Category: Mark   6

So wherever he went – to villages, or towns, or farms – they would lay their sick in the market-places, begging him to let them touch only the tassel of his cloak; and all who touched were made well.

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we beg for allowance
to do what we could do
simply on our own

thinking life is a trick
we look for permission
to access an open door

when external affirmation
is not forthcoming
we collapse

these internal limits
crop up again and again
to stunt our growth

after spending so much time
and energy to travel
we abort our arrival

lift up your head
o mighty gate-crasher
you are welcome

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Jesus is portrayed as observing the Torah commandment from Numbers 15:37­­–41: G*D partnered with Moses says, “Tell the Israelites to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations. When they see it, they will remember and live our rules of engagement.”

This technical term, κράσπεδον (kraspedon) noted by Bratcher₂₁₈

(only here in Mark) ‘edge’, ‘border’, ‘hem’; probably here not in the general sense, but in the specific sense of ‘tassel’ worn by pious Jews on each of the four corners of the cloak.

is lost in our contemporary familiarity with the fabric neatly turned under and stitched flat.

Who knows what else we have lost in the passage of time and culture as language is added to and, at the same time, turns archaic. Reading slowly with others heals compromised understanding when everyone uses their own lens and applies their own meaning to ancient words.

Connecting touching in Jesus’ work with reading, Moore₄₀ says:

This touching is a kind of darshan, being in the presence of the teacher and receiving healing power from it. It is significant that a story like this one shows the importance of an effort to be present, rather than an intellectual agreement with a set of teachings. Many people who love the Gospel stories have not had the full experience because they have been taught to think of them as the basis for a creed rather than a way of being…. We might think of reading the Gospel stories as a kind of darshan, where the reading itself puts us in touch with the power of the story.

hurried over the whole country-side, and began to carry about on mats those who were ill, wherever they heard he was.

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finding health
is difficult enough
without a secret M.A.S.H.
mobile announcement spreading hero

put the wounded on mats
toted stretcher style
slowly through tough terrain
faster helicoptering above

rather than ride off in all directions
tune-in to traffic on the eights
for news of delays and accidents
to arrive before another venue change

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In Europe first, United States of America next, and expected in the currently growing churches south of the equator—people are not running to bring the sick and poor to the church. When they are not present, “church” ceases to be a community of compassion and premeditated mercy. Not all the money in the world will cover for the bankruptcy of homogeneity.

Somehow the crowds are able to see value in the presence of Jesus and go out of their way to see that those who need a revival are able to be present with him. Admittedly, an appreciation of a return to health can be short-lived and turn into, “I’ve got mine; you are responsible for your own getting.” What we too easily term curing miracles pale in regard to a healing miracle of heart, attitude, and running to honor a healing by sharing its source with all about.

The detail of people being carried on a mat takes us back to Chapter 2 and the friends of a paralytic digging through the roof to be let in.

Imagine the sick of a whole region showing up. It was difficult with the paralytic when the “competition” for healing was only the city of Capernaum. If even more people crowd around, the desired respite (remember this is a continuation of wanting to get away because there wasn’t time to eat) is again put off.

An obvious question: Why the current disconnect from people running to bring folks to Jesus and folks running from the presence of his official trademark? A not obvious response: First, we have lost the Chapter 6 commission to recognize “hospitality” and leverage it to cast out demons. Second, will be a Chapter 9 “prayer” (vs. 29) that redeems technique from proof to the mystery of partnered relationships. On these two rest an authority connected with creation energy.

But they had no sooner left her than the people, recognizing Jesus,

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everywhere we go
people seem to know
who we are
without an advance team
or a Barnum barker

no one knew we were coming
without being ready
ears perked up eyes widened
a good word about now and soon
carries across water

the never-ending teachings
skipped before us on the wind
preparing our landing in tomorrow
before we even completed today
now back to business

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Here we go again. John has been beheaded. The Twelve report their adventures in healing and proclaiming. Too many people leaves no time and so a journey only to be met by 5,000. Continuing to get away, the Twelve are packed off and Jesus goes to pray. A storm. A storm strider. Go ashore, one more time.

Arrgh! How do we have time to reflect and also cool these sorts of receptions until Herod cools off?

It is in this tension of internal desires and external pressures that we live and move and present what passes for being.

Sometimes we overemphasize one desire or pressure. In so doing we set up a coming correction. Eliza Gilkyson has a truthful song, “The Great Correction”. This is not just some End-Time judgment but a recognition that today is a Correction Day. To reprise Jesus’ first insight as a result of his wilderness testing, “A right-timed Correction Day stands in our midst. The Presence of G*D is closer than breath. Keep on changing toward a larger Partnership by trusting good news will persist and prevail.”

At some point, whether it is where we first aimed or not, we need to leave intentions behind and wade ashore to implement our latest incomplete vision cast without enough time to reflect or energy to press past old tapes.

We just left a crowd that had its eye on Jesus’ location and beat him to his landing spot. Now, because of the storm, no one has seen how an announced trip to Bethsaida took a turn to Genneraset and still a crowd rises up, seemingly from nowhere. Again, unspoken this time, compassion for people not-doing-well wells up.

Our call is, simply, to let our compassion overflow its banks.

When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret, and moored the boat.

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we were headed toward Bethsaida
rowing like our lives depended on it
such persistence we had
stubborn in the face of such a wind

that’s us loyal to a fault
especially when that fault is in us
sea shanty after shanty was sung
until we began hallucinating

at long last we got our bearings
Bethsaida here we come
and then we arrived at Gennesaret
how did that happen

we’re sailors in our own pond
we know directions wind and wave
this is a baffling turn of events
what else do we think we are sure of

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It is not unusual on a journey to end up at a waypoint different than expected. This shift from Bethsaida to Gennesaret takes us back to the basics of fishing for people.

This simple stage direction is as integral to the vision of Jesus as any healing or feeding or teaching or prophecy. It indicates a vast understanding from much testing and retreat reflection on that testing. “Seventy times seven” but scratches the surface of times to regroup after one more unexpected landing.

Imagine if the story ended with verse 52—hearts changed away from good news.

But, after intending to pass by on his way to somewhere—(Gennesaret? Bethsaida? Elsewhere?) Jesus ends up in the boat. This shift is a form of repentance from going it alone to throwing one’s lot in with questionable others. This valuing of inclusion has previously shown up with Noahic rainbows, Abram advocating for Sodom, Moses interceding for the Israelites at Sinai, Jonah finally coming around and whispering in Ninevah. Even when arriving at a different conclusion than that intended, Jesus does not giving up on misdirected, hard-hearted, and fearful partners.

What seems like segue material turns out to be a summary of journeys toward an evolving good news, not a static news sequentially codified as a creedal statement intended for all time. This will carry us to the end of a story that will be reread to go deeper into the beginning of good news that won’t be appreciated the first or even second or third time through.

A missed landing shows providence still at work.

for they had not understood about the loaves, their minds being slow to learn.

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the half-life of a call
seems extraordinarily short
one moment flush with vision
only to find our heart hardened
repeated misunderstandings

a call without a manual
increases our tendency
to turn everything into yesterday
continuing former powers
past any previous benefit

what don’t we get
let us count the ways
unaccounted for abundance
exponential expectations
our reclamation

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The loaves? In the midst of a dramatic windy, stormy sea we are to remember the loaves before we were summarily sent off and Jesus went away to pray?!

This gives pause to reflect on everything up to this point. Can you go back and tick off the journey to this point? If you check your memory against the text there is a good chance that the moments forgotten weren’t really understood.

Do you understand the gaps in your understanding as do some of the languages that don’t have an easy reference for a hardened heart (which is how most English translations spell out the import of having been “changed”)? “They have hard heads” (Trique), “Their ears do not have holes” (Shipibo), or “They do not have pain in their hearts” (Tzeltal). Bratcher₂₁₆ goes on to note:

Hardened indicates primarily a state of being resulting from a process, not a specific process requiring identification of the particular agent. The Greek has reference to the condition of the hearts, not the process by which they become hardened.

A part of the reader’s task is to supply meaning to that which is being read. How might the hearts of the Twelve have come to be changed away from an understanding that leads to repentant change and follow where good news leads and, instead, result in simply being amazed and baffled? It is our unthinking projections that can help us identify where the missed insight is located.

Simply remembering Chapter 6 tracks us back to connectivity and partnership. Nazareth, an immersion laboratory, Herod and John, a good lab report, boat greeted by 5,000, wanting to send them away, and sent away themselves—hardened—not understanding hospitality. To miss the loaves is to miss compassion, partnership, and mutuality.

Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind dropped. The disciples were utterly amazed,

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shift again
from passing by all else
to living in another’s space

such shifting
is proclaimer work
it’s face-to-face stupid

shifting lessons
keep us off-guard
mystified by our bafflement

shift teaching
introduces us to ourself
and tomorrow’s self

shift intentionally
choosing curiosity over
disappointed expectation

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An important question is, “What happened that Jesus intended to pass by but ended up entering the boat?”

LaVerdiere₁₈₃, seems certain about Mark’s intent:

Mark,… is telling two stories at once, that of Jesus with his disciples and that of the Lord with apostolic Church. His Gospel makes little or no effort to distinguish these two periods in our Christian origins. Rather, they interpenetrate one another…. The statement must have been especially meaningful to Mark’s early readers, many of whom may have felt that the Lord was passing them by, while in fact he was with them in the boat of the Church, but unrecognized.

This seems optimistic as we are in a post-fact, alt-fact, culture where

—Who can tell truth from falsehood any more?

I say it, and you feel it in your hearts:

no man or woman on this big small earth.

—How should our sages miss the mark of life,

and our most skillful players lose the game?

your hearts will tell you, as my heart has told me:

because all know, and no one understands.

(E.E. Cummings, “Santa Claus: A Morality”)

This may be why Matthew adds the story of inviting Peter into the storm. His first attention to walking with Jesus becomes drawn by the waves and he sinks. Peter’s being plucked from pre-creation waters is likely an encouraging connection with a scared reader.

Here, however, Jesus has sent the Twelve in one direction while he retreated in prayer. There is a storm, a ghostly Jesus, and a calming of the storm (as before). We are about to reenter a teaching mode with no further dramatics to catch our attention and distract us.

One way we can tell teaching, not action, is the order of the day is the bafflement of the Twelve—their response to teaching.

for all of them saw him, and were terrified. But Jesus at once spoke to them. “Courage!” he said,“it is I; do not be afraid!”

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just then
in terrors midst
when crazy
disorients disorientation
driving us twice as far
into a foot-sucking slough

just then
a light-footed faun
shifts from tripping up
to topping up
relax WE ARE
no fear

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Were the pond still, we can imagine a strong surface tension (perhaps enough to hold one up if feet were broad enough). But the waters are roiling. Anyone moving over the face of this deep goes beyond our understanding. The Twelve represent well our experience of G*D once we get beyond pat phrases and repeated praises. Terror, confusion, and trouble right here are all ways we know we are beyond awe and in a wilderness of testing.

Caught between wanting this apparition to pass by, which it seems was its intention, and wanting Jesus to step in, we are at sixes and sevens—an internal reflection of our external setting.

This trouble we are in traps us in our fear. From previous accounts of people being troubled, we might remember “angelic” visitations that offered an encouraging word, “Peace”. That same pronouncement is here in the form of the result of “Peace”—“Courage”. [Note: This is a two-way street. Peace gives courage to act. Courage to act brings peace.]

One of the questions is why a goodly many translations translate ἐγώ εἰμί (ego eimi, I am) as “It’s me”, when this same phrase in 13:6 and 14:62 has “I am”, G*D’s self-revelation to Moses in Exodus 3:14, “I am who I am”. This potential theophany scene stays in the ghostly here and now with the “weaker” (Aichele₂₅), “It’s me” (which sounds more horrifying than calming in today’s post-Chucky context).

Even if the stronger language were here in English, any befuddled disciples initially responding as Moses did, there is an official end-bracketing of “I am” with an official word of “Peace”.

This strange scene in Mark doesn’t quite make it to a full blown appearance of G*D by a Human One. Nonetheless, “Courage” before a revelation of G*D and “Peace” after is a helpful model upon which we can see our life and lives bob, bob, bobbing along. Courage and Peace, here and elsewhere, are both singular and plural.

But, when they saw him walking on the water, they thought it was a ghost, and cried out;

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a ghost
by any other name
frightens

unexplained healings
what were those feedings
shock

in their moments
we got caught up
awed

delayed PTSD
sees another anomaly
freak

struggling sailors
know long odds
improbable

in the end
a keening scream
abandoned

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Exhausted by being tortured by rowing against an overwhelming storm at sea, it is easy to have our thinking get out of whack. In a small fashion my bicycling from Madison, WI to Boston, MA brought an exhausted time when thinking went backward and a prayer went up that the trees would stop waving so the wind would stop.

On a proverbially “dark and stormy night”, while worn down with water in every eye from exertion (salty) and rain and spray, any form takes on more than itself. Recognition of a dear friend can be glimpsed in many a crowd by just one characteristic or discounted in a location where they would be least expected to be present.

Apparently, still, one person’s intention is not clear to others. An intent to pass by appears false. There! That! It’s still coming closer. What are we going to do? And the closer it comes the more prepared we are to do the only recourse we have—scream for help! Even if there is no Coast Guard, we scream.

Regardless of how many rational explanations and extended midrashes as we come up with, we are probably dealing more with a revelatory story than an accurate accounting that can withstand every speculation thrown against it.

When we are caught in the throws of danger or concentration we are vulnerable to early tapes overwhelming our later learnings. Herod killed John. This storm is about to do us in. Here comes a demon we don’t recognize. The world is falling apart. Our acts of centering are failing us. The times are higgledy-piggledy. A Son of G*D won’t make it against the Romans. How can we click our heels together or knock the dust off our feet in this inhospitable situation?

Seeing them laboring at the oars – for the wind was against them – about three hours after midnight Jesus came towards them, walking on the water, intending to join them.

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a wind block
raises frustration
exhausts energy
traps thinking

what else can be done
we might as well
sail into wet concrete
that sets around us

stuck just stuck
whether too much headwind
or too large a drag
just stuck stuck

trapped in persistence
an option to retreat
in place
passes us by

so caught
even our own
lives
pass by

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To see in the dark at the designated distance would indicate sight beyond the usual human range—telescopic and infrared.

Of course there is sight beyond visual stimuli. One of the unappreciated aspects of prayer is its connection with aboriginal Dreamtime, astral projection, particle entanglement, and any number of additional extra-sensory connections that can extend for untold distances.

However one goes about understanding this scene, we are on notice that something spooky is going on.

Our lives are very easily stuck with all our energy going into rowing against whatever force is blocking our progress. We are forever trying to find ways around, under, or over an opposing wind.

Finally, between 3:00 to 6:00 A.M., Jesus wanders out to see what is going on. Finding a normal human situation, our best efforts coming to naught, Jesus appears to simply pass by.

καὶ ἤθελεν παρελθεῖν αὐτούς (kai ēthelen paralthein autous, pass them by) is unique to Mark and is difficult. —“It can reasonably be translated by ‘began to pass by them’ or ‘made as though he would pass by them.’ Equally, the verb without a direct object can be rendered ‘join,’ ‘come to…’ Why Jesus would have passed them by we cannot know. We can only record the tradition.” [Mann₃₀₅]

Of course readers are not limited by a tradition of a deus ex machine, a yellow submarine, or other way to avoid being stymied.

When evening fell, the boat was out in the middle of the sea, and Jesus on the shore alone.

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in this time
it is becalmed evening
in dreamtime
tomorrow comes visiting

both continue
in realms separately joined
both reveal the other
foreground background

we soften our gaze
to move from a day’s passing
and focus our attention
to move toward unexplored joy

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With Bethsaida around the corner, why was the boat in the middle of the lake? Perhaps their deserted place wasn’t where we thought it was. Mark’s sense of geography is less than helpful to those with a sense of the lay of the land.

With location being metaphorical, the middle of the lake is the equivalent of up a river with no paddle or another difficult time. Time, along with space, can also be suggestive rather than accurate in regard to some recognized standard. As “darkness comes” is time’s way of indicating every experience of uncertainty.

It is important to ask about prayer at this point. Jesus is off to do it. What manner of prayers did the Twelve employ as they entered the boat? What about entering evening on the water? Or when things get dicey a bit later? Where is prayer all along the way?

Communal prayers are as needed as prayers when one is alone. Communal prayers are more difficult to put together or pause to listen to.

We’ve heard this story before. We remember a directly similar scene from another night on the Lake. We can also begin to hear similarities beyond a boat after Dark. Three disciples are invited to travel up a mountain to witness a transfiguration. We won’t be overly surprised to also hear connections with another transformation; this time with Twelve on a lake.

Whether Jesus is along or not, there is an adventure around every corner that will ask us to push beyond our latest engagement with ourselves, the world around, or a partnership beyond all reason.

One of the places we need to wrestle a bit is with the relationship between Jesus praying and the Twelve on the move. Enjoy these theodicy questions: Does Jesus pray for a storm for the Twelve to learn from? If not, was Jesus lax in praying for safety for others?