Do You Still Not Understand?
Read Mark 8:14-21.
What our eyes see and what our heart understands are often two different things.
We often say that if we had been there when Jesus walked the earth, we would have "gotten it," much better than those disciples did. We would have understood. We would have known who he was.
But would we?
The disciples have a problem, according to Jesus. They are only seeing with their eyes instead of their hearts. They have watched, Jesus says, as he fed five thousand men (plus women and children) and as he fed another four thousand on a different occasion. They watched as they picked up huge amounts of leftovers from a small beginning—twelve baskets of leftovers out of five small barley loaves, and seven baskets of leftover out of seven loaves. In both cases, there was more leftover than they started with! But all they saw was the miracle; they failed to understand what it was about. They saw what happened; they didn't see why it happened.
They were watching with their eyes, not their hearts. So Jesus, frustrated, says, "Do you still not understand?" My translation: What's wrong with you? Why aren't you getting it? Why haven't you opened your hearts?
Would we have done any better? Really?
We see a baby being born and we understand the biology, all the complex processes that goes into a new life coming into the world. But we miss the miracle: this is life where there was none. This is a child of God, an already-loved creation. We see a plant growing and thank "Mother Nature," but we fail to see the grandeur of creation that was set in motion (and is kept in motion) by our all-powerful God. Or we see a life transformed out of addictions and sin, and we credit counselors, medications or doctors with the healing but we fail to see the God who gave his life so that person could be saved, rescued and healed. ("By his wounds we are healed," Isaiah 53:5.) We fail to see the transformative power of grace.
Do you still not understand?
Only as we spend more focused and unstructured time with Jesus, as we allow him more and more into our daily lives, will we begin to be able to see the world better with our hearts.
What our eyes see and what our heart understands are often two different things.
We often say that if we had been there when Jesus walked the earth, we would have "gotten it," much better than those disciples did. We would have understood. We would have known who he was.
But would we?
The disciples have a problem, according to Jesus. They are only seeing with their eyes instead of their hearts. They have watched, Jesus says, as he fed five thousand men (plus women and children) and as he fed another four thousand on a different occasion. They watched as they picked up huge amounts of leftovers from a small beginning—twelve baskets of leftovers out of five small barley loaves, and seven baskets of leftover out of seven loaves. In both cases, there was more leftover than they started with! But all they saw was the miracle; they failed to understand what it was about. They saw what happened; they didn't see why it happened.
They were watching with their eyes, not their hearts. So Jesus, frustrated, says, "Do you still not understand?" My translation: What's wrong with you? Why aren't you getting it? Why haven't you opened your hearts?
Would we have done any better? Really?
We see a baby being born and we understand the biology, all the complex processes that goes into a new life coming into the world. But we miss the miracle: this is life where there was none. This is a child of God, an already-loved creation. We see a plant growing and thank "Mother Nature," but we fail to see the grandeur of creation that was set in motion (and is kept in motion) by our all-powerful God. Or we see a life transformed out of addictions and sin, and we credit counselors, medications or doctors with the healing but we fail to see the God who gave his life so that person could be saved, rescued and healed. ("By his wounds we are healed," Isaiah 53:5.) We fail to see the transformative power of grace.
Do you still not understand?
Only as we spend more focused and unstructured time with Jesus, as we allow him more and more into our daily lives, will we begin to be able to see the world better with our hearts.
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