Mark 6:45-52 -- Who Is Jesus? True and False Ideas

(Audio of this message will not be available online. Tapes of the message are available by contacting Immanuel Baptist Church of Greensboro, NC).

There is a running joke at all three theological institutions from which I have graduated about answering questions when you don’t know the answers. Basically it says, when you don’t know the answer to a question, go with “Jesus,” “the Bible” or “prayer.” And you’ll be right more often than not. So it is sometimes with preaching. When someone asks you later in the week what the pastor’s sermon was on last Sunday, you can usually say, “Jesus,” or “the Bible,” or “prayer,” and you’ll be close enough to satisfy most inquirers. I heard a story like this, probably from a church out west or something, about a man who went to church one Sunday while his wife was home sick. When the man returned, his wife said, “What did the pastor preach about?” The man thought for a minute and said, “Sin.” But his wife asked a follow-up question: “What did he say about it?” The man responded, “I think he said he was against it.” Well, today’s sermon is about Jesus. Namely, it is about true and false ideas about Him, and let me say up front that I am against false ideas about Him, and all in favor of everyone having true ideas about Him.

In the sequel to Alice in Wonderland, entitled Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll records for us the conversation about words between Alice and Humpty Dumpty. In a context with which Alice is unfamiliar, Humpty says, “There’s glory for you!” Alice responds saying, “I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory’.” Humpty Dumpty, smiling contemptuously, says, “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant, ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’” Alice objects matter of factly, “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument.” But Humpty Dumpty scornfully replies, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” To which Alice says, “The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things.” Then after some further dialogue, Humpty Dumpty explains what he means by the word, “Impenetrability.” “I meant by ‘impenetrability’ that we’ve had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you’d mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don’t mean to stop here all the rest of your life.” And then in a thoughtful tone, Alice says, “That’s a great deal to make one word mean.”[1]

When Lewis Carroll wrote these words nearly 150 years ago, perhaps he foresaw the day coming which we now refer to as postmodernism where absolute truth has been lost, and words have lost their meaning, and communication is utterly meaningless. He could not have known that we would live to witness a president arguing to defend his own immorality over the exact meaning of the word “is.” In this day and age in which we live, the meanings of words are constantly challenged. One internet site claims to be a “dictionary with your definitions,” and operates with the tagline, “Define Your World.” And religious terminology does not escape the line of fire. Nor does the meaning of the simple name, “Jesus.” Ask ten people on the street who He was, and you will likely get ten different answers, (depending on the street). Some even clarify their understanding of Jesus by referring to him with the possessive pronoun, “My Jesus,” and then fill in the blank with some figment of their own depraved imagination. I want to say sometimes when I hear these things, “That’s a great deal to make one name mean.” But confusion about who Jesus is did not arise with the dawn of postmodernism. He faced it 2000 years ago when He walked this earth.

The passage before us today begins where the previous one leaves off. The scene has not changed. Jesus has just miraculously fed 5,000 men, in addition to women and children – a crowd that has been estimated to be near 20,000 people. And now, it is evening, and the sun has set, and we find Jesus compelling His disciples depart and dismissing the crowds. Why does He do this? And what is the significance of the miracle of walking on water? It all has to do with true and false ideas about Jesus.

Let us begin by looking at the

I. False ideas about Jesus

In the wake of this great miracle of feeding the multitudes, we find Jesus sending everyone away. In verse 45, we find that Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go. The wording indicates compulsion – He made them do it. And rather than having the disciples dissipate the crowd, Jesus sends them away Himself, and v46 tells us that left for the mountain to pray. Mark, in his typical brevity, does not tell us why Jesus sends everyone away here. But John does. If the chronological ordering of the Gospels that is widely held is accurate, Mark likely wrote first, and John likely wrote last, filling in information that Mark, Luke, and Matthew omitted. If that is the case, then what John includes at this point in the movement of his gospel helps us to understand why Jesus sent the crowds away so abruptly. And we will see that is has to do with …

A. False ideas about His dominion

In John 6:15, we read that Jesus perceived that the crowd intended to take Him by force to make Him king. The Jewish people of that region had lived under the thumb of Rome, manifested in the local authority of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch who had John the Baptist put to death. Often oppressed, and impoverished, the miraculous multiplication of bread at the hands of Jesus suggested to them that with Him as their leader, they would finally know true peace, prosperity, and victory over their oppressors. And even though Jesus was not campaigning, He understood that their intentions were to force Him to become their new king.

Well, what would be so wrong with that? After all, had he not been born a king? That is what the magi said who came from the East. They met Herod Antipas’ father Herod the Great, and asked, “Where is He who has been born king of the Jews?” In fact, Pilate would later ask Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And Jesus will say, “It is as you say.” But Jesus also said to Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” The Jewish people expected a deliverer to come and overthrow the governing authorities which had oppressed them and bring them into the state of God’s blessed shalom – peace, prosperity, and well-being. But Jesus came to bring about the deliverance from a greater oppressor than Rome. Were the Jews to be delivered from Rome, they would find that they were still in bondage – not to an earthly power, but to the power of sin which had overtaken the entire human race. That was the enemy Jesus came to overthrow. And He would gain victory over sin at the cross and by His resurrection. And His Kingdom would be established in the hearts of those who found deliverance from sin by faith in Him.

Jesus is coming again to reign on this earth as the ultimate King of kings, but first, his Kingdom enters the world secretly, as it were, one heart at a time. And any effort to force Him upon an earthly throne before the appropriate time was a temptation for Him to abandon His Father’s plan to redeem the human race from sin. And because of these false ideas about His dominion, Jesus sends the disciples away, lest they get caught up in this movement, and He dismisses the crowd to quell their fervor for a temporary deliverance, when an eternal one is what He had come to provide.

So too we must be on guard, lest we believe that Jesus has come to be a means to our own preconceived ends. We must not assume that Jesus is always who we want Him to be or has come to bring us what we want or help us accomplish our goals in life. He has come to redeem us from sin and transform our lives to His purposes – He will not be transformed to ours. He is the potter, we are the clay, but so often, we try to reverse those roles and make Jesus into what we want Him to be. And this boils down to a false idea about His dominion, for we are not subjecting ourselves to His divine Kingship, but rather seeking to employ Him in our services in our own personal world where we ourselves are King. This He will not do.

But we also see that there is another false idea about Jesus.

B. False ideas about His provision (v52)

Even the disciples are mistaken about Jesus. Mark tells us that they had not understood the feeding of the multitude because their hearts were hardened. This is what I call the tragedy of the full belly and the hardened heart. They had witnessed one the most amazing miracles of Jesus, and even taken part in it by gathering the five loaves and two fish for Him, and distributing the multiplied abundance to the masses. They had eaten their fill from 12 leftover baskets. And though certainly they could be counted among those who verse 42 says “ate and were satisfied,” they had missed the significance of that moment with Jesus. Like many before them, and many since, they were satisfied with the gifts without considering the Giver. Whereas the first error we discussed has to do essentially with what people want Jesus to be for them, this one has to do with what people want Him to do for them. Fill my stomach, fill my bank accounts, fill my life with all the stuff I want. But don’t bore me with too much information, you know Bible teaching and all that stuff, because I think I already have it all figured out.

This false idea about Jesus is so prevalent under the circus tent of Christianity today that it often escapes notice. It is obvious and overt in the “Prosperity” movement that dominates most of what is called Christian on television and in Charismatic circles. The entire focus of that movement is on the gifts rather than the giver. But it has crept in unnoticed even in the evangelical world where churches market themselves as a goods and services provider rather than a center for worship, instruction, and edification. In these churches, the individual is treated as a consumer, and the gospel is sold as a discounted commodity. The exposition of Scripture has been discarded for what is advertised as more relevant, practical “life tips,” which are as transitory as each passing day. We have come to tolerate the singing of songs which are not about God Himself or Christ Himself, but rather about ourselves, namely how we feel and what we have from God. Our focus too often and too rapidly shifts from the Giver to the gifts. A much needed corrective needs to be sounded in our day, calling us back to seeking the face of God before, or better rather, than seeking His hand – worshiping His eternal person rather than worrying about His temporal provisions.

Now it is not that God doesn’t provide for us. He does, and not for us only, but for the whole world in a general way. We read in Matthew 5:45 that He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. But what we see today is a corrupted understanding of a Biblical promise. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, And He will give you the desires of your heart.” This precious promise has been misunderstood to mean that if I call myself a Christian, then God is obligated to give me whatever I want. But, notice there is a condition – Delight yourself in the Lord. That means that He becomes the primary desire of your heart. And when He is your primary heart’s desire, you will never be disappointed. And He will place in your heart desires for those things which are pleasing to Him so that you begin to want what He wants you to have.

The problem with these disciples is that they had their sights set too low. They were content with bread to fill the stomach, when that bread served as a sign to point them to a greater satisfaction they could know in their souls if they would look from the gifts to the Giver Himself. We are as C. S. Lewis wrote, “far too easily pleased,” “fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us.”

So both in the passage and all around us today we find mistaken notions, false ideas about Jesus. Some deal with His dominion – what He will be for us; some deal with His provision – what He can do for us. We are in need, not of speculations or imaginations about Jesus, but revelation about Him. And so were the disciples, and that is what they receive as we turn our attention to …

II. True Revelation of Jesus (vv47-52)

We often find people in our day saying things such as, “I like to think of God as …,” and then they say whatever it is that they think God is like. I try to always respond to those statements with a question: “I wonder what God thinks of you thinking of Him that way?” You see, if God really exists, then it really matters what we think of Him. There must be some objective truth about Him, distinct from our subjective speculations and wishes. But the question is, “How do we know what to believe about God?” The simple answer is that God must tell us.

Plato, in the Phaedo, speaks of navigating our way through life’s seas of darkness and doubt on the raft of our own understanding (our “best and most irrefragable of human notions”). This, he says, is “not without risk,” unless we can find “some word of God which will more surely and safely carry him.” So, how does God make Himself known to us? He speaks and He acts. And all our notions about Him must fall in line with what He reveals about Himself in His words and His deeds.

The disciples are out to sea, and Jesus is alone, praying on the mountain. A strong wind, common in the evenings on the Sea of Galilee, has come up, and Jesus sees the disciples out there, straining at the oars. Literally, the wording is often used to describe torture. They are being tortured trying to drive the boat against the wind. And during the fourth watch of the night, that is between 3-6 AM, Jesus came to them walking on the water. Now our text tells us that the disciples thought it was a ghost, literally a phantasm, and they were terrified. Lest you think this was some seafarer’s hallucination, like a mermaid or something, Mark is very clear to point out that they all saw Him. Hallucinations are individualistic – they do not happen to groups. This really was Jesus, and He really was walking on the water. But they did not know how to process this. The best they could come up with was that it was a ghost. After all the miracles they had seen, including the one that had just filled their stomachs, they did not perceive that walking on the water was something that Jesus could do.

Now, it is somewhat surprising that the text says, “He intended to pass by them.” This was a test of faith, to see if they would recognize Him rightly and call out to Him. But they did not. There is revelation taking place here, that should affirm in their hearts just who Jesus is. Had they been familiar with their Old Testaments, they would have perhaps understood this. In Job 9:8, Job recognizes that it is only God who has the power to trample down the waves of the sea, and in verse 11, Job says, “Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; Were He to move past me, I would not perceive Him.” In fact there are several references in the Old Testament to God walking upon the waters. And in treading across the Sea of Galilee, Jesus is demonstrating visibly that He is God. But like Job said, even as He does, the disciples do not recognize Him.

So hard are their hearts toward receiving the revelation of His miracles that Jesus speaks to them. He gives them two imperatives: “Take courage” and “do not be afraid.” Now here are these 12 guys, being beaten and battered by the wind and waves, and they think they have seen a ghost passing by them. I mean, what would you do? Would you be courageous, or would you be afraid? How could Jesus expect them to take courage and not be afraid? The words between those two imperatives are the reason. Most of our English translations have the words, “It is I.” But in the Greek text, we find those all-important words, Ego eimi, which we might do better to literally translate, “I AM.” On several important revelatory occasions in the Gospels, Jesus uses these words to identify Himself, but He is doing more than saying, “Hey, it’s me.” He is taking upon Himself that divine name by which God revealed Himself to Moses. In Exodus 3, when Moses asks for the name of God, God responds saying: “‘I AM WHO I AM’; and He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.’”

So Jesus reveals His true nature to the disciples here, by doing what only God can do – walking on the water; and by taking upon Himself the revealed name of God – “I AM.” How is it that they can take courage and fear not – because God Himself is in their midst. And with this word of revelation, the winds and waves are stilled, and the disciples are astonished.

Who is Jesus? That is the most important question in all of life. And we must not answer that question in some subjective speculation, as if to say, “To me, He is such-and-such.” If we resort to our own depraved imaginations to define Jesus we will get it wrong. John Calvin said that the minds of men are idol-making factories, and we will shape Jesus into what we want Him to be – with mistaken notions of His dominion and His provision. But we must allow Him to answer that question for us. “Lord Jesus, who are you?” And He walks across the storm and says, “I AM.” He is the God who created and controls this world and all that is in it, who came to us out of mercy, love, and grace to save us from our sins and reconcile to Himself. That is who He is – take courage; be not afraid; but tremble in astonishment, and awe, and worship in His presence. Let Him be and do what He came to be and do. He came to be your Lord and Savior, He came to take your sins upon Himself so that you could be forgiven and justified as righteous before God.

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[1] Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass (HarperFestival, 2002), pp 88-89.