Tammy On Tuesday ~ Are you in the boat with Jesus?

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Yesterday morning, I slumped down on the pillow in my prayer closet with what felt like the weight of the world on my shoulders. After a time of prayer, asking God to help me get my mind fixed on Him, I opened God’s Word to where I had left off in my reading.

My bookmarker held the page for Mark chapter eight. For a moment I felt a little cynical. I’ve read this passage many times over the years and I thought to myself, “How can this speak into my life right now?” Wasn’t this about the miracle of Jesus feeding the 4,000 and some other miracles I knew well.  I whispered a prayer that God would somehow use this chapter to encourage my heart and in spite of my whiny demeanor, He showed me grace and He spoke.

I’ll start with an observation in Mark 8:1-10. In this portion, we read of the occasion where Jesus fed 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. He had been teaching on the hillside and they had been there for three days. Jesus tells the disciples in verse 2, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.” This phrase in the text, I have compassion, actually described very deep emotion – from deep within.  Jesus felt for them deeply! Now, if they were listening for three days, it seems He was also teaching for three days.  He must have been weary. Yet His concern is for them.

Jesus felt the need of the people. It was like He whispered to me, “Tammy, I not only see your need. I feel it. I feel your heaviness. It matters to me.”

I felt the heaviness lifting a bit. But He wasn’t finished.

I moved to the second section of the chapter. Jesus had a run-in with some Pharisees and then we find him in the boat on the water with His disciples.

Before I talk about the encounter on the boat I want to take a minute to talk about the Pharisees. These were the cynics. They did not believe. They were religious in every way and yet rejected the very Messiah they sought. Jesus talked about them being something like whitewashed tombs. They cleaned up and polished the outside but the inside was full of decay and corruption. The bottom line was that they didn’t believe Jesus and they didn’t trust in Him.

In fact, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians, (although differing in beliefs and teachings) were all united in opposing the claims of Jesus.  You see their encounters all through out the gospels. That must’ve been very exhausting to deal with all the time.

They refused to see the Jesus of the Word.

They questioned Jesus and His authority, trying to trick Him often.

They reasoned instead of believing.

They focused on religious behavior instead of the Savior.

They were full of pride and self-sufficiency.

Mark 8:11 says, The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. ¹² And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 

Lets go now into the boat with Jesus and his friends. He just suffered an attack from the unbelieving Pharisees which, from the text, we see deeply affected him. He is finally able to sit in a quiet place with his closest friends.  Look at what happens…

¹⁴ Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. ¹⁵ And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” ¹⁶ And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. ¹⁷ And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” ²⁰ “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” ²¹ And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Here are the disciples with Jesus in the boat. And they are complaining because they only had one loaf of bread. They are pointing fingers at each other in blame because of the oversight.

Friends, they were in the boat with Jesus!

Jesus had JUST FED 4,000 people!

They were in the boat…with Jesus. How could they even begin to worry about bread?

It seems it’s possible you can be in a boat with Jesus and not be in the boat with Jesus!

What brought about their concern for food?

What brought about their arguing?

How can something like this happen when the MIRACLE WORKER is right there in your midst???

Notice a seemingly odd verse at the beginning of the encounter. They begin arguing and Jesus warns them “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

Jesus, in using the example of leaven in bread, is talking about a heart of unbelief. He describes the danger as “the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod.”

Let’s get our head around this. Jesus is telling HIS CLOSEST COMPANIONS to beware of unbelief. Because just as leaven slowly causes bread to rise, unbelief doesn’t happen in an instant. It often happens over time.

Just as leaven slowly causes bread to rise, unbelief doesn’t happen in an instant. It often happens over time.

Conviction gripped me. I thought about Jesus’s halfhearted, easily persuaded, complaining disciples and I SAW MYSELF.

He asks them:

Do you not yet perceive or understand? 

Are your hearts hardened?

Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?

And do you not remember? 

 This will sound strange but my heart hurt for Jesus. He had been the perfect Friend, Teacher, Lord.  He is the Bread of Life. Yes, He had trouble from without…but this?  They were His companions!

It hurt my heart to know that Jesus had come to them.

He chose them.

He walked with them.

He broke bread with them.

He performed miracles and taught them truth.

And still they were in danger of the leaven of unbelief.

After all they’d seen.  After all they’d heard.

You can be in a boat with Jesus and not be in the boat with Jesus.

I sat down that morning in my prayer closet full of self-pity and defeat.

I was fearful.

I was upset by the hurt of others.

I was doubtful.

I was discouraged.

And I was sitting there… with Jesus.

You can be in a boat with Jesus and not be in the boat with Jesus.

I’m gonna take this lesson a step further.  The disciples were complaining that they had no bread.  We see the absurdity of it all knowing who Jesus is and what He had just done.  Another thought struck me. Bread was a daily staple. Some luxury items were not available every day, only on special occasion.  But we’ve all heard the phrase, “daily bread.”  This was common understanding. I thought of how ironic it was that Jesus had to ask His disciples why they were complaining that they didn’t have bread.

The truth was Jesus didn’t just want to give them this daily staple.  He wanted to be their daily bread.  He says in John 6:35, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

In Matthew 5:6 he says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

He would give them bread but, better yet, He would be Bread.

After reading through Mark chapter eight and pondering this encounter, I felt His questions burn in my heart.

Do you not yet perceive or understand? Tammy, look what I have done in your life! All those times I have proved Myself faithful!

Is your heart hardened? Can one day of darkness cause you to doubt who I AM? The rest of the story hasn’t even unfolded yet and you’re questioning My faithfulness.

Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? Look at all I’m doing around you, Tammy! Look at what I’m doing in you!

And do you not remember? Where I brought you from.

The bread of Life, He’s with us in the boat.  But here’s my question to you, believer. Are you in the boat with Jesus?