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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
I think God is actually more fascinated with inspiring generosity and mutuality and commonality than God is in pulling off stunts like walking on water, but I think sometimes God is good enough to do both when we need it. Last week we jumped back in with Mark 6 and the feeding of the 5 1,000, a particularly fun kind of story that leaves I think a lot up to our imagination. This is really one of my favorite things about Mark in particular among the Gospels. He likes to give you the what, and then ask you to wrestle with the why. So let's take a quick look back at last week before we move on.
Jeremy Duncan:And if you remember on Ash Wednesday, we talked about the death of Jesus' friend and cousin John the Baptist, and Mark doesn't provide much commentary, but he moves directly from that sad scene into a story about Jesus wanting to get away from the crowds to find some rest and self care. And I think you're meant to notice that juxtaposition. Eat because so many people were coming and going, they did not even have a chance to eat, and so Jesus said to them, come with me by yourselves away to a quiet place to get some rest. And this is something that I am personally taking heart to this year. In January I started the second half of my forties, and having adopted a new baby in my forties, I'm realizing that if I want to be active and as physically present as I want to throughout her life, then I need actually start to put in some effort.
Jeremy Duncan:And so like a lot of us, I probably coasted through my pandemic era a little too lightly, and for me that meant I just got even a little lighter. And so right now, one of my goals is to work out every morning and then to eat lunch every afternoon. That might not seem all that groundbreaking to you, but for me, 3 meals a day is definitely groundbreaking. Point being, that Jesus invites us into this rest, but that's not necessarily prescriptive. It's conversational About who we are and what we need, where you are now and where you want to be, how you care for yourself well so that you can get there next.
Jeremy Duncan:And all of that is very present in this tiny little glimpse behind the scenes with Jesus and his friends. But what's interesting to me is that in this setup, Jesus' grief and his recognition of the toll that's taking on his body, that leads us into a story about the physical needs of others. And so we talked about these three movements. These little inciting incidents in the story, all initiated by the words of Jesus. He calls for rest, but when the crowds follow he pivots into compassion.
Jeremy Duncan:By the way, not lost on me that Jesus, who was hungry himself to begin with, has compassion on the crowds in their hunger. Sometimes I think it's actually in confronting our own limitations and prioritizing our own needs that we uncover a sense of purpose and calling in how we can serve those around us. But when that need seems overwhelming to the disciples, Jesus reminds his friends to start where they are with exactly what they have. And I'm not naive here. I'm not saying that every time you offer yourself and you trust in God and you do the right thing, the outcome will be this miraculous.
Jeremy Duncan:That's not real life. But I do know that every good thing starts with someone who's willing to try. And sometimes maybe just that willingness is what matters the most. So the disciples offer their 5 loaves and their 2 fish and Jesus holds it and he prays and everyone was fed. Alright.
Jeremy Duncan:Today, let's pray and then we'll push on toward the end of chapter 6. Creative God, who sits behind all of our good stories, who weaves in and out and through our experiences, leaving behind hints of your grace. May we develop eyes to see your presence near us all around us today. May that motivate us to look back and then see where you have been in our past. Those moments of goodness that encourage and strengthen and point us forward with new courage.
Jeremy Duncan:May our eyes slowly grow to see your goodness always. And may our feet then move to bring your goodness to those who are near us. And if we find ourselves today in need of you, for rest, or work, or friendship, or space, or healing, or kindness, or welcome, or correction. Then we trust that we might find you in just the way we need today. Let your healing grace flood around us with the nourishment that we need and the care that we crave.
Jeremy Duncan:May all signs point us back to your arms, we pray. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray, amen. Alright. Today we are going to pick up exactly where we left off last week, and that puts us at Mark 6 verse 45. And today we're going to cover rest again, enough for all passing by and opening our eyes to what's around us, but why don't we jump in and just read for a bit.
Jeremy Duncan:This is verse 45. Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethesda while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on the mountainside to pray. It's only 2 verses, I know, but I do want to stop here for a moment because last week, we saw Jesus articulate the need for him to get some rest in the face of the grief over the death of his cousin, and then we saw him change course to care for the crowd that had come to hear him. And as I said last week, we need to be really careful with that part of the story, Because we don't want act 2 to make us forget act 1.
Jeremy Duncan:That's a recipe for something really bad in our lives. There's always a good reason not to rest. But look at this here now. Jesus recognizes that yes, sometimes we need to change course, and sometimes there are moments where we prioritize someone else's needs over our own, but then as soon as he deals with that, he immediately returns to the original need he recognized in himself to get some rest. Like please don't miss this here.
Jeremy Duncan:Even in those moments when you know in your gut that you are where God wants you to be, and that in that moment you are uniquely positioned to offer yourself to someone else in service, and you feel their plight in your splagnon, just like Jesus and God calls you to act with what you have available to you right now in your pocket, none of that eliminates the needs or the limitations or the care that we need to extend to ourselves. There's a time to pivot and change course and pause our plans. There's a time to put your needs on hold, but there's never a time to forget your own well-being. And so here Jesus sets his needs to the side for a time, but he doesn't ignore them. He feeds the crowd and then he sends his friends off in a boat, and leaving them he goes up on the mountainside to pray, to rest, to recuperate, but this time alone.
Jeremy Duncan:And I can't tell you how much I love this moment. Like how much I need this moment in my life because I know I have a lot of capacity. In fact, I enjoy that, I love my job. This week I was looking at 2 committee meetings and a wedding and a funeral, there's always a good reason to put your rest on hold. But along comes Jesus saying, pausing is not the same thing as forgetting about.
Jeremy Duncan:And so do the work and then do the rest, but make sure you do the rest well when the time comes. In fact this time, Jesus realizes it's not just time alone with the boys that he needs, actually really this time it's just time alone. And so that delayed rest actually becomes elevated rest here in Mark 6, and honestly that's a sermon in and of itself. Let's get back to the story though. Verse 47.
Jeremy Duncan:Later that night, the boat was in the middle of a lake, and Jesus was alone on land. And 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, but when they saw him walking on the lake they thought he was a ghost. They cried out because they all saw him and they were terrified.
Jeremy Duncan:Immediately though he spoke to them and said, take courage, it is I, do not be afraid. Then he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down and they were completely amazed. For they had not understood about the loaves, then their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there, and as soon as they got out of the boat the people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout the whole region, and carried the sick on mats, or whatever they heard and hear he was.
Jeremy Duncan:Wherever they went into the villages, the towns, or the countryside, they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let him touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. Okay. It's through to the end of the chapter here, But let's go back and look at a couple of key points throughout this story. Because there's a few things that are really interesting here.
Jeremy Duncan:First, I want to start at the end. There's this sort of tag on the end of the narrative of the water walking, about the Jesus and the disciples landing near Gennesaret. And 2 things here I want to point out. 1st, there's this sort of very subtle, sly reinforcement of Jesus' wisdom here. He needs a rest.
Jeremy Duncan:It gets delayed, so he re ups on his commitment to it. And then as soon as he goes across the lake and lands on the other side, he's met with, what? Again, crowds of people looking for help from him. And I think this is why Jesus sent the disciples away. It's why Jesus doubled down when the time was right, because the rest there on the mountainside is what enables him to respond here to the crowds again.
Jeremy Duncan:So there's that. But also this reference to Gennesaret, what that does is it firmly identifies this whole pericope, from the feeding through the storm, and then back into these crowds again within the Jewish populations of the region. What's interesting is that in a couple chapters in Mark 8, Jesus is going to perform a parallel miracle with fish and bread for 4,000 more people, but this time for a gentile or a non Jewish population. And that's important because Mark wants us to see the inclusivity of Jesus' mission in the world. If you go back to the fall, the first half of the Gospel of Mark, we did a sermon there about the healing narratives that opened the story in Mark.
Jeremy Duncan:Each of those had a very distinct social implication. They're about more than just the healing of individual bodies, They are about a social reshaping that welcomes those on the margins toward the center. Well, these 2 parallel feeding narratives are doing something very similar in Mark, but this time in a sort of subtle subversive way. Last week, we read that Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion on them because they were quote, like sheep without a shepherd. And that tends to read sort of very pastorally to us.
Jeremy Duncan:Nice and warm and fuzzy and cozy and comfortable, but the primary reference there is actually to Numbers 27 and to Ezekiel 34. May the Lord appoint someone over this community, one who will lead them in and out so that the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd. That's from Numbers. And then they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and they became food for wild animals. That's Ezekiel.
Jeremy Duncan:So the reference here is actually something more like a leader or a king, and less to something like a pastor. Jesus is concerned here that the social structure surrounding these people has become, well predatory. That's why they're hungry. That's why they struggle to look after each other. And so the feeding narrative is about disrupting the economic story within Jesus' community.
Jeremy Duncan:There is more goodness here than you think. There is generosity here in the world. Our default should be abundance and the sharing that it inspires, not scarcity and the hoarding that it leads to. God is still with God's people. That's what the story is about.
Jeremy Duncan:But then, just 2 chapters later, Jesus does it again. Except this time it's on the other side of the metaphorical tracks. And so by recreating that miracle for them, Jesus pushes this imagination even farther. Not only is there enough for us, Divine Kingdom is enough for all by definition. There's this socioeconomic layer to these miracles as well that we should care for each other, but not just each other, we should care for all.
Jeremy Duncan:But let's jump back in the water here, because there's a few things there I don't want to miss either. So later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars because the wind was against them, and so shortly before dawn he went out to them walking on the water. He was about to pass by them. That's weird.
Jeremy Duncan:Right? I mean here is Jesus, presumably still up on the mountain side so that he can see down toward the lake and notice his friends straining at the oars, and I think the first half is supposed to be kind of reassuring. Right? This is presenting Jesus in the frame of God as Father, looking down on us, paying attention, noticing our struggle and attending to it. That's nice.
Jeremy Duncan:Except next, he comes down, walked out on the water impressive toward his friends and he was about to pass them by. And there's a few different attempts at explaining this. The first is to shift to the perspective of the disciples. So what Mark is really trying to say here is that the disciples, who remember think this is a ghost at the time, believe the ghost was intending to pass them by. And that's actually the perspective that we're reading here in the NIV.
Jeremy Duncan:Because he was about to pass by them is already quite soft. More literally what the Greek says here is that Jesus wanted to pass by them. And so by moving away from the more literal, he wanted to pass by them, what the translators are hoping is that you will read this as the disciples thinking he was going to pass by, even though Jesus always intended to stop and help his friends. And that's okay. There is a way you can get there in Greek, no foul play.
Jeremy Duncan:I will note however, that there is no parallel usage anywhere else in the New Testament. This is what we call an auxiliary verb with future force. It shows up nowhere else in the New Testament. So already we're in the weeds here trying to massage this the way that we want. Here's the second approach.
Jeremy Duncan:This one takes the initial conjunction, chi, as explicative rather than coordinating. And you don't need to understand that but you do need to know that in the end what you end up with is he wanted to pass by their way. So he wanted to go to them rather than he wanted to go past them. And again I absolutely think that is closer. In fact I think that is exactly what Jesus intended to do, but I still don't think it's quite what Mark is trying to get at by using this phrase.
Jeremy Duncan:Because personally when I look at this whole story it becomes very clear to me that what Mark is trying to present here is what we call a theophany. Another way to say that is an appearance of the divine. Now, some 2000 years later, as Christians, we see every appearance of Jesus as a theophany. Right? Jesus is Divine.
Jeremy Duncan:Jesus is us seeing God, and therefore by definition every time we look at Jesus, we see God. But in the Gospels, humanity, us as readers, we are uncovering that reality in real time. And so what we get are these moments where the hiddenness of God penetrates the Disciples' experience of the world. And they move one step closer toward the realization of exactly who it is that they are sharing lunch with every day. And this is meant to be one of those moments.
Jeremy Duncan:You see, the language of passing by is not about Jesus ignoring his friends, this is not an image of Jesus ignoring them, this is an image of divine self revelation. Mark has lifted these words very explicitly from Exodus 33. And the Lord said, I will cause my goodness to pass by in front of you. And I will proclaim my name, the Lord I am in your presence. Or perhaps 1st Kings 19, the Lord said, go and stand in the mountain in the presence of the Lord, and the Lord is about to pass by.
Jeremy Duncan:And a great and powerful wind tore the mountains and shattered the rocks, but the Lord was in the gentle whisper. Or maybe he even has in mind Job 9, God alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. When he passes by me, I cannot see him. When he goes by, I cannot perceive. And just those three examples of God passing by, we have God's name, I am.
Jeremy Duncan:We have a great and powerful wind. We have one who treads on the waves of the sea. To me that is too much to be just a coincidence. This phrase is more than just an indication of Jesus' traversal plans. This is a callback Mark is making to the Jewish imagination of God.
Jeremy Duncan:And again, I think this is something that Mark wants to hint at. Rather than come out and name for you. There's this motif particularly in the gospel of Mark that we call the messianic secret. We talked about this in the fall because we've already encountered a couple of examples of it. He drove out many demons, but he would not let them speak because they knew who he was, Mark 134.
Jeremy Duncan:Or Jesus sent the man away healed with a warning, see that you don't tell anyone about this, Mark 143. He took her by the hand and he said, Talitha kum, which meant, little girl get up, and she did, but He gave strict orders to everyone there not to let anyone know about this, Mark 541. There's more. Mark 724, he entered a house but he didn't want anyone to know about it, that he could not keep his presence secret. Or Mark 7 35, this time the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosed, he began to speak plainly, but Jesus commanded him, don't tell anyone about this.
Jeremy Duncan:All of these moments, they will build to Mark 8, where we'll get in a few weeks where Jesus will ask his friends who they think he is, and Peter will be the first to put word to his hope. You are the messiah. But here, to position Jesus on the mountain side looking down and seeing his friends struggle, And then for him to come down, walk on the waves, pass by through the wind, only to be thought a ghost, and then to answer them, take courage, it is I, do not be afraid, or more literally, just 5 words in Greek. Courage, I am, no fear, I think it starts to become clear what Mark is actually trying to do here. Because if you're familiar with those Hebrew scriptures and stories, you'll recognize that middle phrase, in Greek it's ego Amy.
Jeremy Duncan:But that is the Septuagint translation of the answer God gives when Moses asks the divine name way back in Exodus, I Am That I Am. Now to be fair, scholars will debate here because egoaimi is also a very legitimate Greek phrase that one might use to introduce themselves, Hello, it is I that had flaired for the dramatic back then. But I think with Jesus looking down from his Olympus, and then moving through the raging wind, walking upon the roiling waves, when his goodness passes by it becomes clear what Mark has in mind as he narrates this moment for us. This is an opportunity for the disciples to see what has thus far been hidden. That God is with God's people, that the divine is so much closer than you think.
Jeremy Duncan:And understand here, this moment is literary. It's been constructed not just for the disciples who lived it, but it's been crafted, curated for us as readers to experience that realization for ourselves that God is closer than we think even right now. Which makes this last section of the story so deeply intriguing to me. Because Jesus climbs into the boat with them and the wind dies down and they are completely amazed, I mean who wouldn't be? But then Mark adds this, For they had not understood about the lows their hearts were hardened.
Jeremy Duncan:And there's 2 things here before we go. First, they had not understood about the lows. At some point earlier in this sermon, you may have felt like I was spending a lot of time reflecting on last week's story. You're like, Come on Jeremy, keep moving, you might have said, hopefully to yourself. But so does Mark, right?
Jeremy Duncan:Because he sees this moment here in the boat as a continuation of that moment there on the shore. And don't get me wrong, I'm sure the disciples were suitably impressed by what Jesus pulled off, the basketfuls of bread and fish that they had gathered. But this is why I said last week I think Mark might be leaning into a more naturalistic rendering of that miracle. Because Jesus' example of generosity, inspired by a divine mutuality within a throng of strangers results and enough for everyone, and the disciples thought that was very cool, but somehow it was still very much within their scope of imagination. I mean they were amazed by Jesus, but they did not see God in that moment.
Jeremy Duncan:And here's what I would say, I think God is actually more fascinated with inspiring generosity, and mutuality, and commonality than God is in pulling off stunts like walking on water. But I think sometimes God is good enough to do both when we need it. You see this moment here in the boat is so that they understand properly that moment there on the shore. That God is most present when the needs of God's children are being met. And if you want to see God, that is actually where you should start.
Jeremy Duncan:But second, Mark says their hearts were hardened to all of this. And this one's really interesting because we also have that famous parallel back in Exodus, we've already talked about Exodus. And there, Pharaoh's heart was hardened as well, right? Hardened against God and hardened against the plight of the Hebrew people. But this hardening seems very different than it did back there.
Jeremy Duncan:This is not a turning away from God or a hardness to the plight of those in need like that story. In fact, I think the best way to understand this word here in Mark is probably a lack of imagination. I don't know if you've ever spent time with horses. This might surprise you, but I actually have. Still, you might have seen horses wearing blinkers before.
Jeremy Duncan:Right? Those little flaps they put on the side of their eyes to keep them pointed forward and prevent them from becoming distracted. Those blinkers close off their naturally wide field of view so that they can be focused on what we as humans want them to pay attention to. Thing is, horses have eyes on the side of their head for a reason. They have evolved that way so that they can survey terrain and obstacles, and threats far better than we can.
Jeremy Duncan:It's a feature, not a bug. But I think sometimes something like blinkers have happened to us as well at some point along the way in our religious story. And over time our religious systems and our religious paradigms have taught us that some things are divine and other things are well just mundane. And I think what Mark is trying to say here is that that hardening, that narrowing of our view, that blinkered imagination of God is causing us to miss out on so much of the divine presence in and around us bubbling up in surprising ways all the time. Or to put it more bluntly, I think Mark is trying to say that if we can learn to see God in lunch shared with a stranger, then we won't even need to see God walking on the water.
Jeremy Duncan:And God might do the miraculous for you, and that might be God's gift to you, and if those moments happen in your life then hold onto them. Treasure them. They're beautiful. Know that this was God making God's self known to you. But also, allow that to open your eyes and lift your head and broaden your imagination to take in all the way that God's presence has been surrounding you all the way along, all the time.
Jeremy Duncan:Because the moment in the boat is meant to open the disciples eyes to the moment on the shore when everyone was fed. Because that is the real heart of God. And whether it is fish or loaves or walking on water, sometimes the sacred is already there just waiting for us to notice. If only we can widen our field of view. Let's pray.
Jeremy Duncan:God who shows up in a 1000 places to dance with creativity and to appear with grace and peace. Might we recognize that the miraculous is wonderful and it grabs our attention and it's spectacular. But that is there only to point us back to your care. Your concern, your willingness to be present in the needs of your children, and then to inspire us to act in the same way. God, might our eyes be opened and our field of view widened to see the divine in every moment.
Jeremy Duncan:All around us, all the time, calling us toward generosity and care for our neighbor. Might we truly begin to believe that if we can see you there in a shared lunch, then maybe the miraculous all of a sudden slowly becomes less important and less necessary, when together our needs are met. But we trust that all of it is gift. And all of it comes from you. And all of it will slowly open our eyes to your spirit around us.
Jeremy Duncan:In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen. Hey, Jeremy here. And thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at commons, you can head to our website commons.church for more information.
Jeremy Duncan:You can find us on all of the socials at commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our Discord server. Head to commons.church/discord for the invite and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus, we would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in.
Jeremy Duncan:Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.