Our scripture reading this evening comes from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6. Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, beginning in verse 45. Hear now the word of the living God. "Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. When evening came, the boat was out on the sea. And he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. For they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. And he got into the boat with them. And the wind ceased, and they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened."
May God bless the reading of his word to us.
The title of the sermon is "Seeing is Believing," and we've all been told, "Seeing is believing." But what happens when we don't see? Even when our eyes are open, even when something is right in front of our face, but we miss it. This phenomenon is called inattentional blindness or selective attention. It's defined as the failure to notice a fully visible but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object.
So the most famous experiment demonstrating inattentional blindness is known as the invisible gorilla test. You can see this on YouTube. Researchers asked participants to watch a video of people passing a basketball back and forth and to count the number of passes, simple enough. Afterward, the researchers asked the participants if they'd noticed anything unusual in the video. About 50% reported seeing nothing out of the ordinary, just people passing a basketball. What they missed was a man in a gorilla suit who walks into the scene. He stops and thumps his chest and then exits the other side. And once you see it, you can't unsee it. It's unmistakable. But 50% of the people didn't see it the first time. Inattentional blindness.
And one of the reasons for inattentional blindness is that we focus on what we think is most important. We can't take in every single detail in a field of vision every second. And so we concentrate on what matters most to us. We all know this. If you're watching your kids swimming at the beach, you might not notice people playing frisbee right in front of you. We focus on what's most important.
Another reason for intentional blindness is that we are less likely to notice things that are unexpected to us. Again, you're watching your kids at the beach, you probably wouldn't notice someone playing frisbee with a dinner plate made of fine china. It's unexpected. You're not looking for it. So the people watching the basketball video were not expecting a man in a gorilla suit; therefore, they didn't see it. Had they been given advanced notice of the gorilla suit, maybe they would have seen it.
Well, we see monumental inattentional blindness in our passage this evening. The disciples are looking at Jesus, but they don't actually see him as he really is. They miss what is right in front of them because their focus is elsewhere.
In Mark chapter 6, verses 45 through 52, we see that Jesus reveals to his disciples that he is the Messiah. He's the king of heaven and earth. First, we see the king's seclusion. Second, we see the king's procession. Finally, the king's presence.
So again, the king's seclusion: verse 45. "Immediately, he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crown."
Immediately, following the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus sends the disciples off in a boat. They have to get out of there. But why is the rush? Why is he sending them away so quickly? Well, Mark doesn't tell us, but at the conclusion of John's account of the feeding of the 5,000, in John 6, verse 15, "perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself."
Jesus has to be very careful as he proclaims his message that he gives at the beginning of the gospel of Mark: "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." But he's got to be careful because he doesn't want to draw too much attention from the political and religious authorities that want to kill him before his mission is complete. He has much to accomplish on his way to the cross, and he can't allow these celebrity-making crowds to jeopardize his mission. So he dismisses the king-making crowd, and he sends his disciples off in a boat.
Now, one reason to send them off by themselves might be to throw the crowd off the scent. If the crowd sees all the disciples heading out in a boat, they'll probably will assume that Jesus is with them, so they'll follow them. Then he can slip away unnoticed, away from these crowds. But he has a more important reason for doing this, we'll see in a minute.
Now, there is some difficulty with this verse, verse 45. Luke tells us that the feeding of the 5,000 takes place near Bethsaida, which is on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. So if they're in the wilderness outside of Bethsaida, why would Jesus send the disciples to the other side, to Bethsaida? It gets even trickier in verse 53 when they land at Gennesaret. Gennesaret is on the other side of the Sea of Galilee from Bethsaida. Gennesaret is a three-and-a-half-mile plain on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee between Tiberias and Capernaum, where Jesus' home base is in Capernaum.
Now, John's account tells us that they went toward Capernaum. John 6, verse 17: "they got into a boat and started across the sea to Capernaum."
So how do we reconcile this? Well, one possibility is that they were east of Bethsaida, and Jesus tells them to go toward Bethsaida. In the direction of Bethsaida, they end up in Gennesaret. It's not a completely satisfying explanation, but it is a plausible explanation.
Well, now verse 46: "After he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land."
This was a common practice for Jesus, to get alone to pray. We see this earlier in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verse 35: "Rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed."
He asked to retreat from these crowds and all the noise and to be refreshed through prayer.
This time away is a little different, though. In Exodus 24, after the exodus out of Egypt, after the giving of manna from heaven, after the confirmation of the Mosaic covenant, verse 12 of Exodus 24: "the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and wait there. Then Moses went up on a mountain and the cloud covered the mountain.
Now Jesus has just fed the 5,000. He's just proven that he is the covenant mediator greater than Moses. And his covenant is greater than the Mosaic covenant. And his exodus is greater than the exodus out of Egypt. So he ascends the mountain alone to commune with God. That is the king's seclusion.
Now we see the king's procession. Verse 48: "He saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. For they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.
Jesus is on the mountain, and he can see that the disciples are struggling against the wind. Well, how can he see them if they're in the middle of the lake? The middle of the Sea of Galilee is about three or four miles from the shore. John 6, verse 19: "And when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. They were frightened."
Now, it is possible that his elevated vantage point gives him a longer line of sight. The moon might have helped to illumine the lake. But most likely here, he's using supernatural sights. He's seeing them supernaturally.
And the disciples are fighting the wind. The word rendered "painfully," verse 48, is the same word used for torture. In Matthew's account, Matthew 14, it says, "But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten same word, painfully, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them."
It's not a storm, so they're not in physical danger, but the wind is making it very difficult for them to move. The disciples are tired. They're frustrated. They've been working painfully all night. They have nothing to show for it. They can't even move.
And at this point, in the middle of verse 48, the narrative shifts; the perspective shifts. Mark is a master storyteller. And up to this point, we see from Jesus' perspective: he puts the disciples into the boat, he goes up to the mountain to pray, he sees them tortured by the wind. We can imagine the camera looking down at the disciples from Jesus' position on the mountain.
And then Mark switches to the disciples' viewpoint about the fourth watch of the night: "He came to them walking on the sea."
So now the camera is in the boat with the disciples as Jesus comes walking toward them on the water. He comes to them about the fourth watch. The Romans had a custom of dividing the night roughly between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. So the fourth watch would be about 3 to 6 a.m., the darkest period of the night. right before the dawn. At this point, the disciples have been struggling almost the entire night. They're exhausted. And that's when Jesus makes his move.
Now again, the Exodus imagery is front and center. Why does Jesus come at this time? Why does he come early in the morning? We see in Exodus 14, Israel making its way through the Red Sea on dry ground. Exodus 14, verse 24: "And in the morning watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.
Early in the morning, God looks down on the Egyptians, and he comes to rescue his people. And so, too, Christ now, early in the morning, looks down on the disciples from the mountain, and he comes to rescue them.
As we'll see later, though, the disciples resemble the Egyptians in some ways more than they do the people of Israel.
Jesus comes to them walking on the sea. This is one of the most memorable miracles in the life of Christ. There have been multiple attempts to explain this as something other than what it is: a miracle. Some critical scholars say he was walking on submerged rocks or on a sandbar. The problem with that is the disciples are in the middle of the lake, an unusual place for such a phenomenon. And if there did happen to be a large group of submerged rocks or a sandbar in the middle of the lake, don't you think these experienced fishermen would be aware of it? Peter, Andrew, James, John, they spent their entire lives on the Sea of Galilee. They knew every inch of this lake, just like you know, probably, every pothole between your house and where you work or your school. They know every inch of the Sea of Galilee. So how would the disciples not know that there's a sandbar in the middle of the lake?
Other critical scholars say that "on the sea" really means "by the sea" or "beside the sea." One 20th century commentator said, "The action of Jesus in wading through the surf near the hidden shore was interpreted as a triumphant progress across the water." Does that make any sense? These professional fishermen had no idea they were near the shore or not in the middle of the lake. They're confused as Jesus walks through the surf. And they thought that he was actually walking on the water. Is it possible the disciples are this dumb? It's easier to believe it was a miracle.
And why wouldn't Jesus correct their misunderstanding if that was the case? Why would he allow them to think he had walked on the water when he actually didn't? It makes no sense. The simplest explanation is that this is a miracle. It's easier to believe that than all the explanations of the critical scholars.
Now, it is true that the Greek construction here can mean "by" or "beside" something. The problem here, though, is that the same construction is used in verse 47: "For on the sea and on the land." Verse 47: "the boat was on the sea and he was alone on the land."
Well, clearly the boat was on the sea. It wasn't beside the sea; it wasn't by the sea. it was on the sea jesus was on the land. he wasn't beside the land so if the construction doesn't mean "by" or "beside" in verse 47, why would we render it that same way? Why would we render it that way in the very next verse? One verse it means "on"; the next verse it means "beside"? doesn't make any sense. Mark is too good of a writer to do that. Obviously, he meant Jesus is walking on the water.
But what's the point of this? Why does Jesus do this?
Well, first, he's demonstrating that he is ruler over all things. There was a great fear of the sea in the ancient world. We see this in scripture where the turbulence of the sea is equated with death. David speaks of God's deliverance in 2 Samuel 22: "For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me." Psalm 69, verse 2: "I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold; I've come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me."
We even see this in extra biblical writings of the ancient world. In Homer's Odyssey, the sea is called "a great gullet that swallows down Odysseus then belches him up on the shore." Those in the ancient world believed that the sea was filled with dangerous creatures like Scylla, who had six mouths, each with three rows of teeth. And Charybdes was a whirlpool that sucks down waters three times a day and it spews it up again three times.
So in the ancient world, the sea is terrifying. So ancient people created gods to alleviate their fears. They know they have no control over the sea, so they worship gods that do, they think. In Greek mythology, Poseidon is the god of the sea. Homer in the Iliad explains Poseidon's power, book 13: "When he got there, he yoked his fleet, brazen-footed steeds with their manes of gold, all flying in the wind. He clothed himself in raiment of gold, grasped his gold whip, and took his stand upon his chariot. As he went his way
So the Greek god Poseidon rides his chariot over the waters, demonstrating his power over them. Even Poseidon's sons by human mothers had this power. Euphemus of Tanerim said, "he was wont to skim the swell of the gray sea and wetted not his swift feet, but just dipping the tips of his toes was born on watery path."
The Romans then pick up on this and they credit their god Neptune with the same power. Virgil in the Aeneid, verse 5, says that Neptune "yokes his wild steeds with gold, fastens their foaming bits, and lets all the rains stream freely in his hand. Then over the water's surface, lightly he flies in azure car. The waves sink to rest beneath the thundering axle. The sea of swollen water is smooth, and the storm clouds vanish from the wide sky."
So the Greco-Roman gods travel on the sea to display their power and their distance from humans. Humans will never be like them. They'll never have this power over the sea.
But unlike these false gods, Jesus travels on the sea to rescue humans. It's a means by which he can get closer to his disciples, and they can get closer to him. Jesus even empowers humans to walk on the sea themselves, as he does with Peter in Matthew's account.
So rather than a visual representation of the distance between God and men, as in the Greco-Roman world, Jesus walks on the sea to bring greater intimacy between the true God and men. And unlike the pagan gods, who are gods of the sea, Jesus is God over the sea. He's utterly distinct and separate from the sea. In fact, he promises to eradicate the sea and all the calamity that it brings to human beings. Revelation 21, verse 1: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more."
This place of fear and darkness, of unknown evil, will be eliminated by the king over the sea. And his royal procession over the waters is proof that even now he rules the sin-cursed sea and all of nature.
By Jesus' day, certain egomaniacal rulers who claimed to have divine status gave the impression that they thought they could walk on water. Epiphanes, Antiochus IV he's the one who plundered the temple in Jerusalem, who sacrificed the pig on the altar. In 2 Maccabees 5, verse 21, it says, "So Antiochus carried off 1,800 talents from the temple and hurried away to Antioch, thinking in his arrogance that he could sail on the land and walk on the sea because his mind was elated."
In other words, Antiochus is so arrogant and narcissistic that he appeared to think he could do anything. We use this expression today for people who have rather high opinions of themselves: "This guy thinks he can walk on water."
But Jesus actually can walk on water. And it's not an ego trip like these pagan rulers who can't actually do it. For him, it's actually an act of condescension, as is his entire incarnation. It shows his disciples who he really is. The pagan rulers elevate themselves falsely; Christ lowers himself to reveal his true nature to the disciples in a way that they can understand.
So by walking on water, Jesus is demonstrating that he is superior to the pagan gods and to the pagan rulers. And he's identifying himself with Yahweh. In the Old Testament, Yahweh is depicted as having power over the sea. Psalm 77, verse 19: "Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen." Isaiah 43, verse 16: "Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters."
On multiple occasions, we see God display his power over the waters. Exodus 14, verse 21: "you know, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove back the sea by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided."
So Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant, leads God's people in the Exodus out of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea. And we see a repetition of God making a path through the waters with Joshua, who's the successor to Moses. Joshua 3, verse 17: "the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan and all of Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan."
So Joshua is the leader of the conquest. He takes Israel into the Promised Land through the Jordan River. And now Christ, the leader of the new Exodus and the new conquest of the kingdom of God, he displays his power not by passing through the waters but by walking over them. Everything is in subjection to him and under his feet, even the waters of the earth.
Notice the end of verse 48: "It says he meant to pass by them."
This might seem confusing to us at first glance. Does this mean that Jesus intended to walk on the water and sneak by the disciples, but they saw him, so he had to stop and go into the boat? Some scholars think the disciples perceived that Jesus was passing by them, but actually he was not. This doesn't make any sense. They didn't just perceive it; it actually happened. This is very intentional language.
And again, this is Exodus imagery. Exodus 33, 17: "The Lord said to Moses, This very thing that you have spoken, I will do. For you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name. Moses said, please show me your glory.
One of the most famous passages of the Old Testament, God is going to reveal himself to Moses in a special way. Verse 19 of Exodus 33: "he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
"Pass" in Exodus 33 and 19 is a different form of the same word Mark uses in verse 48 of Mark 6.
Then in Exodus 33, verse 21: "the Lord said, Behold, there's a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
Then in Exodus 34, verse 5: "the Lord descended in the cloud and stood within there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
The same word over and over: "Passed by," "he passed by," "he passed by. Exodus 33 and 34. God shows himself to Moses, and he reveals his true character. He's merciful and gracious. He's slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. One of the great revelatory acts of God in all of Scripture.
So it's no accident that Mark says Jesus meant to pass by them. Mark's hearers instantly would have connected that passage to the Exodus with God passing by Moses. So Jesus is once again revealing his true nature to the disciples. He is the Messiah. He is the King of heaven and earth, and he is Yahweh.
But don't they know this already? They've heard his teaching. They've seen the miracles. They just saw the feeding of the 5,000. Don't they know who he is by now? Apparently not. They're terrified when they see him because they have inattentional blindness. They weren't expecting Jesus to show up walking on the water, so they think it's a ghost.
But what is it that calms their fear? It's his word. Verse 50: "immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.
"It is I." The same construction as "I am." This is God's covenant name given to his covenant people. We see that all the way back in Exodus 3, 14, when God speaks from the burning bush. He says to Moses, "I am who I am. He said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.
Again, God says it, Deuteronomy 32, verse 39: "See now that I, even I, am he. There is no God beside me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is none that can deliver out of my hand."
The great "I am" is the one to whom God's people cry out for deliverance. Psalm 118, verse 5: "Out of the distress I called on the Lord. The Lord answered me and set me free."
The Lord, Yahweh, hears me when I cry out to him. The great "I am" brings deliverance to his people. "Thus says the Lord, I am, Yahweh, who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant," Isaiah 44, verse 2.
So now Jesus speaks the same words: "I am." And not only does he do the same works as Yahweh, ruling the seed, delivering his people, he speaks the same words as Yahweh: "I am."
Once again, he reveals himself to the disciples as the Son of God, the Messiah, the King over all the earth. He is Yahweh, the covenant-making God.
So we've seen the king's seclusion, the king's procession. Now we see the king's presence, verse 51: "And he got into the boat with them."
When Jesus puts the disciples in the boat, in verse 45, does he know what's going to happen to them? Does he know they'll be battered by the wind for the entire night, barely getting anywhere? Does he know they'll be exhausted, they'll be frustrated? They'll probably fight amongst themselves as often happens in times of hardship when we feel like we're running in place. Does Jesus know this? Of course he knows. Not only does he know what's going to happen, he controls it. He's sovereign over all things, including the wind. So he intentionally places his disciples in this predicament. And like all things, it's for his glory and for their good.
Some people think that becoming a Christian will make all their problems go away. And some less than honest forms of evangelism actually lead people to believe this. But there's no promise of that. In some ways, becoming a Christian means that our problems are just beginning. Now we have a target on our back from the enemies of God. And the evil one can't bring harm to God, so he does the next best thing: he tries to bring harm to the people of God. There's no promise that we as Christians will not face hardship in this life. In fact, there's a promise that we will. John 15, Jesus says, "Remember the word that I said to you, A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
So we can't expect God to make all our problems go away. But we can expect him to be with us in the problems.
Jesus sends his disciples into the boat. They fight against the wind. What does he do? Does he leave them there? He comes down off the mountain. He walks to them on the sea. And then in verse 51, "he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased."
He got into the boat. He could have stopped the wind from up on the mountain. But he comes to them. He gets in the boat with them. He's Emmanuel. He's God with us.
This entire narrative displays his transcendence as he walks on the water, displaying his power and majesty. But it also displays his eminence. He comes to the disciples. He speaks calming words, revealing that he is Yahweh, He's the covenant-keeping God. And he gets into the boat with them as close as you can get. The transcendent, imminent God.
Do the disciples now see?
Verse 51: "They were utterly astounded. For they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened."
Leading up to Jesus' appearing, the disciples don't get it. They're struggling against the wind all night. They're unable to move the boat. Do they cry out to Yahweh for help? We heard the psalmist cry to Yahweh for deliverance, and he rescued him. Do the disciples call on Yahweh for rescue? Mark gives us no record of it. Or do they ask God to empower them to stop the wind, just as Jesus called the storm? What do they do? They keep fighting under their own power. They get nowhere.
The disciples utterly missed the point that Jesus tried to show them in the feeding of the 5,000. This is why Mark says in verse 52, "they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened."
They didn't call out to Jesus and trust him enough to rely on him to provide food in the feeding of the 5,000. And they didn't trust him to equip them to provide food for the people themselves. And here they could have asked God for deliverance from the wind or for the empowerment to cease the wind, but they do neither. And Mark says in verse 52, "their hearts were hardened."
This entire passage is an echo of Exodus, and the disciples are behaving like Pharaoh. Exodus 7, verse 13: "still Pharaoh's heart was hardened. He would not listen to them as the Lord had said."
The true Moses, the leader of the new exodus liberating his people from bondage to sin and death, is in the boat with them, and the disciples are acting like Pharaoh, hardening their hearts.
At this point, they don't truly see who Jesus is. They don't truly know the nature of his kingdom. They have inattentional blindness, and they strive under their own power.
But before we come down hard on the disciples, we should realize that often we're right there in the boat with them, fighting the wind in our own strength. How often do we strive under our own power against the obstacles in our lives? We have immediate access to Christ. He's our head. We've been empowered by the Holy Spirit; he dwells within us. Yet how often do we try to do it ourselves? Do we want to be in control? We think that if we keep fighting just a little bit more in our strength, well, surely we'll then overcome the barriers in our lives. But instead, we have to take our focus off of the obstacle and place it on Christ. The obstacle is not what's most important; he is. If we fixate on the obstacle, we won't see Jesus. If we focus on him, the obstacle suddenly starts to shrink compared to the magnitude of Christ.
And we see that with Peter in Matthew's account. Matthew 14: Peter says, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He says, "Come." Everything is perfect while Peter is focusing on Jesus. But then in verse 30, "when he saw the wind he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried out, lord save me He takes his eyes off of Jesus, he sees the wind, he starts to sink.
What does Jesus do? What does he do when Peter starts to sink? What does he do after the disciples fail to understand the feeding of the 5 000 What does he do here when they're terrified, their hearts are hardened? Does he say, "I've had enough of you; you're hopeless; you're all fired; I'm getting new disciples"? Of course he doesn't.
What does he do? He stays with them in the boat. And even if he doesn't dismiss them, does he absolutely crush them with the law like the Old Testament prophets, acting as covenant lawyers when they speak against Israel for violating God's covenant? "Woe unto you." Jesus could do this. He could crush them the way he crushes the Pharisees with the law. But what does he do? He shows himself to them. He shows them who he really is. He reveals himself as the Messiah, and once again he displays his absolute majesty. He gives them himself. This is the gospel. It's Christ himself.
And when they fail, he does give them a gentle rebuke. But then he absolutely overwhelms them with more gospel than any hardened heart could handle. He says, "You're having trouble trusting me? You're struggling to rely on me, not yourself? Watch this." He passes by them just as Yahweh passed by Moses. Walking on the water, he reveals that he is Yahweh. Jesus is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
And again, he comes to them. He doesn't stay on the mountaintop. He doesn't make them climb up to him to show themselves worthy. He comes to them in the midst of their self-effort, as they're acting like sheep without a shepherd, as he says of the 5,000. He comes, and he shows himself to be the true shepherd of the sheep.
And he does this for us too. When we strive under our own power, we fight with our own strength. He comes to us. He comes to us every Lord's Day in the preaching of the gospel. Christ himself comes to us. Yes, he rebukes us with the law. We hear the law read. We confess our sins corporately. But then he overwhelms us with the gospel, and he gives us himself as he speaks through the preached word, through the mouth of his minister.
So we can take heart as the people of God. Even in the midst of our failures, our Savior is patient with us. He never leaves us or forsakes us. And no matter how many times we try to leave him or forsake him for our sin, he passes by us. He reveals himself to us. He cures us of our unintentional blindness. And he turns our focus off of this world, and he centers it on him, the true Messiah and King.
Let us pray.
Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your revelation in your word, how it reveals Christ to us. We thank you for opening our eyes to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Help us not to be blinded to who Jesus is, but to see him as our loving and gracious king. Focus our eyes not on this world, the many trials and tribulations that we face, focus our eyes on Christ, the object of our faith. All this we ask in the name of our Savior. Amen.