All in the Same Boat - January 29
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 40, 54; PM Psalm 51; Isa. 50:1-11; Gal. 3:15-22; Mark 6:47-56
Today’s Reflection
Much drama was swirling around the lives of Jesus and his disciples in the days and weeks leading up to the scene where we find them in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus was rejected by the people of his hometown, Nazareth. Then he started to send his disciples out, two by two, to spread the Good News—which was a daunting new level of responsibility for them. Herod wasn’t happy about the growing influence and spread of what, to him, was not good news, so he had Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, arrested and ultimately, John was beheaded, seemingly on a whim.
Realizing the disciples had been through so many stressful events in a short time, Jesus encouraged them to “‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves” (Mark 6: 31-32). But, at this point, Jesus and his disciples were growing in celebrity, so when people saw them, they began to gather, waiting for them to return to the shore and clamoring to hear more from Jesus. This set the scene for the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, taking five loaves and two fish, and making it enough to feed everyone.
Knowing that it had been a long day and that his disciples needed to get away, “Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray” (6: 45-46). We see in these choices—first in sending his disciples off to get their rest and time away from the crowds, and then in allowing himself the time to go up on the mountain to pray—how Jesus prioritized time set apart from the noise and the crowds to be refreshed and renewed before moving on to the next crowd and the next stop on their journey.
It is at this point in the story that we find Jesus and his friends in today’s passage from Mark. Evening had come, his friends were still “out on the lake, and he was alone on the land” (6:47). From his vantage point, up on the mountain, Jesus could see that his friends were struggling. Not being in the situation with them, he could tell from a distance how “they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind” (6:48). In the morning, while out for his walk “on the lake” (as only Jesus could do!), Jesus wanted to check on how they were doing after the windy night on the water: “he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the lake.” And then Mark adds this interesting detail: “He intended to pass them by” (6:48). So, Jesus had planned to just peek in on how they were, but then planned to keep going on his way, enjoying his morning walk.
But Jesus’ plan for an uninterrupted morning stroll on the lake was interrupted, of course, by the disciples, who saw his walking on the water and “thought it was a ghost,” which made them cry out and feel “terrified (6: 49-50). Jesus could have kept going—but then, that was not Jesus’ way. As their shepherd and friend, Jesus couldn’t just keep going—he needed to reassure them and help bring them back to a place of peace: “But immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid’” (6:50).
Now, Jesus could have left it at that, just offering them these reassuring words, and then going about his way. But Jesus, being Jesus, saw that more was required if he was to be the Good Shepherd (and good friend) that they needed him to be in that moment. Which is why what Jesus does next is so important to note: “Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased” (6:51). In that moment, Jesus saw that he needed to be with the disciples. Jesus saw that the disciples needed that moment in which Jesus would be (literally) in the same boat with them.
When Jesus chose to be with the disciples, putting himself right there with them in the boat out on the lake, only then did the wind cease—both the physical element of the wind and their windy state of emotional and spiritual turmoil. By choosing to be with them in that moment—and by showing them how he could walk on water and make the wind cease—Jesus opened his friends’ eyes more clearly to who he was and all he was capable of—and left them with no doubts about just how much he valued and loved them.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
Jesus’ peaceful morning walk on the lake was interrupted by seeing his friends straining to row their boat in the wind. Author Henri Nouwen recounts a story of when he was walking across the Notre Dame campus with a colleague who shared that, “My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.” As Nouwen later reflected, “But what if our interruptions are in fact our opportunities?” Reflect on a moment of holy interruption in your own life and how God used that unexpected encounter for good.
Daily Challenge
Theologian Sam Wells, vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, has written much on the importance of “being with” people, and how that is different than “working for,” “working with,” or “being for” people. He gives a very clear introduction to this theology of “being with” in this short video. Or if you are interested in reading more, take a look at his book, The Nazareth Manifesto.