Bible Study series: Mark 6:53-56. This is his ministry of putting bad things right. The kingdom of God has come.
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Scripture: Mark 6:53-56
53 When they crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and tied the boat up. 54 After they got out of the boat, the people instantly recognized him 55 and ran here and there in that whole region and began to carry sick people on mattresses here and there to the place where they heard that he was. 56 And wherever he went—villages or towns or hamlets—they set the ill people in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch the tassels on his garment. And whoever touched him was healed. (Mark 6:53-56)
Comments
53:
Now we know why Jesus wanted to go to the other side. He needed to minister to people over there. Gennesaret: You can look it up on a Bible map where it was. For my limited purpose, I note it was a fertile plain south of Capernaum.
I like the fisherman’s touch. They tied up the boat. Recall that many scholars say that Mark got his Gospel from hearing Peter preach, and Peter was a fisherman. Of course he would be concerned about tying up the boat. In Matthew’s version, he omits that tiny detail (14:34-36).
54-55:
The whole scene is one of excitement and crowds gathering and anticipating where he would be next. This was social networking in its most primitive form. Jesus was always on the move. We have to fill in the blank that he was also teaching them.
The marketplaces was the centers of town where people gathered, a square, even when market days were not going on. It was a natural place for them to ask him to permit them to touch the tassels on his prayer shawl. I also like that people carried their sick friends and relatives on mattresses or mats or pallets—all possible translations of the noun. They really cared for them to go to all that trouble. I wonder if we care for our own ill friends and families. I certainly hope people do not suffer alone and die alone.
Remember what Matt. 25:34-35 says:
34 “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty and you me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; and I was in prison and you came to me.’ (Matt. 25:34-35)
Those two verses are talking about visiting the disciples of Jesus (not spiritualized to be talking about Israel, as some teach). We must visit the down and out.
For an interpretation of Matt. 25:31-46, please visit:
Matthew 24:36 to 25:46–From Second Coming to New Messianic Age
Here in Mark 6:53-56, the wise people took their sick to Jesus, who healed them.
56:
I love this verse. They entreated or begged or pleaded with him to do one simple thing. Could they please—would he permit them?—touch the edge of his cloak or garment? He permitted it. He loved their faith. He honored it. Dear people of God, we have only job, from our limited human point of view. We must have faith in him to be healed. Reach out to him. No, it is not superstition to touch the fringe or tassels of his garment. But don’t turn it into a gimmick and sell them to people.
Here’s what Num. 15:37-41 says about the tassels on the edge of the prayer shawl.
37 The Lord said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. 39 And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. 40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God.” (Num. 15:37-41, ESV; see Deut. 22:12)
The goal here is to remember God always. The tassels on Jesus’s garment showed that he was a man of devotion and prayer. His fellow-Jews could see his witness. But I see no reason to start a movement of law-keeping Christians to wear this shawl everywhere. Of course it harms no one physically or morally, but law keeping that is not about moral law is risky because the NT streamlines such outer appearances. Galatians warns about keeping rituals (circumcision and not eating with Gentiles) that put up walls between believers. Prayer shawls may be a needlessly pious sign that one is more super-spiritual than the other church member sitting across the aisle. Bottom line: the Hebrew Roots Movement can be excessive and exclusive and major in the minors. However, Jews who have surrendered to their Messiah, Yeshua, may feel free to wear this if they attend a Messianic congregation. Let your Bible-educated conscience be your guide.
After Pentecost, Peter walked by people, and his shadow healed them (Acts 5:15) and Paul’s clothing was a contact point for healing (Acts 19:12). Never condescend towards people’s faith and the means by which God chooses to heal them. The power is not in the cloth or the dimmed light, but in God through his Son.
“healed”: The verb is sōzō (pronounced soh-zoh and used 106 times in the NT), and is passive (“be saved”). Since the theology of salvation (soteriology) is so critical for our lives, let’s look more closely at the noun salvation, which is sōtēria (pronounced soh-tay-ree-ah and used 46 times).
The verb sōzō means “save, rescue, heal” in a variety of contexts, but mostly it is used of saving the soul. BDAG says that the verb means, depending on the context: (1) “to preserve or rescue from natural dangers and afflictions, save, keep from harm, preserve,” and the sub-definitions under no. 1 are as follows: save from death; bring out safely; save from disease; keep, preserve in good condition; thrive, prosper, get on well; (2) “to save or preserve from transcendent danger or destruction, save or preserve from ‘eternal’ death … “bring Messianic salvation, bring to salvation,” and in the passive voice it means “be saved, attain salvation”; (3) some passages in the NT say we fit under the first and second definition at the same time (Mark 8:5; Luke 9:24; Rom. 9:27; 1 Cor. 3:15).
As noted throughout this commentary on Mark, the noun salvation and the verb save go a lot farther than just preparing the soul to go on to heaven. Together, they have additional benefits: keeping and preserving and rescuing from harm and dangers; saving or freeing from diseases and demonic oppression; and saving or rescuing from sin dominating us; ushering into heaven and rescuing us from final judgment. What is our response to the gift of salvation? You are grateful and then you are moved to act. When you help or rescue one man from homelessness or an orphan from his oppression, you have moved one giant step towards salvation of his soul. Sometimes feeding a hungry man and giving clothes to the naked or taking him to a medical clinic come before saving his soul.
All of it is a package called salvation and being saved.
What Is the Work of Salvation?
How Do We Respond to God’s Salvation?
As noted, please don’t turn this “clothing miracle” into gimmicky fundraising ploy. This “method” of healing is unusual, not usual. Don’t build an entire theology and practice on it.
In any case, in Jesus’s hometown, he could not heal many. Here in Gennesaret, people begged him to let them tough the tassels on his garment. When they did, they were healed. What a difference an attitude can make! Hunger and thirst for Jesus to heal you. Seek him.
GrowApp for Mark 6:53-56
1. The healthy people cared for their ill friends and relatives and brought them to Jesus. Do you care enough for the sick to bring them to Jesus and minister to them?
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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