Hardened Hearts – Lent 2
Mark 8:1–13 – February 25th, 2024
The Lord Be With You.
A parable or short story on our Gospel …
There once was a little boy who always seemed to be picked on by the other kids at school. Every time anyone would turn around the child was running away from some threat whether it was real or imagined. This continued throughout the boys life well into his young adult years. As a result, the young man found himself alone. As it were, the young man also found himself without anywhere to live and he ended up wandering the streets. This made him wary of everyone and everything. One day, the young man found himself in the park where he sat next to another older man. The older man was getting ready to eat a sandwich out of his paper bag. The older man unwrapped his sandwich and broke it in half and gave the young man one of the halves. The young man took it as he had not eaten for a while. The young man looked a little closer at the older man and found that that man was just like him. Homeless with little to eat. But, yet, the older man shared what he had.
Here ends the parable or short story.?
In the first part of this passage we have Jesus feeding over 4,000 people. Don’t know for sure how many were actually fed since only the men were counted. And then we have, in the second part, the Pharisees coming up to Jesus and asking for a miracle. Jesus ends it with verse 44 of this Gospel which reads, in part, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign.” Now, the miracle was on one side of the lake and the testing was on the other side. But it’s not like they were back to back. The people that Jesus fed were there for days.?
The probability was that those Pharisees would have heard about that gathering but, yet, they still demanded a miracle. A sign from heaven. As if feeding 4,000 men with literally nothing isn’t a miracle. Talk about denial. It’s sort of like the little boy standing in front of a wall that he just scribbled on, with the crayon still in his hand, and when questioned says that it wasn’t him that did it. Or the day your teenager gets home after you just got a call from the principal saying that they did something and then they deny all of it. But, lets face it, we all don’t really want to know what we don’t want to know.
It’s easier if we can just gloss over it and then we might not have to face the real truth that’s standing right there looking back at us. Wondering why we don’t get it either. Reaching out His hand just so we can grab it and move forward with what we were created to be.?
Jesus must have felt that way when he turned away, probably shook His head, and said to those Pharisees, “Nope,” not today. You will remain blind because you do not wish to see. That no amount of proof will ever be enough for you to let go of this world and grab ahold of the next. But, you will have to face it sooner than later. The truth will slap you in the face soon enough. You will have to stand in front of the Father as everyone else will most surely have to do. But also, I think, the disciples sort of fell into the Pharisees’ category too when they innately doubted what Jesus could do. They were looking around for worldly fulfillment rather than spiritual fulfillment. They denied the truth of Jesus when they doubted that He could solve the problems they were there to deal with.?
By them answering Him that there was no food in that remote place they were saying that even though Jesus was standing right there, that they had seen Him provide in the past, cleansing a leper in chapter 1, healing a paralytic in chapter 2, curing the withered hand in chapter 3, and feeding another 5,000 in chapter 6, yet they still doubted that He could do the same in this passage. Same tune different time. So, were those disciples any different than the Pharisees? I think not.?
We’re no different either. We can allow the 2 second rule to control us because we can allow the world to tell us to ignore what came before in order to question what comes next. All in the name of making sure that what we want to come true does come true. We can forget that our pasts lead us to our todays which can then be used to walk towards our tomorrows. Our tomorrows are not written in stone but if we’re not cogent of where we came from then where we will go can be marked with unfortunates. It’s like the disciples. They already had experienced so much with Jesus but put those blinders on and they ended up not realizing their tomorrows.
Tomorrows that were waiting to help others with the grace of Jesus and God. It’s no wonder that Jesus dissed the Pharisees because He just came from a group with the memory of a peanut. The disciples’ hearts were hardened because they looked around for earthly solutions. Isn’t it amazing the parallels of 2,000 plus years ago and today??
We make our realities fit with what we want it to be. We don’t listen for what’s said or what’s shown to us and then we make serious gaps in our own judgements. It’s like when the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force decided that he would personally intervene in the recruiting crisis affecting all our armed services. So he directed that a nearby air force base be opened and that all eligible young men and women be invited. As he and his staff were standing near a brand-new F-15 fighter, a pair of twin brothers who looked like they had just stepped off a marine corps recruiting poster walked up to them.?
The chief of staff turned to them, stuck out his hand, and introduced himself. He looked at the first young man and asked, “Son, what skills can you bring to the air force?” The young man looked at him and said, “I’m a pilot!” The general got all excited, turned to his aide, and said, “Get him in today, all the paperwork done, everything, do it!” The aide hustled the young man off. The general looked at the second man and asked, “What skills do you bring to the air force?” The young man said, “I chop wood!” “Son,” the general replied, “we don’t need wood choppers in the air force. What do you know how to do?” “I chop wood!” “Young man,” huffed the general, “you are not listening to me. We don’t need wood choppers; this is the twentieth century!” “Well,” the young man said, “you enlisted my brother!” “Of course we did,” said the general. “He’s a pilot!” The young man rolled his eyes and said, “Well, think about it, man: I have to chop it before he can pile it!”?
I’ve called this message “Hardened Hearts” because when we allow the dictates of this world to affect what and whom we come into contact with will be when we become like the Pharisees. We certainly have enough of them today that we don’t need to enlarge their cadre. You see, those that came out of Egypt murmured against God, so do we. We doubt Jesus every day we wake up.
Things don’t go right or we’re face with an event that is incomprehensible. We have to make choices we would rather not make. We have to do things we would rather not do and then we doubt that Jesus is there walking with us. We become afraid that maybe Jesus has turned away from us even if for a moment.?
The thing is that we pass that doubt and fear onto our future generations too. And they go searching. Searching in all the places that they should probably stay away from. Crossing those lines and then wandering around without a clue as to where to grab ahold of because their world view has become earthly based rather than spiritual based. They get pulled into “spiritual” avenues that have no way out except to go further into that rabbit hole. They meet up with people who tell them that there are more than one road to heaven and to just follow them on this new road that’s really a regurgitation of the same old ones that have led many to their doom.?
They get the notion that they gotta somehow work their way to heaven though some proclamation that announces to others their new status. They gotta get more faith except that it’s never about how much faith one has. They gotta memorize some verse rather than the stories surrounding those verses that tell so much more. And when they can accomplish what they’re told is the true path to heaven and find out it has always been a lie is when they then become disillusioned and walk away. Walk away from the reality that the only truth path to take is the one that Jesus came back here and laid out for us. The Pharisees traveled down that alternate road. They lived it. They worshipped that path. They drove themselves to perdition on their own.?
The stats are that for every 100 young people that spent their life attending church, when they go away to college or move away period, 75 of them will abandon any church. Then out of those 75, 40 to 50 of them will find themselves acclimated to declaring that there ain’t no God at all. I may be off a couple of percentage points but the main idea is that the youth have become hardened and start to believe in stuff that has no basis in reality or truth. Why do I speak about this? Well, you and I have come from those percentages.
We can also find ourselves back in the numbers that have fallen away. We may still make some of the motions but our hearts are closed to the possibilities. Our hearts are hardened to prove some point of view because we cannot live with the possibility that maybe we got it all wrong.?
The homeless man, who shared his sandwich with the young man in our parable, is an illustration of what we can do with what we have. It’s not always something physical that we can share either. Jesus showed the disciples what they could do with what they had. The Pharisees never got it and they became those people in the minority numbers that I spoke of. When we find our hearts hardened with “if onlys” then all we have to do is to stop and have a conversation with the one who has all the answers. Give ourselves the opportunity to really hear what we are being told. Give ourselves another chance to share what we have with someone looking in all the wrong places so that they do not stay disaffected. Be the people that served the people who needed to be fed and finally acknowledge to ourselves that Jesus really can do all that He says He can do.?
Our season of lent is that opportunity to reflect on our own life’s journeys. The past and the possible. What we hold on to and what we hold dear. What we know and what we might like to know. Sometimes it’s a hard road to travel down. Sometimes it seems that there are too many paths to veer off from with each one looking like the right path. Sometimes we just gotta trust that our own journeys come with choices that will lead us into perdition or into a forever encounter with the one who gives our hearts what we need the most. Peace. But it is our own choices that fulfill those what comes next. You can make that conscious choice to say, OK I’m in. I’m all in on the possibilities. It’s your choice. Something to think about! Something to pray about??
Can we pray? …
Father, help us to have a giving heart. Instill in us the will to tell others of your grace, your mercy and your light. The truth. Bestow upon us the courage of your convictions so that many more will see your promises and be assured that they are freely given, without condition. We thank you for the sacrifice of your Son, Jesus, so that we can know these things are true and they are waiting for us when we stand before you. We ask for your Holy Spirit to come into our lives so we can be free of all the things that keep our attention from you. We pray for the people of our community that they will see you for what you really are. We pray these things and more in the name of your Son, Jesus the Christ, our Lord and Savior.
And all God’s people said – Amen?!
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