Practicing Curiosity in Bible Study (Mark 6:45-52)

We're continuing our study of the miracles in the book of Mark with a study of a familiar miracle in Mark 6. Together we'll study:

• how to use curiosity to learn more from a familiar passage,
• why asking for more of Jesus may actually a risky move, and
• the vast number of miracles Jesus really performed. 

There's so much we can learn from this familiar passage. I can't wait to study with you! 

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Transcript

Welcome back to Hanging on Every Word. This season we’re studying through miracles in the book of Mark and we’re headed into another famous miracle today. This our 11th miracle in the book of Mark and I”m dedicating a whole episode to it because it’s a pretty great on. I’m almost positive you’ll be familiar with it so let’s jump into it!

This miracle is called Jesus Walks on Water. I think this miracle is recognizable whether you grew up in church and have a great grasp of the Bible or your new to learning about scripture. Its become so widely known that walking on water is just a symbol of divinity. The challenge for an account that’s this familiar is to look at it with fresh eyes. We can do that a couple ways. First, by slowing down and actually reading the account, not just assuming we know it. Second, by setting the account within context, and finally, by asking questions of scripture. Curiosity is so good when we’re studying the Bible. So let’s try to employ some of those good Bible study techniques to breath fresh life into a familiar passage. 

First, let’s read it. It’s founding mark 6:45-52

 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.

Next, let’s set this account into some context. If you listened to our episode last week then you know that Jesus has just finished feeding the 5,000. There’s that little detail in the account of the feeding that Jesus was intending to find a quiet place for him and the disciples to rest and get some food after they had been out teaching. But the crowds followed them. So he taught them, and then fed them.

Now that their needs were taken care of, Jesus sends the disciples by boat to Bethsaida. But he goes up the mountain to pray. Jesus made room for the interruption - which in this case was the crowd who followed him - but he circled back to his original commitment which was to climb the mountain and seek God. Though there were distractions worthy of his attention, this practice of going to the mountain to pray was non-negotiable. Listen, if Jesus finds it this important to pray, when he is God himself, how much more should this be a non-negotiable in our lives. And I think we can find encouragement here in the way Jesus prayed because he didn’t give up on it just because it didn’t go according to his plan. Even though it was late, even though it wasn’t how he intended his day to go, he still found time to seek God. What beautiful picture of the importance of spiritual discipline. 

Later that night, Jesus looks out and sees that his guys are having a hard time on the boat. The wind is beating against them. They’re struggling at the oars. Jesus sees them. But he is not in a rush to intervene and save them from their difficulty. Again, a word of encouragement for us. Jesus sees our struggles. Though he might not, and often doesn’t immediately save us fro our struggle, he knows how we strive and push against what bears down on us. And he’s watching over us. 

It wasn’t until shortly before dawn, sometime between 3 and 6 am that Jesus went to them. Mark casually tells us he was walking on the lake, no biggie. And I love the detail that he was going to pass by them. That’s really interesting. It doesn’t seem that Jesus intended to stop. This was his mode of transportation Bethsaida. It was far more effentient that a boat. And here’s where we can let our curiosity come in. O wonder, how many other time did Jesus do something like this- something obviously supernatural and physical, but maybe people just didn’t see it? 

But in this account, the disciples did see him. And their first instinct is that he is a ghost. It does not cross their minds that this could be Jesus. Though they have been walking with the real supernatural, their minds go toward superstition instead. They call out to him because they are terrified. It would look better for the disciples if they cried out to him because they wanted him to come near, or because they were like, yeah, go Jesus, look at how amazing you are! But that’s not the picture here. They cry out because they are screaming in terror. They think there’s a ghost coming toward them and all of them see it collectively. 

So Jesus speaks up and says, hey guys, it’s me. Take courage men, don’t be afraid. 

Again we see that Jesus understands the prevalence of fear in human hearts. He sees our weaknesses and invites us out of fear and toward courage and faith.

And Jesus, climbs into the boat, which must have been a scene. Just a guy standing on the top of water, climbing into the boat. When he gets in, it says the wind died down. The wind they were working against all night, suddenly calmed. This has happened before, but again, they are completely amazed, and the text implies they are not amazed in an awe-like state, but in a state of surprised. It gives us that little details that they had not understood about the loaves and their hearts were hardened. 

The loaves is referring back to the feeding of the 5,000 which had just occurred. They are seeing Jesus’s obvious supernatural and miraculous nature played out before their very eyes and yet they don’t understand and their hearts are hardened. What kept them from seeing who Jesus really was? 

I think it’s easy to question the disciples faith and assume our faith would be much stronger in the presence of Jesus. But the truth is, if I were to see these things real time - a small little meal feed well over 5,000 people and with leftovers, or a man walk on water and climb into my boat, I think I would have difficulting processing them real time and perhaps even believing them for what they were. 

Jesus shows that he is above the physical limitations of the world. That is confusing for us. We don’t even have a framework for what that really means. Because as humans we ar all prisoners of time and space, we are limited, and set in our place in the created order by our Creator. This is what makes sense to use. And then there’s Jesus, this God Man walking in the created order but clearly not limited in the same way we are. 

It’s a theme we’ve seen repeat throughout Mark, which is the idea that when people see the true identity of Jesus, they are filled with fear and they respond often with wanting less of him, not more. As I read I find this to be a warning to my own heart, that when I beg for more of Jesus, I need to accept that he sin’t like me, or what I make him out to be. He is powerful, terrifying in the best way. He is awe-inspiring, and asking for more of him is a risky move because it beckons us outside of our limitations and into the world we love to live like doesn’t exist. The world that we can’t see, the world of supernatural, or spirits and good and evil. 

If we’re asking questions then a good one to consider about this passage is, what actually limits us? Jesus was fully man yet he walked on water. Is it our physicality that stops us or or unbelief? What could we do if we had faith even a fraction of the size of Jesus’s? 

Something to consider…though we don’t see it told here, we know Peter, if just for a moment, had faith enough in Jesus to walk on water. More of Jesus will call us to do crazy, scary, amazing things. SO be ready when you call on him. 

Ok, let’s switch gears a little and head into our 12th miracle in the book of mark. I debated whether to even include this in our list because it’s very short. But I felt it was important to give us some insight into Jesus’s ministry. 

 Right after Jesus walks on water in Mark 5 we get a little paragraph about Jesus miracles. It’s found in Mark 5:53-56

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.

We find that Jesus crosses the Sea of Galliee again, a journey that is becoming very familiar in his ministry. And they land in Gennesaret. Mark uses his active language again and tells us that AS SOON as they got out of the boat people recognized Jesus. 

It’s an interesting idea in a world with no news media or picture. Jesus’s fame spread so completely that a description of a man with 12 followers was enough for them to confident in who Jesus was. 

And their response to recognizing Jesus was to run home, RUN and get their sick. There’s an urgency and a complete trust that Jesus will heal these people. They don’t hesitate, debate, ruminate on if or how Jesus might do this. They just act. 

And it says that Jesus went into villages, towns, and contrysideds healing the sick. They brought them to the marketplace, the central place in town for Jesus to do mass healings in these little towns all across the Galilean countryside. 

 They were so confident in his healing, that like the bleeding woman, they were statisfied just to touch the edge of his cloak. Snd he’s the most amazing line in these verse - ALL, every sing one who touch it, just the edge of his robe, were healed. 

There is mass amounts of power coming out from Jesus. There are mass amounts of people going to Jesus. The extensiveness of his miracles is beyond what we can comprehend. It’s far more than is told in the Bible. And I want us to see that for a couple reasons

 First, I want use to see that Jesus. Was active, personal, and intentional for the people who were considered nobodies. He didn’t differentiate from status or money or influence. He healed ALL. 

And second, we see so many people encountering Jesus, but there’s only a small fraction that really see Jesus. They see what he can do. But they don’t see who he really is. That’s the danger in miracles, just to be honest. We want what Jesus can do. And he can do it ALL. But we can walk away wanting something FROM him without wanting HIM. For all those people Jesus healed, their rest of their lives were changed. But those who have eyes to see Jesus for who he really is, the rest of their ETERNITIES were changed.

May we want Jesus for who he is, not just what he can do for us. 

OK, friends, we’re heading into the last half of our miracles in mark this season, I’m loving this journey through Jesus’s miracles together and I can’t wait to study again with you.