45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.
47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
Having picked up the leftovers, the disciples are hurried back onto the boat by Jesus. It is as if Jesus fears that if they linger with the crowd something terrible will happen. Does he fear that they will take credit or that they will begin to believe that Jesus' miracles are at their beck and call? Whatever the reason Jesus commands them onto the boat.
The disciples gone, Jesus then dismisses the crowd. While his followers had wanted to send the crowd away to fend for themselves, the people are first fed before being sent. Like many characteristics in Mark (blindness and deafness come to mind) hunger is not only a literal condition but also a spiritual one. Jesus has fed the crowd with his teaching and now they are ready to be sent with the abundant message of the now present Kingdom of God.
The point of this trip, Mark has told us some verses earlier is to rest. That had been thwarted by the crowd that awaited them on the shore, but now with the crowd dismissed and the disciples on the boat, Jesus withdraws to the mountainside to pray. The Hebrew scriptures often refer to mountains as a place where people have important encounters with God. Jesus who was fully human as well as fully God needed to pray as he went about the work of the Kingdom.
And then there is another incident on the water in the middle of the night. One benefit of reading Mark in its entirety is that it is impossible to not notice that some of the familiar stories seem to be repeated. Jesus just fed five thousand and in a few chapters will feed four thousand. Jesus calms the storm and now does the same with the additional detail of walking on water. These repetitions may be retellings of the same event or similar activities that are told to place extraordinary emphasis on particular ideas.
This time in the current incident of night sailing, Jesus is not asleep on a cushion. In fact he is wide awake and sees their struggle before the disciples see him. This echoes the calling of the disciples in chapter one, where Jesus sees the prospective disciples and approaches them with the call to follow.
Whether it was a clear night or Jesus is using some form of divine vision, he sees that they are struggling at the oars because of the wind. And shortly before dawn, Mark tells us, Jesus acts. Intentional or not, this strikes me as one of the great comforts of scripture. The old saw is that it is always darkest before the dawn. At the darkest moment, before hope even starts to show itself, Jesus comes to be with us.
But the comfort is a strange one, because though Jesus has seen them struggling walks on the water he does not appear to be all that interested in stopping to help them. Mark tells us he intends to pass them by. Jesus has told them that he will meet them on the other side, and that appears to be what he intends to do. Does he see that the disciples have the situation under control and do not need his help? Does Jesus need to be invited before he will respond? I don't know.
When they see him, the disciples don't really see him. They are convinced that he is a ghost. Like Herod earlier who mistakes Jesus for John the Baptist, the disciples even after all their experiences with Jesus are unable to recognize him. Seeing someone walking on water, they are convinced that it must be some form of apparition, despite having seen Jesus show control over the natural world by stilling the storm and multiplying the bread. Seeing the figure does not bring them comfort but terror. And perhaps that is why Jesus is going to pass them by, because he knows that if they see him they will jump to the wrong conclusions, and he will only add to their fear.
When it is obvious that there is nothing to do, but to respond to the frantic disciples, Jesus says the oft repeated phrase when people have an encounter with an angel or the divine. "Do not be afraid," he tells them. It is interesting in our modern world that we have built such a comfortable picture of God that we wouldn't even consider being afraid in God's presence. But throughout the bible, the response of even good people when confronted by God is to be afraid and God or the angels first effort is to quell that fear.
When Jesus enters the boat, the second storm is stilled. The disciples are amazed, but Mark wants us to understand that their reaction is not a positive one. They are amazed because they still don't understand who Jesus is. We wonder how that can be. They have lived with Jesus, been taught by Jesus, seen the miraculous acts of Jesus but still don't believe. But disciples, then and now, have trouble truly understanding God's son. Mark tells us their hearts were hardened which brings to mind the Pharaoh whose hardened heart keeps him from letting the children of Israel go and will lead to great destruction. Our hope is that their hardened hearts (and ours) will be transformed, but their appears little evidence that this happens prior to the resurrection.
With Jesus in the boat, the rest of the trip is uneventful. Upon landing, the typical reaction cycle is repeated again. People know who Jesus is, get their friends, crowd around him. Jesus has taught and fed the crowd on the other side of the lake, but the crowd on this side appears more interested in being physically healed. They bring the sick on mats (like the friends who lower the paralytic) and touch the edge of his cloak and are healed (like the woman with the flow of blood). It has almost a carnival feeling--adoring crowds and the sick being healed.
It seems almost as if a cycle is being repeated. Mark begins with the calling of the disciples, followed by Jesus teaching and then his healing ministry. Now Jesus has sent the disciples, taught the hungry crowd and again cured the sick.
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