45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.
47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 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, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
In this passage there is the same allusion as the previous passage to Jesus being a new Moses. Just as Moses parted the Red Sea allowing the Israelites to pass and rescuing them from their Egyptian oppressors, Jesus is able to command the waters and rescue the disciples in their boat from the winds. There is the suggestion that the way of Jesus also rescues the people from oppression and brings order rather than chaos, creation rather than destruction.
Like the story of Jesus calming the storm in the fourth chapter of Mark, Jesus, or his Way, is again shown as bringing order and creation out of chaos, implying the divine nature of his teaching. Again there is the allusion to the Hebrew creation story that starts with, "the spirit of God...hovering over the waters". The creation of the world by the Hebrew god in this creation story is an act of order over chaos in deliberate contrast to the Babylonian creation story where creation is achieved through the violent death of the god Tiamat by the storm god Marduk where Tiamat's corpse is used to form heaven and earth. As such, bodies of water and storms are seen to be the antithesis of the creative power of the Hebrew God, with Jesus ability to master these elements as tying into God's creative power, and alluding to the similar power of his teaching or 'Way'.
There are a couple of differences between this story and the earlier story that speak to Jesus's identity and equate Jesus with being like God. The earlier story has the disciples ask the question "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?". This story uses a number of elements to answer that question. In this story, Jesus goes from calming chaos to having dominion over it in a way only God was known to do. In the scriptures walking on water is something only God can do. Job 9:8 states, "He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea". As well, Psalm 77:19 states, "Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen".
Another suggestion of Jesus's divinity is the reference to the "I AM" language of God in Jewish scripture. Jesus says, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid" to the disciples. As well, the story has the odd detail that "he was about to pass them". This language is suggestive of the story in Exodus 33 and 1 Kings 19 where God "passes by".
This story also furthers the theme Jesus's works revealing his identity and the disciples failure to understand who he is. When they first see Jesus on the water, instead of recognizing him, they think he is a ghost. The Gospel also adds that. "they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened".
Who is the Gospel revealing Jesus to be and how metaphorically did they intend this identity? This story takes the identify beyond being a new Moses to someone who shares more similarities with God. Do these references go beyond what was expected to cast Jesus as the Messiah, God's anointed one, someone with authority to speak on his behalf who would usher in God's new age? Taken that in the first century a Rabbi and their teaching, their 'Way', were synonymous, did the writer and their audience take all these divine or semi-divine allusions as metaphors for Jesus' teaching? Were they casting Jesus' Way as divine and analogous with God, that which is the epitome of truth and legitimacy?
I could be wrong, but I don't think the purpose of the Gospel was the revelation of Jesus identity as divine through gradual proofs by the telling of his great deeds. I think that the divinity identity is a literary device to legitimize his Way as shown through his words and actions in the Gospel. Let's look again at what that Way has been shown to be so far.
As we have observed in our study of the Gospel to this point, Jesus is given as starting his ministry preaching a continuation of the message of John the Baptist, telling the people to "repent", change their thinking and direction in terms of social justice; fairness, sharing with others, and caring for the disadvantaged. As the Gospel progresses the message includes:
- Radical inclusion based on a vision of a primarily loving and compassionate God where all are welcome and equal participants in the people of God and no one is excluded or sanctioned.
- Social and religious restrictions and purity considerations are cast aside as the leper, the sick, the poor, and the outcast are made whole and welcomed back into full participation in community.
- Jesus eats with "sinners" lifting their status to be equal his own.
- Humanity has priority over rules and laws with spirit and love overruling legalism.
- Through parables Jesus shows the need to turn our cultural assumptions and understandings upside down and see the world from a new perspective. Jesus gives no rules or practices with his teaching consisting almost entirely on parables, shifting one's perspective and reflection through metaphor.
- The "kingdom of God", the incidence of what is most true and right, increases in the world from small acts like "tiny seeds".
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