Bible Study series: Mark 6:45-52. Do not fear! Jesus miraculously comes to save you.

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Mark 6

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Scripture: Mark 6:45-52

⁴⁵ Afterwards, Jesus urged his disciples to get in the boat and go ahead to the other side to Bethsaida, while he was sending the crowd away. ⁴⁶ As he was saying goodbye to them, he withdrew to the hills to pray. ⁴⁷ When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. ⁴⁸ Seeing them struggling to row (for the wind was against them), about the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the lake and wanted to go by them. ⁴⁹ But seeing him walking on the lake, they thought that he was a ghost, and they cried out, ⁵⁰ for everyone saw him and were troubled. But immediately he spoke to them and said to them, “Courage! It is I! Do not fear!” ⁵¹ He got in the boat with them, and the wind stopped. They were exceedingly amazed between them, ⁵² for they did not understand about the loaves, for their heart had been hard. (Mark 6:45-52)

Comments

45:

Jesus “urged” them is a milder version of the Greek verb “compelled” or even “forced.” One option is even milder for the Greek verb: “invited.” But the latter translation is unusual. Jesus pressed or conscripted them to get into the boat.

As for Bethsaida, Luke’s version of the feeding of the five thousand says that he took them to Bethsaida, yet here they have to cross over to the other side to get to Bethsaida. Evidently, they went at first towards Bethsaida on their retreat, but then they wandered a long way off when Jesus began to heal them. The remoteness was the whole point of the miracle feeding. They had to go back to the towns and villages to buy food. So Jesus now compels them to get in the boat and go back to Bethsaida by water, not by land. The boat trip would not have involved crossing the entire length of the lake, however.

“disciples”: see v. 1 for more comments.

In the geographic discrepancy between Bethsaida and Gennesaret, Strauss proposes:

Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him to nearby Bethsaida, “while he dismissed the crowd” … He planned to meet them there, but if he was delayed, they were to embark westward toward Capernaum and Gennesaret. This solution finds some support from Matthew’s account, which says that they were to go ahead of him “while … he dismisses the crowd” (Matt. 14:22). It would also explain why the disciples were still in the middle of the lake hours later (v. 48), i.e., they first went to Bethsaida and waited several hours for Jesus. Only later, when Jesus was delayed on the mountain, did they embark toward Gennesaret. (p. 285)

That sounds reasonable to me.

As I noted above, in vv. 8-9:

13. Are There Contradictions in the Gospels?

‘Total’ Inerrancy and Infallibility or Just Infallibility? (my view of Scripture)

The main thing is not to let your faith become so brittle that it snaps in two when these differences emerge. It does not matter in light of the main message of this passage. Keep the main thing the main thing.

46-47:

In the previous pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or section of Scripture, Jesus had compassion on the crowd that ran towards him and his disciples. He did not chase them away in exasperation. In these two verses, however, he really did need to spend time alone. He didn’t even want the disciples around. He went up to the hills. The Greek literally reads: “the mountain,” and I translated it that way, but the best of scholarship says that it was a hilly area, so I changed it to “hills.” I assume, nonetheless, that he chose the highest hill / mountain around.

He needed to pray. Luke 5:16 says he often got alone by himself to pray. The lesson for us is obvious. If the mighty Son of God, who miraculously fed five thousand, plus woman and children, and is about to walk on water must pray, then we should too. No, our prayers won’t guarantee that we’ll walk on water, because God has to will it, but we still need to get our perspective right and our faith built up. Prayer is necessary for that.

Let’s look at prayer and praying for a moment.

As noted elsewhere throughout this commentary series,prayer flows out of confidence before God that he will answer because we no longer have an uncondemned heart (1 John 3:19-24); and we know him so intimately that we find out from him what is his will is and then we pray according to it (1 John 5:14-15); we pray with our Spirit-inspired languages (1 Cor. 14:15-16). Pray!

What Is Prayer?

What Is Petitionary Prayer?

What Is Biblical Intercession?

48-50:

The fourth watch of the night is between 3:00 and 6:00 hours, early in the morning. The day was about ending. This shows, indirectly, that Jesus spent many hours praying. He could see that they had trouble rowing their boat. How could he see at night? It must have been the springtime (they sat down on green grass, v. 39), and the wind was blowing, so fog was not hindering his vision. In spring, it must have been a full moon. It’s not so difficult to see a boat and men struggling, at least in a silhouette, in moonlight while he was on top of a high hill. (Sidebar comment: I went to the lake of Galilee when I was about nineteen years old, and it is beautiful and bright at night.)

It is humorous (to me, at least) that he intended to walk past them (“Hello! Don’t mind me! I’ll see you in a short while in Bethsaida!”). However, humor aside, this “passing by” may refer to Exod. 33:19 in which God promised Moses that God would “pass by” the cleft of the rock where Moses was hidden. Also, in 1 King 19:11-12, the Lord said he would “pass by” where Elijah was. This entire passage may refer to this passage in Job: God “alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea … Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him” (Job 9:8, 11, ESV). This is an indirect reference to Christ’s deity. It was a manifestation of the divine presence, a theophany of sorts.

In any case, the disciples saw him and cried out with fear and were terrified or troubled. So he had to minister to them and their fear. They thought they had seen a ghost. They were not thinking that they had seen Jesus’s ghost, since they had no reason to believe he was dead. It was just a ghost (or so they wrongly thought). However, there are no ghosts, but their fear got the better of them and warped their beliefs. The disciples had bad theology. It came from pop culture. Beware of pop culture. It is bound by bad thinking, mixed in with Satan’s devices and strategies.

“It is I”: it could be translated as “I am.” In light of the divine manifestation of Christ, it is possible that Jesus was referring to Exod. 3:14: “I Am who I Am.” On the other hand, it was a common way of saying, “It’s me!” You can decide, based on the context.

It should be pointed out that only Matthew records the incident of Peter asking to climb out of the boat and sinking when he was doubleminded and his faith slipped away (14:28-31). Many scholars believe that Mark got his Gospel from listening to Peter preach and retell his story about his time with Jesus. Maybe Peter didn’t want his moment of failure publicized in writing!

51:

Now the episode of fear and terror ends in peace and calm. As soon as he gets in the boat, the contrary wind stopped. Jesus brings peace whenever he is by your side and gets in your “personal boat,” so to speak. You don’t need to fear the storms of life, when things are going in an unexpected and contrary direction. Jesus will be right there with you.

Jesus fulfilled this passage:

52:

What about the bread in this context? They should have connected that the Lord who could feed five thousand men, plus women and children, could also walk on water and clam the storm. Further the reference to the loaves may hearken back to the Exodus theme. Moses worked nature miracles–nine of them–and now Jesus did three–feeding them with bread, walking on water, and calming the storm. He was leading them in a better and newer exodus (Strauss, comments on 6:51-52).

Now what about the hard heart? This may also relate to an Exodus theme. Pharaoh had a hard heart (Exod. 7:3, 13, 22; 8:15, 32; 9:12; 10:1). But let’s not overblow the contexts. The Pharaoh was a national monarch and pagan and led his nation toward judgment; these disciples were on a quest, and eventually all of them would believe (except Judas).

Apparently Mark is simply communicating that their hearts were dull and thick and unperceptive. The disciples fail to make the connection from one miracle (feeding the five thousand) to the next (walking on water). No one knows for sure, with detailed knowledge, why hearts get hard. Inability or small capacity in their souls to process all the data? That reason applies to them. He was the Messiah and Son of God, and they believed for a little while, but then they slid right back into complacency. Maybe they simply expected things to go this way. However, they were exceedingly amazed or stunned or astonished, so they could not be completely complacent or used to things. Apparently they just has small souls and little minds. They simply could not process the spiritual, kingdom data that Jesus was feeding them.

The main point is that the disciples did not need to show so much fear and draw the wrong conclusion that they were seeing a ghost. They should have known that the only option was Jesus. They had seen him calm the storm, after all (4:35-41). Mark is answering the question which his original listeners must have been asking: how could those men not connect the dots? They were hard of heart or small of soul or thick of mind.

GrowApp for Mark 6:45-52

1. When Jesus got in the boat where his disciples were, the contrary wind stopped. How has his presence calmed the storms in your life?

RELATED

10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel

2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel

2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels

14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels

1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series

SOURCES

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Mark 6