Himself being questioned by several Jews.  In verse 57 they say to Jesus, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”  Jesus answers them in verse 58, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, ‘ego eimi’ (I am).”  Then verse 59 says that “they picked up stones to throw at Him.”  The Jews picked up stones to stone Jesus because they understood what Jesus was saying.  Jesus was taking the name of God.  They believed that He was blaspheming God’s name by taking the name for Himself, and that was punishable by stoning (Lev. 24:15-16).

In verse 53 we find the disciples and Jesus coming on shore at Gennesaret.  This isn’t the place that Jesus had originally commanded the disciples to go and it’s not exactly clear how they ended up here rather than at Bethsaida, as Jesus had originally commanded.  Some commentators believe that it had something to do with the strong head wind.  The wind was actually pushing the disciples boat in the opposite direction of Bethsaida.  The text seems to indicate that the disciples struggled at the oars, trying to work against the wind and the current for most of the night (Jesus doesn’t come out to them until sometime between 3am and 6am – probably closer to 6am since there were people up and about when they came to shore).  We do know that the wind stops once Jesus gets into the boat, but it would be really reasonable to assume that the disciples were pretty exhausted from having rowed all night long.  So most likely they went ashore at the closest spot, which in this case happened to be Gennesaret.  Verses 54 and 55 say that when they had anchored and gotten out of the boat the people immediately recognized them and began to run about the whole region gathering the sick and taking them to wherever they heard that Jesus was.  And verse 56 says that wherever Jesus came the people implored Him for healing and that all those who were able to touch His garments were made well.  All four of the gospels are loaded with accounts of Jesus healing individuals and each time we read one of those accounts we should be convinced even more that Jesus is in fact God.  We see time and time again, including these few verses here, that Jesus provides healing that only God can provide.

I mentioned as we began looking at this passage of Scripture that we would see as bookends the people’s continued misunderstanding of who Jesus was.  At the beginning of this passage the people believed that Jesus was to be a king or political leader who would free them from the control of the Romans and once again establish their own power and prominence as God’s people.  On this end we see the people misunderstanding who Jesus was and seeing Him as nothing more than a miracle worker.  Mark doesn’t say they sought after Him so that they might have fellowship with Him.  Mark doesn’t say that sought after Him to follow Him and to be one of His disciples.  Mark doesn’t even say that they sought after Him to listen to Him teach about God’s Kingdom.  The people in these villages and cities saw Jesus as nothing more than a great miracle worker.  A. Schlatter says this, “In the zeal with which the people brought their sick to Jesus we recognize not only how deeply the untiring goodness of Jesus touched Israel, but also how distant Israel remained from Jesus, because it sought from Him nothing but the healing of its sick.”  It’s really pretty amazing isn’t it?  On both ends of this passage we see the people misunderstanding who Jesus really was.  Yet in between we see Jesus walking where only God can walk, taking the name that only God can take, and providing the healing that only God can provide.  The evidence was incredibly clear – Jesus was God in the flesh who had come to His people.

The clear evidence of Jesus in the Bible has some very important points of application for us.  The first is we have to work towards knowing who Jesus is.  We absolutely cannot leave this to chance.  We have to discover the evidence that has been graciously given to us, put it all together, and then come to a right understanding of Him.  The Bible is our key to doing this.  God has chosen to reveal His Son, Jesus, to us through the means of a written record.  So we need to spend time reading His word, we need to spend time studying His word, and when we do  we will come to see Jesus for who He is. 

When we understand that Jesus was God in the flesh and that He came to us other pieces of the Gospel fall into place.  We are forced to ask the question “Why did God wrap Himself in flesh and come to us?”  Then we discover in the Bible that it was because we were separated from Him and not able on our own to get back to Him.  Jesus, God Himself, came to us and took our sin upon Himself and suffered death on a cross so we wouldn’t have to.  Then we find ourselves once again having to ask “Why?”  And the answer the Bible provides is that God is a both a just a loving God.  God demands that justice be served for the sins that we have committed, which the Bible says is death and the shedding of blood.  But because God loves us and did not want us to die being eternally separated from Him, He devised a plan in which He would send His Son, Jesus, to be our substitute.  And so we find that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin by His death and the shedding of blood, which satisfied God’s demand for justice, and He provided a means for us to have salvation, which was an incredible display of both God the Father’s and Jesus’ love for us.

If you work towards discovering the evidence of who Jesus is and what He has done for us we won’t be able to help but respond in the following ways.  We will love Him because of His great love for us.  We will believe in Him because of the evidence that He has provided.  We will follow Him and fellowship with Him because He will become our greatest joy.  We will praise and worship Him with every part of our lives because of the gratitude in our hearts for what He has done.  And we will serve Him so that His name will become even more famous than it already is.

Have you considered the evidence?  Have you looked at it all and discovered who Jesus really is, or are you still picking and choosing and formulating your own ideas?  And what has your response to Jesus been?  I hope and pray that you haven’t misunderstood our incredible Savior.

Questions for Small Group Discussion

1. We noted that the bookends of this passage were marked by the people's misunderstanding of who Jesus was.  Those present at the feeding of the 5,000 wanted to take Jesus by force because they believed that He was to be a king who would free them from Roman control and re-establish the power and prominence of the Jewish people.  Those at the end of the passage were going to Jesus for His miracle working alone.  Many people in our culture today continue to misunderstand who Jesus is.  Are you surprised that so many people in our communities today have misunderstandings about Jesus?  Why or why not?  Are you surprised when you come across 'believers' today who have misunderstandings about Jesus?  Why or why not?  How have we responded to these situations in the past?  How can we respond to these situations in the future?

2. Verse 52 says that after Jesus spoke to the disciples and got into the boat that the disciples "were utterly astounded" and "did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened."  Do you think it is possible for believers in Christ today to be in an environment or situation in which Jesus is at work and not have a clear understanding of what is taking place?  If so, what are some reasons that this might happen?  

3. What has God by His grace revealed to us?  How has He revealed it?  Are we allowing God to use us to reveal the truth of Christ to others?  If so, how?  Is there anything we can do to allow God to work in and through us more effectively to reveal the truth of Christ and the good news of the gospel?

4. What step of faith does this passage of Scripture require us to take as individuals and as a small group?  How do we work this out on mission?