"For their hearts were hardend." The Disciples Reaction to a Miracle

"For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their hearts were hardened." Mark 6:52

The disciples of Jesus saw two astonishing miracles in one day. First, Jesus was able to feed 5000 people with a mere care package of two fish and five loaves of bread. He miraculously multiplied the food so much, afterward they collected 12 very large baskets of fragments, or leftovers. Second, they saw him walk on water.


Upon seeing this second miracle, the disciples were beside themselves with amazement. But the scripture implies they shouldn't have been. They should've understood from the miracle of the loaves the power of the one they served, but our verse says their hearts were hardened. They didn't even consider, or ponder, the miracle.


Speaking from experience, I know it is possible to see God do a powerful work in your life, but still be hardened in heart enough to be SURPRISED that he can do even greater works than before. What can harden your heart enough to make you forget what you've seen God do? What can make you not consider what he has clearly and miraculously done for you? Routine!


I suspect the disciples by now had gotten used to miracles. In Mark 6:12-13 it says this: "And they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them."


Perhaps they'd become fixated on their own powerful ministry and taken their eyes off Jesus, God in the Flesh. Perhaps the miracles had become business as usual, and they'd already forgotten the slimy nets they sat mending by the Sea of Galilee before Jesus called them. Whatever the case, from the time of the feeding of the loaves to the five thousand, to the moment Jesus walked on water, the disciples were "over" the first miracle. They didn't take time to consider, to ponder its meaning.


The life application for this verse is painfully obvious to me because I've seen God do great things, only to later question or disregard them. I am so concerned with seeking new things from God I don't stop to consider, to ponder, the things he's done. Like the disciples, I need an astonishing wake-up call in the form of a move of God.


But since God in Flesh is no longer here to "wow" us, we must do what the disciples failed to do. We must consider his miracles. Ponder them, meditate on them, exult in them. Only then will we, like the disciples at Jesus's miraculous approach on the water, be "sore amazed in [ourselves] beyond measure..." (Mark 6:51)