Mark 6:48

MYSTERIOUS PASSAGES OF LIFE

‘And He saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them.’

Mark 6:48

He saw them ‘toiling’—the word in the original is very strong, wrought, tested, tortured—yet, nevertheless, continuing the task which seemed so hopeless, and persevering in the unequal combat, which all the while was producing the distress.

This Jesus saw then, and what does He see now?

I. The voyage of life.—We are all bound together in one holy fellowship, and our first duty is to advance and propel ourselves and each other—all the Church—to the appointed goal. And on that voyage, in which we are all bound, every one of us has his own appointed work to do—and that work is to each man a thing definite, and real, and hard.

II. Difficulties.—Who that has gone but a little on this course does not know how difficult grows the way, and how many are the things that rise up against him! And with all this there come the aggravations of a mind harassed and perplexed with the obscurities in which it finds itself involved; there is the painful questioning, ‘Is this the path?’ And then there comes that bitter sense of loneliness—no voice of love, human or Divine; early feelings lost, or going away with the lost Comforter; the breaking of all we used to lean upon; the miserable desolation; no prayers answered, no sorrow healed, no good done, no hearty responses—but all, above, below, around, on every side, all drear and silent! These are true passages of life.

III. God sends a word of comfort.—Jesus sees you. He sees every stroke of that hand, every heaving of that breast, every panting of that heart, every rolling wave, every disturbing gust, every hostile breath. Darkness and distance shut out Him from you, but they never shut out you from Him. That is the point; that is the whole trial; that is the exercise of faith. I cannot see my Saviour, but my Saviour does see me; and He sees me trying to please Him, and to reach the place where He has told me that I shall see Him.

Illustration

‘If, like St. Peter, we fix our eyes on Jesus, we too may walk triumphant over the swelling waves of disbelief, and unterrified amid the rising winds of doubt; but if we turn away our eyes from Him—if, and as we are so much tempted to do, we look rather at the power and fury of those destructive elements than at Him Who can help and save—then we too shall inevitably sink. Oh, if we feel, often and often, that the water-floods threaten to drown us, and the deep to swallow up the tossed vessel of our Church and Faith, may it again and again be granted us to hear amid the storm, and the darkness, and the voices prophesying war, those two sweetest of the Saviour’s utterances—“Fear not. Only believe.” “It is I. Be not afraid.” ’