Matthew 14:34-36

“Notice what you notice.” After Jesus walking on the water, Matthew has them landing at Gennesaret, some 3-4 miles from Capernaum, down the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Reading into the story a bit clarifies some things for me. Being only 3-4 miles from where Jesus had centered his Galilean ministry, presumably there was some measure of familiarity between residents of Gennesaret and Capernaum, but also some separation. Verse 34 begins with And when the men of that place recognized Him…, implying that Jesus was known to them, possibly from them traveling to Capernaum to see Him, but that He was not frequent among them. In addition, verse 36 notes that the people …implored Him that they might only touch the fringe of His garment, calling to mind the healing of the woman with a hemorrhage, an incident that had taken place in Capernaum, an incident that had become known to the residents of Gennesaret. Finally, because Jesus was not a frequent visitor to Gennesaret, when the men recognized Him …they sent around to all that region and brought to Him all who were sick (v. 35b). Not unlike today – word gets around that someone famous has come to town and people come from all around to see him/her. So Gennesaret is at the fringe of Capernaum, nearby but not at the center of what’s going on.

Which brings me to our “concentric circle churches”… It seems that most churches have an inner core of “leaders”, a nearby circle of “insiders”, a couple layers of “actives”, and an outer layer of “outliers”. Most new attendees come to a church as a visitor, initially an “outlier”. Depending on their level of Christian maturity and the gifts that they can offer, they may or may not choose to move forward, first to become more “active”, then eventually to move more inward to that level of “insiders”. But it is not simply an outcome dependent on that one person’s maturity and gifts, it is also a function of the “leaders” and “insiders” – their welcoming or their resistance to new people becoming more involved.

I don’t have St. Andrew’s or any other congregation in mind as I write these words. What I do have in mind is the mindset of individual parishioners. I would think that any dedicated, discipled Christian would naturally want to move toward the center, not because of any desire to be one of the movers/shakers, but to be closer to those who are in the business of seeking the Lord’s wisdom for the entire congregation. Not to be “in the know”, but to be “in the flow”… Not with a desire to lead, but with a desire to serve…

Thankfully, St. Andrew’s has a lot of “insiders”. We’ve all heard of those churches where 20% of the people do 80% of the work. That’s not us!! Glory!!

Slava Bohu!

John 6:16-21

“Notice what you notice.” John’s account of Jesus walking on the water… Strange that Luke would not write about this incident when the other three Gospel writers did…

It dawned on me to look at the adjectives in this passage – dark, rough, strong, frightened, afraid, glad – and I wondered about those times in our lives when Jesus came “walking on the water” to save us from harm. No doubt, they are countless every day – if not Jesus personally, then His guardian angels. Mark Bruner and I drove eight hours yesterday, reversing that today. And we were kept from harm, I’m sure, countless times – and we didn’t even know it! I fear that we too easily just took it for granted that we would arrive at our destinations safely.

Or maybe not “harm” as such, but disappointment, anxiety, grief. Again, not Jesus personally, but He has sent His Holy Spirit – our Counselor, Helper, Advocate. And while those times are real, with His help they can be mercifully shortened.

Hearkening back to my comments yesterday, is Jesus waiting for us to call on Him before He gets into our boat? For yesterday’s first-century passage, I think not. But for our everyday circumstances today, I think – most certainly!

“Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3, NASB)

Slava Bohu!

Mark 6:45-52

“Notice what you notice.” Mark’s account of Jesus walking on the water… We read these passages with an intent to “notice what we notice”. And today I would suggest that everyone reading this passage noticed verse 48b, …He meant to pass them by. And we all wonder, why would Jesus want to pass them by? The wind was against them, they thought He was a ghost, and they were terrified. Why would He intend to pass them by??!! I have no answer and as I looked it up online I didn’t find any satisfactory answer. Here are two edited samples: (1) He had a mission and a direction and intended to move directly to His target. (2) He wanted them to see their need for Him and call out for Him to help. There were a lot of words written in support of these two positions, but the authors and their commentators did not convince me as to a reasonable understanding of His intended action. So in the end, I don’t know. I claim “blessed ignorance”.

So, what else? The last sentence in this passage is almost as equally confusing: And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. (v. 51b-52) I can see that the disciples would be “utterly astounded” and I can imagine that they would be confused as to what had happened with the loaves, but the last four words – their hearts were hardened. When I think of hardened hearts, I think of Pharaoh in Exodus. Earlier in this chapter the disciples had been sent out to preach and to heal and to cast out demons. They had seen Jesus’ power at work in them. How could their hearts now be hardened, just a few days or weeks later? Twice I am confused. I quit!

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 14:22-33

“Notice what you notice.” Being intrigued as I am with the geography, I glanced one verse beyond our reading and saw that they came to the land of Gennesaret (Matthew 14:34), which is on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, only a few miles down the coast from Capernaum. That region is just north of the first-century town of Magdala, likely the home of Mary Magdalene. Just connecting the dots…!

Gennesaret seems not to have been the disciples’ (and Jesus’) target destination. Matthew is silent as to where they were headed, while Mark has them going to Bethsaida and Luke puts their target as Capernaum. Presumably the wind on the Sea drove them in a direction such that they overshot both their Mark and Luke targets. More on Gennesaret in the next few days…

Matthew writes in verse 23, And after He had dismissed the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. My Study Bible notes that this prayer time is the only time Matthew mentions Jesus praying, other than Gethsemane. By contrast Mark and Luke seem to have him praying much more regularly!

My mind wanders and I often want to read between the lines. Jesus sends the disciples off in the boat and He goes the opposite direction, up to the mountain to pray. So did He have a pre-arranged plan, as in “I’ll meet you at Peter’s house”? Or did He send them off in the boat simply because they had arrived by boat and needed to get the boat back to its normal mooring? Then He would have walked the shore line to meet them. But while praying He heard from His father that the disciples were in trouble on the water and the only way He could reach them was by walking on the water. So if I read between the lines a bit, now I can understand why Jesus would be walking on the water in the middle of the night. Somehow, that’s satisfying!

Today’s last verse reads And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (v. 33). “Worship” is a concept that has long confused me. The best understanding I ever got for the concept was when I heard someone say that worship is simply agreeing with God as to Who He is. This verse confirms that suggestion. Re-read it. This time the disciples got it! But unfortunately they would lose it again – and again and again!! I’ve long heard the phrase, “There are no atheists in a foxhole.” And yes it seems that danger and deliverance bring us closer to Jesus. And that’s good, but we need to be close to Him without danger lurking nearby! “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”

Slava Bohu!

John 6:1-15

“Notice what you notice.” John’s account of the feeding of the 5,000… It is not clear in John’s gospel just what the time frame is. He begins the reading (and the chapter) with “After these things…”. John also begins chapters 5 and 7 in the same way, an indefinite expression. John seems to be less chronologically focused than the Synoptics, especially Luke and Mark. The immediate precedent in chapter 5 had Jesus in Jerusalem healing the man at the pool of Bethesda. So we go with the Synoptics and put Jesus back in Galilee.

As in Matthew and Mark, Jesus sets off in a boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (v. 1). We already saw that Luke has Him in Bethsaida. John offers a bit of additional evidence of this placement when Jesus asks Philip directly, Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat? (v. 5b). Directing the question to Philip was reasonable, since Philip was from Bethsaida. Even more compelling is the fact that, following Philip’s insufficient response, Andrew answers Jesus’ question, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish… (v. 9a). Andrew was also from Bethsaida (see John 1:44). Had he met the boy that he knew from home while he was mingling with the crowd? Intriguing.

John offers a (seemingly) out-of-context statement in verse 4: Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Pastor David once said that there are no wasted words in Scripture. So I wonder, what’s the point of this sentence? Why mention Passover here? Is it to reflect back to the Exodus so that, by association, we are then looking forward to the provision of manna in the wilderness and drawing a parallel to Jesus feeding of the 5,000? Many writers (and preachers) have drawn this connection between the two events.

John further emphasizes this connection in verse 14: When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” The Jews had been long expecting a “prophet like Moses”: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from among your countrymen, you shall listen to Him. (Deuteronomy 18:15; see also Dt 18:18) So the people see this parallel, this feeding of the people in this “desolate place” and are ready to anoint Jesus as their king. But Jesus wouldn’t have it. Clearly, His time had not yet come.

Slava Bohu!

Luke 9:10-17

“Notice what you notice.” Luke’s account of the feeding of the 5,000… There are a couple of items different in Luke compared to Matthew and Mark. First, there is no mention in Luke of Jesus and His disciples getting into a boat to get away. They merely withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida (v. 10b). Second, Luke mentions their location as Bethsaida.

Third, to me the most compelling difference is in verse 12: Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” Matthew and Mark also have evening approaching, but only Luke suggests that the crowd needs to go away and “find lodging”. That is, they need to go away for the night and not come back! This makes me wonder what happened to the crowd after they all ate and were satisfied (v. 17). If it’s evening and they are in a “desolate place”, do they just camp out for the night? Or do they eat and then disperse to “find lodging”? But the crowd that was fed numbered 5,000 (men) – the nearby towns of Bethsaida and Capernaum probably had populations only on the order of two to three thousand. In addition there were probably smaller nearby villages. It’s asking quite a bit to have these locals open their homes to so many outsiders. Naturally, many in the crowd were probably locals themselves, but still…??

But the point is larger than this one miracle. For more than a month we have seen Jesus being surrounded by crowds in Capernaum and in other towns and villages in Galilee. Where did they all come from and where did they go in the evening? And where are the crowds in our churches? Aren’t we preaching the same message that Jesus taught? Do today’s people need to see the healings and other miracles before they believe? Or maybe the greatest miracles today are those that have happened in each of our individual lives? What brings us to the Gospel? Why do we believe? And what do we do now that we have found faith? Maybe we have found “lodging” and are already too comfortable? Lord, make us hungry again!!

Slava Bohu!

Mark 6:30-44

“Notice what you notice.” Mark’s account of the feeding of the 5,000… Mark reports on the same prior activities as Matthew – the disciples being sent out and the beheading of John the Baptist. But Mark does not mention John’s disciples coming to tell Jesus the news. Instead, today’s reading in Mark begins with the apostles reporting on their mission, all that they had done and taught (v. 30). Then this report prompts Jesus to take His disciples away to a secluded place (v. 31). And, as in Matthew they take off in a boat and the crowd follows along the shore. So when they arrive at “the secluded place”, it is not very secluded!!

What else is new here? For there were many coming and going, and {the apostles} did not even have time to eat. (v. 31b) The disciples had just returned from their mission and were gathering together (presumably) at or near Peter’s house. But with crowds coming and going (and likely pressing upon and making requests of Jesus) the disciples did not take time to eat, but instead gathered a bit of food for their dinner and took off with Jesus in a boat. They had no idea that in a few hours they would be expected to share their dinner with 4,987 (or more) people!! And yes, I’m reading between the lines here, but the fact that they did not even have time to eat created the opportunity for the greatest food multiplication miracle the world has ever seen.

So the next time that you are so busy with dozens of details that you don’t even have time to eat, give thanks!

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 14:13-21

“Notice what you notice.” Matthew’s account of the feeding of the 5,000… We can guess that Jesus is still in Galilee. Most recently we have read the accounts of the beheading of John the Baptist; before that was Jesus sending out His disciples and He Himself going into cities in Galilee (Matthew 11:1). And since Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, we can presume that John’s disciples came to Jesus in Galilee.

So in Matthew Jesus hears the news from John’s disciples about John’s beheading. Possibly to mourn by Himself, he gets into a boat and puts out to sea, to go off somewhere by Himself. But the fervor of the crowds for Jesus was so strong that they walked along the shore, wanting to keep up. Luke’s gospel has Jesus putting in at Bethsaida as His destination, only a few miles up the coast from Capernaum. I’m assuming that Capernaum was Jesus’ departure point, since he went by boat and Capernaum was home base for Peter’s fishing business. Matthew writes that when He went ashore He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick (v. 14).

But another thought came to me, in that they had traveled only a few miles by boat. As they put out to sea, while they could still see the coastline Jesus could see the people following along on the shore wanting to be with Him. So, moved with compassion and in spite of His desire to grieve over John, He had His disciples put in at the nearest location, thereby accounting for such a short trip. And in spite of the “desolate place”, the crowds would have still been close enough to nearby villages to buy food.

We’ll have three more days of the “Feeding of the 5,000”, since this miracle is reported in all four Gospels, so we’ll have more to say in the next few days.

Slava Bohu!

Luke 3:19-20, 9:7-9

“Notice what you notice.” Luke’s account of the death of John the Baptist… Luke has very little to say about John’s death, only that Herod acknowledged having beheaded him, but with no more details. There is one sentence that has always struck me – the whole of our reading from chapter 3: But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison. (Luke 3:19-20, NKJV) I can just picture Luke writing this sentence, almost in astonishment – that in spite of and in addition to all the evils that Herod had already done, he even added more to them by arresting John!! A literary quirk, but intriguing to me…!

In that same sentence Luke’s wording creates the same confusion in me that I had reported yesterday. The confusing phrase is …being rebuked by him concerning Herodias; I have always interpreted the word “concerning” as “in connection with”, whereas yesterday I read it translated as “for the sake of”. Read yesterday’s post if you want that spelled out more clearly.

So Luke does not report explicitly on the events surrounding John’s death, only that Herod had beheaded John and wanted to see Jesus. (Luke 9:9) Herod finally gets his wish a year or two later when Jesus is sent to him by Pilate. Here is the prelude to that meeting: When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see Him, because he had heard about Him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by Him. (Luke 23:6-8) So Herod had his wish partially fulfilled, but his meeting with Jesus left him disappointed. Appropriate!

Slava Bohu!

Mark 6:14-29

“Notice what you notice.” Mark’s account of the death of John the Baptist…

Today I find myself wondering about Herodias, about her vendetta against John the Baptist. Earlier verses have John telling Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife (v. 18) and of Herod’s fear that Jesus was John’s “ghost” come back to life. What’s different for me today is in the following verse: For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. (v. 17, NASB) My confusion stemmed from the words “on account of” (same translation in the NRSV); I had always interpreted that phrase as “in connection with”. But today I saw that the NKJV, RSV, and ESV all translate that phrase as “for the sake of”. To me, “for the sake of” has the implication of Herod responding to a request from Herodias. So I wondered at Herodias being the instigator even of John’s imprisonment, not just his death.

So today, having read a different interpretation, “for the sake of”, I saw more clearly a few verses that made me wonder more at Herodias as the mover, the one more playing the lead in this adulterous affair. The first is in verse 19, And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. It’s a verse I’ve read many times before, but now with a different emphasis behind it. The next verse now also makes more sense to me in the light of this new understanding, …for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. (v. 20) Herod kept John “safe”; in fact, it seems that John’s imprisonment served to keep Herod entertained.

Naturally Herodias’ vendetta comes home full force in the rest of the story when her daughter does exactly as Herodias had directed her and John is put to death.

I had to let this reading sit with me for a while before I more clearly understood what it was that had been confusing for me. And it took multiple reads of these same verses in multiple translations before I could unravel what I was thinking. That’s part of the beauty of having only a few verses a day to read. Mary Ann Duddy up in heaven must be smiling!!

Slava Bohu!