Mark 6:45-7:23 | The Heart of the Matter

In our Bible passage for today, Mark uses the same key word to connect two stories that seem to be about different subjects. That word is “heart.” In the story of Jesus walking on water, we read that the disciples were amazed because their hearts were hardened. They were spiritually insensitive. After all the miracles Jesus had done, including the feeding of the 5000 which he had just completed, they should have understood that he was not limited by natural laws because he was God. In the next story, which is a confrontation between the religious leaders and Jesus, Jesus accuses the religious leaders of being hypocrites with hearts that are far from God. They were so focused on the outward requirements of their tradition that they neglected the inward motivations which God cared about. It is the inward attitudes of the heart that determine the character of a person, not their dutiful religious observance. 

Study Questions for Mark 6:45-7:23

1.      Why did Jesus want the disciples to leave so he could dismiss the crowd by himself (6:45)

2.      What was the important situation that Jesus had to pray about(6:46)?

3.      What should the disciples have learned from the lesson of the loaves (6:52)? If they had learned this lesson, how would they have been better prepared for Jesus’ supernatural display?

4.      What does it mean for the disciples’ to have hardened hearts (6:52)?

5.      What examples of a hard heart do you see in today’s church?

6.      How does Jesus’ idea of being clean differ from the Pharisees (7:1-4, 14-15)?

7.      The word “hypocrite” is used a lot in our society, often in the context of calling a Christian, hypocrite. When is that a fair use of the word? When might it be unfair (7:6)?

8.      What aspects of your religious life are based on tradition rather than the Bible? How might these observances block someone else from God?

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