Warts and All

By John Frye

One writer describes Mark 6:45-52 an one of the most enigmatic episodes in Mark’s Gospel. The main wonder is Jesus walking on water. What’s so puzzling about this pericope? Several questions come to mind. First, why the compelling urgency of Jesus forcing his disciples to get into the boat (6:45)? The verb ηναγκασενis unexplained. Second, why did Jesus intend to pass by his exhausted, struggling disciples (6:48)?  Third, why fault the terrified disciples for not understanding “the loaves” in their shattering fright on the sea (6:52)?

Let’s see if we can solve some these puzzling observations. A good harmony of the Gospels helps us answer the first question. John reports that after feeding the 5000, the crowd wanted to seize Jesus and make him king by force (John 6:15). Behind the urgency of Mark 6:45 is the frenzied mob mentality of the crowd. Jesus forced his disciples away from that peril. Becoming king by popular vote was not anywhere in Jesus’ thinking. Neither must that idea poison the disciples. With the disciples away in the boat on the sea, Jesus himself escapes to pray on the mountain alone. Can we sense somehow that Jesus in his humanity felt the intentions of the Evil One in the temptation of the crowd’s assault on Jesus? Become king without the cross.

Secondly, the puzzling intention of Jesus to pass by his struggling disciples is solved by some scholars by continuing to import Moses motifs into the event. The feeding of the 5000 seems to present Jesus as a new Moses. So, as God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and passed by (Exodus 33:22), so Jesus is expressing his divinity by passing by the Twelve. Only God can tread on the waves of the sea (Job 9:8), so Jesus walking on water proves his deity. If is the case, it is totally lost on the scared witless disciples. They don’t think “Moses,” they think “ghost!” A popular belief in that time was that departed spirits lived in the sea. Some scholars suggest that the Moses solution would be lost on Mark’s original readers as well because those (Roman) readers would not readily appreciate subtle Old Testament textures in this Mark episode.

Thirdly, why did Mark bring up “the loaves” to badger the uncomprehending disciples (6:52)? When it comes to the disciples, Mark is a “warts and all” kind of writer. The classic and humorous text underscoring the disciples’ lack of understanding is Mark 8:14-21. I think “the loaves” reference belongs in that pericope if anywhere. To add salt to the wound, Mark writes that the disciples’ “hearts were hardened.” An exegetical note is that the word “hearts” is in fact singular. Mark comments on the communal heart of the Twelve. Hardened is a phrase that describes Jesus’ most hostile opponents (see Mark 3:5-6). Lane suggests that the acts of Jesus are “parabolic” and so sees Jesus revealing himself as the sovereign LORD of Israel. Still not understanding Jesus’ identity (“it is I” = “I AM” for Lane) because of lack of faith, the disciples are in the same realm of unbelief as Jesus’ foes.

Whatever views we hold about this passage, we must not lose sight of an opening observation. Jesus saw the disciples’ futile rowing against a fierce headwind. He saw. Then he moved. “He went out to them.” That’s our hope as it was theirs and was for the first readers of Mark’s Good News Story. As obtuse as their understanding was, as deficient as their faith was, Jesus cared for them. They were his by choice. Jesus stands against all that is against them, and us. He sees us, he feels for us, and whether we comprehend it or not, he says, “Take courage. I am here.”