The Manifestation of Jesus to his Disciples Mark 6, 45-53 Preliminary Observations We are in the third section of the first part of the Gospel, and this is the second time Jesus and his disciples cross the Sea of Galilee, the first being in Mark 4:35-41. Once again, the protagonists are Jesus and his disciples, and once again, we have a revelation of Jesus (and a lack of understanding by the disciples). Our story is contextualized quickly after the refusal of Jesus from the Nazarenes (6:1-6a) and the miracle of bread where Jesus feeds the 5,000 men in the desert (6:30-44). The literary context is important, not only because verse 52 (they had not understood the miracle of the loaves) connects our scene with the preceding one, but also because both stories show different aspects of the mystery of Jesus. The miracle of the loaves shows Jesus as a shepherd who takes care of and guides his people. The messianism of Jesus thus begins to reveal itself: Jesus is the one who will give the bread of his Word and his Wisdom. Even if his disciples do not understand, Jesus nevertheless manifests always more his mystery. Narrative Cohesion of the Story It has a concentric structure that clearly reveals the manifestation of Jesus to his disciples as the central interest of the story. The story is thus organized: A. The initial scene: vv. 45-47. Description of the danger
B. Epiphany/manifestation: vv. 48-51a. The overcoming of the danger A'. The final scene: vv. 51b-53 In the initial situation (verses 45-47) sees the separation of the main protagonists (Jesus and his disciples): Jesus is alone on the land and the disciples are in the boat on the lake. The complex middle scene (verses 48-51a) presents the reunification, but in a completely unexpected way. The final scene (verses 51b-53) presents the articulated reaction of the disciples of the before the scene to which they assisted and before Jesus. Semantic Coherence Initial scene: verses 45-47 45 Then he made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray. 47 When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore.
Regarding the geographical journey that Mark proposes, with the direction of the boat towards Bethsaida (v. 45) and the landing place at Gennesaret (v. 53) there are different conjectures because in reality the journey is not sensible. But in reality, the journey of Jesus (and that imposed by the narrator to the reader) has other purposes not geographical in nature, shown right away by the forced separation of the disciples from Jesus, almost a preparation of the event that awaits him and them! The expression enankasen tous mathetas autou embenai eis to ploin (6:45) results rather violently and also expresses verbally the force (enankazo: the only time this word is used in Mark!) with which he wants his disciples to embark on for the crossing. The motive – for now rather obscure – will become clear soon. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is found alone in prayer in 1:35; in our test (6:46) and in Gethsemane (14:32-42). Only in Gethsemane are the words reported which Jesus addresses to the Father. It is interesting that Jesus escapes the crowd to go into the presence of the Father. Description of the danger / epiphany / overcoming of danger: vv. 48-51
48 Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. 49 But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. 50 They had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” 51 He got into the boat with them and the wind died down. * The description of the danger is not explicit as in the previous crossing, but it is implied by hinting at the anxiety from the opposing wind. From this it can be deduced that it is not so much an account of a miraculous rescue from an imminent danger but rather an account of an epiphany that manifests the identity of Jesus. * At the center of the story we have an epiphany: The analogies with the crossing of the sea in Exodus 14 are many. The crossing of the sea in Exodus 14 also happens at night (14:24) with an opposing wind (14:21) when begins the morning watch (14:24) after the encouragement of Moses (14:13). Van Iersel would give to the word παρα-ερχομαι (v. 68) a meaning in accord with his comprehension of the journey in Mark: after the disciples got in the boat to precede him to the other shore (v. 45), Jesus now wants to overtake them “to start them on their journey and show them the way anew.” In my opinion this could be true, but it is not everything. It cannot be overlooked, in fact that in v. 45 'proceed' to the other side is expressed with proagô while in v. 48 'pass by' (oltrepassare/passare accanto) is expressed with parerchomai. The parelthein / 'passing over' / 'passing by' recalls Exodus 33:22 where God speaks to Moses saying that when he would pass he would cover him with his palm (and Exodus 34:6) but also 1 Kings 19:11 when God passes in front of Elijah in the desert to manifest himself, not in the strong wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but in the light breeze.
This is the point: to 'pass by' / 'pass over' is the only mode of God's self-manifestation. God passes (as with Moses and Elijah), but is other, God is always other, because we cannot see him face to face and live (Exodus 19:21; 33:18-23; etc.). God is acknowledged in this passing by or over. In other words, the disciples see Jesus – the narrator insists on this fact that they saw (two times in 49- 50), but they do not recognize him, they fail to realize the mystery, believing that he was a ghost, namely an illusion. - The expression "ego eimi” is not taken as a revelation of the name of God (in the way we find in the Gospel of John), but as a formula of reassurance: it is I myself! He wants to break the mechanisms of fear, and at the same time, he wants to demonstrate that in Christ is God Himself who manifests his salvation. The ceasing of the wind calls to mind the power of God over the force of destruction and chaos (Ps 89: 10-11). It is simply the presence of Jesus that assures salvation. Conclusive Situation vv. 51b- 53 They were [completely] astounded. 52 They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened. 53 After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. In conclusion, the narrator comments during the scene: they had not understood anything about the bread, being that their hearts were hardened (6,52). The root word that expresses the hardening of heart is pôroô, the same as that used by the narrator in 3,5 for describing the attitudes of Jesus's adversaries. Naturally the object of the incomprehension is not as much the miracle of the bread, but Jesus himself and the mystery of him, which must have already been perceived after the multiplication of the bread. However, it is the first time that the reader comes into contact (in such an evident way) with the theme of the blindness of the disciples: their hardened hearts were nothing other than he incapacity of belief; an event that puts in fact the disciples amongst those who are outside: that have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear (4,11-12). Pragmatic Turning Points Communicative context. We are head-on with a community that questions the identity of Jesus. This community rereads the life of Jesus after the Paschal event and interprets it so. It is difficult therefore, to consider the scene as a daily chronological story or as an imitation of stories of Hellenistic literature (che pure ci sono: cf. Per esempio Philopseudes 13 di Luciano). We confront a temptation of the post-paschal community to interpret the events of the life of Jesus to understand his person, or better, the mystery of his identity. We are before a literary genre that contains an "epiphanous" character, whose elements are visual apparitions , the reaction of fear, the self- revelation and reassurance, etc. Obviously, stories of this genre are post-paschal and, in fact, our story has similarities with the apparitions of Jesus to the eleven, as it is recounted in Lk 24,36ss.: in both we have that the disciples believed to have seen a spirit (or ghost), that they feared, were reassured by Christ whom they found themselves before, etc.
Strategy of the text. The communicative intention of the text is not that of presentation, but an action of salvation (as with the calming of the storm), it permits the reader to recognize a God that presents Himself always in a different way than what we would expect: the presence of God is recognized in the moment in which he "passes by" or "passes over" (passa accanto o passa oltre). Also, the figure of Jesus-- his mystery-- is not easily perceived by one who does not have faith and whose heart is hardened. The disciples, who do not understand, are presented to the reader as a negative model. And, nevertheless, this negative model prepared the reader himself to not be scandalized by the event of Jesus Messiah crucified. In the same way as the disciples, the readers will be placed before the mystery of the Messiah crucified and ought to recognize that there dwells the power of God. We might say, therefore, that the scene has a propaedeutic function in as much as it prepares the readers to grasp, in the incredible, the mystery of Jesus the Messiah.
