Critique: Mark 8:17-21
God loves us deeply and wants us to grow in His truth. Sometimes growth is exciting and fun. Sometimes growth comes with failure and critique.
While Jesus is patient with His disciples on the boat, He is also critical of them. Jesus doesn’t pull punches with His critique in the moment. He asks if their hearts are hardened. He asks if they don’t understand. Jesus brings the disciples to the point of realizing they aren’t yet where they need to be.
I cannot imagine a much harsher critique from a mentor than saying the mind is dull and the heart is hard. A hard heart implies a lack of desire to move to a new place; a dull mind is a critique of the development happening within. These are critiques of the willingness of the disciple. It is the ultimate expression of how far the disciple has yet to go to reach the level of the mentor.
Understand, though, there are harsher things that could be said in general. I would rather have Jesus ask me if my heart is hard than to tell me to go away because He never knew me. While Jesus may be intensely critical here, the relationship between Jesus and disciple still exists. Jesus isn’t getting rid of the disciples or removing their status as a disciple. Jesus is merely being critical of their progress in their current circumstance.
It is significant to note Jesus’ posture here. When praise is warranted, Jesus gives it. When criticism is warranted, Jesus gives it. Jesus is not soft on the people He disciples. Jesus does not pull punches on the people who have come to Him for mentoring. He asks hard questions that may make the disciples feel bad or feel shame in the moment. When He does it, though, it is done knowing the relationship will continue. The criticism is temporary; the relationship is forever.
Notice also that Jesus doesn’t explain Himself fully – at least not in how Mark tells the story. Jesus is critical and then tells the disciples they aren’t where they need to be. He reminds them about what they saw with respect to the feedings, but He doesn’t explain it fully. If they want to become mature, they need to figure things out for themselves. They need time to think for themselves and come back to Jesus and check their understanding.
Yesterday we focused on the patience and understanding of God. That’s the umbrella for all mentoring and discipleship. Today we see within the context of patience and understanding comes critique and space. Just because Jesus is patient and understanding doesn’t mean He is always happy with His disciples’ effort. Even so, He is always there for us. Like the feeding of the multitudes, God provides. Like the disciples on the boat, God gives us space to learn and try and even fail. God loves us deeply and wants us to grow in His truth.
