OIA Mark 6.30-56

Observations

• Who: Jesus, the 12, 5000, crowds, sick
• Where: a desolate place, in a boat, on the lake, in the villages
• When: Upon the apostles return from their mission trip
• What: Jesus demonstrates compassion: feeds the crowds, brings order into chaos, walks on water, teaches the 12, and heals many
• Contrasts: apostles successful mission/spiritual blindness; sheep without a shepherd/sitting calmly being fed; painful headway/Jesus walking on water; terrified/do not be afraid;
• Connections: desolate place, thronging crowds, miraculous provision, Jesus’ self-revelation, spiritual blindness, terror and fear
• Responses to Jesus:
• The 12 accept Jesus’ invitation to withdraw, but are stumped by Jesus’ command to feed the crowds leading to the inability to recognize Jesus in person, terror, and fear; their hearts become calcified.
• The crowds are responsive to Jesus’ pastoral directions: they sit, are taught and fed, and sent home in a peaceful manner.
• The village crowds bring their sick to Jesus for healing. 

Interpretation

• Jesus displays profound prophetic power in these stories. Like Moses, Jesus provides food in the wilderness; like God, Jesus walks on the waves; again like God Jesus intends to pass by the disciples and show his glory (Elijah in the cleft rock), Jesus portrays David’s Good Shepherd. Mark portrays Jesus as one with the greatest prophets in Jewish history. And on the lake, Jesus says ‘take heart, I AM’. Truly this is the Son of God!
• The apostles, returning from an amazingly successful mission trip, none the less fail to understand and recognize Jesus. Like the people from his home town, and the people who say Jesus is John the Baptist reincarnated, or Elijah, of another prophet, like Herod who is interested but double-minded, and like the Pharisees in the next section – the disciples are victims of hardened hearts resulting in spiritual blindness: when they see Jesus on the lake, they take him for a ghost, and are terrified. Again we see that fear is the opposite of faith.
• What happened to the disciples? Apparently they took offense at Jesus when he told them to feed the crowds: he asked them, again, to do something that was, for them impossible; and rather than throwing themselves on Jesus’ power, they are insulted and cynical.
• Why does Jesus test the disciples in this way? Perhaps he is driving home several ministry lessons to the future leaders of his kingdom: they must depend on him; they will be asked to do things impossible for them, but possible for Jesus; they bear responsibility to care for those who respond to their preaching and healing; compassion outweighs practicality; people need good shepherds…

 Application

• Jesus, with God-like power and authority, is also the good shepherd of Psalms 23.
• Following Jesus is impossible; only in His grace are we able to serve him.
• When we cry out to Jesus in panic, even when we completely misperceive him, he is still a good shepherd to us: “Have courage, I am, do not be afraid”.