Our Journeys

So it has been awhile since I last blogged. I just came back from a conference called Mark West put on by IVCF (Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship). It is where students from Western Canada come and do intense manuscript studies on half of the book of Mark. I was involved with the Teachers Track for Mark 1. Which is learning how to teach the first half of Mark.

One of the biggest things that really stuck out to me was the Journey Jesus took the disciples on. As you can see, after Jesus fed the 5000, he told the disciples to head to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd. After Jesus went to his usual mountain to pray, he came back on the shore and saw the disciples struggling in the wind. So he decided to walk out to them... on the water. When the disciples saw Jesus, they thought it was a ghost and was terrified. Jesus responded to them by saying, "Take heart, it is I; have no fear." and as soon as he got into the boat, the winds died and it was said that the disciples were utterly astounded.

Now, lets rewind a bit. Jesus fed the 5000 (possibly more) with ONLY 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. It was said that EVERYONE was satisfied and there was 12 basket fulls left over!! Now if you take a look closely, you will notice that the disciples had no reaction to this at all. Lets just keep that in mind for now.

Now, after the miracle of Jesus walking on water, they ended up being turned around. They never did reach Bethsaida (yet). But instead, they went to the vicinity of Tyre where many people were healed and also the removal of an unclean spirit of a little daughter of a Syrophoneician woman.

After the region of Tyre and Sidon, they went back to the Sea of Galilee to the area of the Decapolis where he healed a deaf and mute man (keep in mind that this was Gentile Region). Also, in this area, he fed the 4000 with 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish. This also had "leftovers", 7 basket fulls to be exact. Another interesting thing in this was the fact that the disciples again did not react to this miracle.

Now immediately after, they got into a boat and sailed to Dalmutha (aka Magdala in the map). Where Jesus confronts the Pharisees about them asking for a sign and yet again, they got into the boat and headed across the sea. This is now where the disciples were worried about not having bread to summarize, he brings up the miracles of the feedings. In the end, he says to the disciples, "Do you not yet understand?" Then finally they end up in Bethsaida.

Now this is a pretty crazy journey that Jesus took the disciples on. Why do you think Jesus did this? Here's my theory, when Jesus fed the 5000 & 4000, the disciples did not react with the assumption that they "did not understand". However, I don't think that is the case, I think they knew what was happening but choose NOT to understand out of fear for what they might have to do. For example, the feeding of the 5000 symbolizes feeding the people of Israel and the 4000 symbolizes feeding the Gentiles. Jesus was trying to show the disciples that they needed to feed all the people (both Israel and Gentiles) the spiritual food that Jesus had to offer.

So when Jesus fed the 5000 and the disciples "did not understand because their hearts were hardened." Jesus took them on that huge loop of a journey until... they came RIGHT back to exactly where they started off. Where Jesus finally takes them to Bethsaida for I think the reason being that the disciples finally understood.

Now, your probably wondering what does this have to do with you? I was thinking the same thing when I was doing this section of study. I just want to ask you these questions:

What journeys is God taking you on right now?

Is there something that God is trying to talk to you about but your not quite getting?

Do you still not understand?

For those who are still with me, I want to encourage you to spend some time with God in prayer and ask him what is He trying to show you? Pray that He may open your eyes (like the blind man) and open your ears (like the deaf and mute man) so that you may understand.

God Bless!