The sixth chapter of the Gospel of Mark contains one of my favorite insights into the personality of Jesus.
The disciples had just returned from being sent out to preach on their own (Mark 6:7-13) and were reporting back on everything that they had done and everything they had taught. At the same time, Jesus was busy teaching and it's made clear that there were so many people coming to hear Him speak and be healed that Christ had taught for a large portion of the day without any sort of break. What we see here is Jesus in the center of twelve tremendously excited men who had a thousand stories to tell and experiences they eagerly longed to relate. As recently as Mark 4:40, Jesus has confronted the disciples about their lack of faith. Yet we find that, when Christ sent the disciples out in pairs that, "They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them." (Mark 6:13)
Imagine the journey of going from a place where you are asking, "Who is this Jesus?" when confronted with Christ's power (Mark 4:41) and moving to the point where the power of God is flowing through you to such an extent that you are healing the sick and casting out evil spirits. They had just returned to Christ's side and were most likely excitedly relating everything that they had experienced. Add to this a vast crowd that came upon Jesus in wave after wave. We see in Mark 6:31, "so many people were coming and going that they [Jesus and the disciples] did not even have a chance to eat." Jesus did what anyone in the same situation would do - he decided to withdraw to somewhere where He and the disciples could be alone and they could get some rest, once more slipping away by boat.
By this time the people were used to Christ exiting this manner and they, "ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them." (Mark 6:33)
Here we see Jesus, apparently exhausted. He had been teaching without pause the entire day to masses of people who came to Him in such numbers that He hadn't even been able to pause to eat. The disciples were most likely jockeying to talk to Him. Tired, He had tried to slip away with just the disciples to "a quiet place" to "get some rest" (Mark 6:31) but the crowds ran ahead and were waiting for Jesus and the disciples when they arrived.
It's tempting to immediately move on to the scene where Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish and creates so much food that, "They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish." (Mark 6:42-43) But in doing so, we would miss a key point to Christ's personality.
"When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things." (Mark 6:34)
These were not people who had simply sat, listening to Jesus teach all day and, as evening wore on something had to be done to feed them. These were people who Jesus had tried to slip away from. He had taught all day without pause. The disciples were eager to share with Jesus about their own ministry and "all they had done and taught." (Mark 6:30) Christ was weary and clearly intended to rest. But "He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd."
This was not a sense of duty or even a shallow emotion that Jesus felt for them. The Greek word in this passage (splagchnizomai) speaks of a deep, visceral response. It's used three other places in the Gospel of Mark and it's worth our time to quickly look at one of these three passages in order to understand Christ's response toward the masses.
The passage is Mark 1:40-41 where, "A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, 'If you are willing, you can make me clean.'" Think about this man's faith for a moment. According to Leviticus 13:44-46, "The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp." This man wasn't only plagued with leprosy, but he was outcast from his society. He was required to wear torn clothing, his hair could not be washed or combed, his face had to be covered, and any time someone approached them, the leper had to humiliate himself and shout, "Unclean! Unclean!" When he fell to his knees before Jesus, begging Christ to heal him, he wasn't just saying, "Make this plague go away," but was saying, "You can give me a life again! You can reunite me with my family and my community! If only you are willing to do so." And because of the Israelites views on the subject, he was also saying, "You can make me worthy before God," because, according to his culture, his leprosy made him unclean in the eyes of God. The man didn't ask Jesus to heal him - he fell to his knees and begged. Every hope that he had locked away when he had contracted his disease came pouring out before Christ with the simple words, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Christ's response? "Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man," (Mark 1:41) quite possibly the first physical contact the man had experienced with a "clean" individual for a good portion of his adult life, and Jesus healed him.
When Jesus saw the crowds that had raced to meet Him, he felt the same emotion toward them that he felt toward the leper who had fallen to his knees before Christ and begged Him to heal him - a deep, visceral compassion. Even though He was tired, had taught all day long to an endless flood of people and hadn't even paused to eat, His first instinct was compassion.
But more than just feeling an emotion, Jesus acted upon it. The Gospel of Mark (Mark 6:34) says, "So He began teaching them many things." Matthew 14:14 reads, "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick." Luke 9:11 tells us, "He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing."
That is the key difference between belief and faith. Belief is a mental concept, a process of accepting something as truth within ourselves. We apply belief within ourselves as a way of organizing our thoughts and attitudes on a topic. Faith is belief that exists without logical proof or material evidence and is something we apply outside of ourselves, using it to address the events in our daily lives.
When Jesus felt compassion toward the crowd that had ran ahead and awaited Him when the boat landed, that compassion reflected His belief in both His ministry and the power of God. It was an emotional response that existed within Himself. When He acted on that belief and began to teach the masses, He was exercising faith in the ministry that God had set before Him. By teaching the masses, even though logic told Him that He needed rest to recharge and renew Himself, Jesus demonstrated His faith by using His love and compassion to power His actions.
Jesus laid out a very simple process for us to follow if we want to live truly spiritual lives. First, do everything in love. Second, live by faith.
In Mark 5:34 Jesus tells a woman "who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years" (Mark 5:25), "Daughter, your faith has healed you," and again in Mark 10:52 he tells a blind man, "Your faith has healed you." We see here, in the sixth chapter of Mark 6:5-6, "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith."
What we need to do is understand the spiritual process that is at work here. We must begin by manifesting love within ourselves. 1 John 4:7-8 reads, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love." By extension, our belief in God must be firmly rooted in love as God is love. ("God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16) If we manifest love, not only within ourselves through our belief in God, but if we extend it into the world around us through our faith in love, then the love we extend is God. By living in faith rooted in love (and understanding that God is love) then we will begin to see God's power manifesting daily in our lives as our lives are saturated with God's love, blessings, and power.
In the passages above, we see two different demonstrations of God's power. When Jesus healed the leper who fell to his knees, begging Christ to heal him (Mark 1:40-41), the leper said, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Christ was "filled with compassion" (in other words, he felt a deep upwelling of love for the man) and answered, "I am willing. Be clean." When the woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years touched the hem of Christ's cloak and was healed, he told her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you." (Mark 5:25) In the first example, it was Jesus manifesting the power of God through Christ's love for us that allowed the person to be healed; in the second example, it was the person manifesting God's power through the faith they demonstrated by approaching Christ and expecting to be healed.
In Mark 9:22 Jesus says, "Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
What we have to understand is that faith and love have to go hand-in-hand. We see this reflected in how Jesus approaches the challenges and short-comings of His own disciples. Before He sends them out in pairs to begin their own ministry (Mark 6:7-13) Jesus confronts them by addressing their lack of faith. After their ministry, He addresses, not their faith, but the hardness of their hearts.
When Jesus calms the storm in Mark 4:35-41, the disciples are afraid at the demonstration of His power. He clearly asks them, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" (Mark 4:40) In Mark 6:47-52, Jesus walks upon the surface of the lake and, once again, the disciples are terrified. When Christ climbs in their boat and the wind dies down, Mark 6:51-52 points out, "Their hearts were hardened." And again in Mark 8:17 Jesus asks them, "Are you hearts hardened?" when they fail to understand one of His teachings.
What's key is that before they are sent out on their ministry - a journey that would require a significant expression of faith - it is their faith that Christ questions. After they have demonstrated their faith, and by doing so were able to cast out evil spirits and heal the sick, it is not their faith that is in question, but the hardness of their hearts.
Jesus wasn't condemning the disciples for closing themselves off to Him or His message. He was challenging them to let love take ever deeper root within their hearts. Because their hearts were hardened they were seeing the events around them and the teachings of Christ with their own eyes, they saw them through the filter of their own shortcomings and lack of understanding, when they needed to view them from the perspective of love. Christ wasn't saying, "You're cold and callous" when he told them their hearts were hardened. He was saying, "Why don't you understand love? If you looked at this with love in your hearts, you would understand. But your focus is still on yourself."
Calling ourselves Christians, we are calling ourselves followers of Christ. A follower will strive to embody their Teacher's message and the message of Christ was directed not at our minds (belief) but at our hearts (faith and love.) It is our challenge, not to memorize and interpret scripture, to act as a judge for what is godly and what is not, but to simply live fully in love and to act and walk in faith. If we do these two things, not only will we truly have God within us, but the power of God will radiate throughout our lives.