The Black Line

Trinity Vineyard Sunday Morning

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Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
- Mark 6:47-52
What is 'hardness of heart'? The Bible speaks about it quite a lot, and it seems like a deliberate disbelief. In Mark 6 the disciples are afraid and amazed when Jesus walks on the water. They could work it out, not because their brains were slow but because their hearts were hard.
I think it hardness of heart is the Bible's name for a combination of intellectual assumptions and ways of thinking, even habits, that tell us not just what we believe but what is believable. In other words, we have a framework about the world, our lives, and God. We draw a thick black line around what we *think* we know, a decide that it's a line that God just can't cross.
The disciples didn't understand the walking on the water because their framework didn't couldn't yet contain a man - Jesus - would did God things, like feeding a wandering people in the wilderness. And they couldn't see that Jesus was doing a God-thing on the lake: "He alone treads the waves of the sea" (Job 9:8).
A warning then, that even those who hang around with Jesus can make the mistake of thinking that he's going to stay within lines that we have drawn.
May the Spirit soften our hearts.