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Several years ago I visited the Petrified Forest National Park in northeast Arizona where you can walk around and see where trees had been literally turned into stone. What was so amazing about this place was that on some of the specimens the original cellular structure of the wood and the grain could still be seen! The size of the rock timber ranged from broken fragments to giant logs. An impressive example is the stony tree dubbed “Old Faithful” with a diameter measuring 9.5′.
Naturally, I believe this petrification resulted from the massive geological changes produced by the global flood in Noah’s day. You can travel all over the world and never witness a fallen tree exposed to the elements of decay remain intact as it is transforming into quartz crystals for one simple reason; trees rot; they don’t have time to turn into stone. There had to be a geologic upheaval to bury these trees, like Old Faithful, under tons of mud for it to undergo the process of petrification and not quick decomposition.
Could this happen to a human heart? Yes! Well, not exactly. It's called spiritual petrification or the hardening of a living, beating, blood flowing human heart through unbelief. Such self-infliction can cause the heart to become stone-like, figuratively speaking. A hardened heart becomes dull of hearing and callous in understanding of spiritual truth. A lack of faith is the culprit behind the hardness of the heart and dullness of spiritual perception and reception.
After the feeding of the 5,000, the disciples left Bethsaida Julias (Lk 9:10) and went down to the Sea of Galilee on the eastern side of its shore and got into a boat and started rowing toward another “Bethsaida” on the western side (Mk 6:45) toward Capernaum (Jn 6:16-17) without Jesus on board. After three to four miles of rowing they were in the middle of the sea when the weather conditions changed (Mt 14:24). The disciples were straining at the oars against the wind (Mk 6:48). Next thing they see, around 3 a.m. or so, is Jesus, mistaken for a ghost, walking on the water (Mt 14:26)!
Once Jesus identified Himself, Peter asked for permission to come to Him on the water (Mt 14:28). He did what no other man has ever done – “he walked on the water” (Mt 14:29)! This was short lived because Peter took his eyes off of Jesus during his water walk and began to sink like a rock (Mt 14:30). At least he got out of the boat and was smart enough to cry out to Jesus for help (Mt 14:30). Once Peter and Jesus got into the boat, the winds and the waves ceased immediately (Mk 6:51), and they were already at landfall (Jn 6:21, keep in mind they were in the middle of the sea during this entire ruckus)! They anchored at the land of Gennesaret, southwest of Capernaum (Mt 14:34).
When Jesus climbed into the boat, Mark records the disciples reactions, “And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled” (Mk 6:51). “Amazed” literally means “out of their minds.” Such astonishment, according to Mark, was because “they had not understood about the loaves” (Mk 6:52) or the signs Jesus was performing that pointed to Him as the true Messiah, the Son of God. These boys hadn’t comprehended (or connected the dots) what had been taking place recently: miraculous healing, feeding of the five thousand, walking on the water, the winds and the waves stopping as soon as Jesus stepped on board the boat, and now they were miraculously at port without anymore strokes of the oars!
Now in fairness to the disciples, they finally realized Jesus' true identity, “You are certainly God’s Son” (Mt 14:33)! Why couldn’t the disciples put two and two together? Mark said it was “because their heart was hardened.” “Heart” is singular here emphasizing that as a group they all had hardened their hearts. “Hardened” literally means like a stone, dull of seeing and hearing, insensitive to spiritual understanding, callous, petrified (Mk 6:52).
No one can explain the actual process of spiritual petrification like they can with the geological processes of wood being turned into stone. But we sure can see the evidence of it – peoples’ hearts are insensitive toward the things of God. They hear the Words and see the works but do not apply the spiritual realities. Everything Jesus did was to produce faith in others. A hard heart is insensitive to spiritual truth. Thank God that such a spiritual condition is reversible by faith.
Are we like the Rock of Ages (Christ-like) or a specimen in some spiritual petrified forest somewhere, a display of the power of unbelief and doubt due to some personal spiritual upheaval? We simply need to be faithful and not wind up like “Old Faithful.” <><
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