Mark 6:47-56
When evening came, the boat was out on the lake, and he was
alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an
adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the lake.
He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the lake, they
thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified.
But immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be
afraid.’ Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were
utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their
hearts were hardened.
When they had crossed
over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of
the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and
began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he
went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the
market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his
cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
This is pretty freaky. I can completely understand why a lot of people found Jesus too scary, and just wanted him to leave.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can understand why the crowds came to be healed. And why they assumed miracles were what Jesus was about, since that is most of what we hear about him doing.
So far, I don't understand why, in Mark's gospel, Jesus' followers want to follow him. In reading fragments of the various gospels each Sunday, it is easy to assume that Jesus has already explained what "the good news of God" is, or what "kingdom of God" means.
I am getting an uneasy feeling that, by the end of the story, we are going to find out that Christianity is based, not on anything Jesus said, but on other people's later commentaries on Jesus. And it is really embarrassing to think that, after all these years, this is the first time I have been reading a gospel straight through, with the intention of separating what the author is really saying, from what "we already know."