And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. – Mark 6:51b-52 (ESV)
It is interesting that a hard heart is tied to a lack of understanding. Sometimes we are surprised by what God does. Yes, we should be in awe of the Lord and His glory, and yes, He works in ways we don’t expect, but sometimes God works and we are surprised that God would do whatever He does simply because we lack understanding. Many times we pray but we don’t really think that the Lord will act. Other times, the Lord will intervene in someone’s life and we will almost be put off by it. This could be symptomatic of a hard heart. But even the Lord is able to work with our hard hearts. Here the people with the hard hearts are not Pharisees or fickle crowds, but the disciples; they have failed our Lord once again. Jesus, in all His patience and mercy is able to make a hard heart soft, to give understanding to the one who lacks it, to draw the person who is farthest from Him to Himself.
