After John the Baptist confronts Herod the Great's son Herod Antipas, who was the tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, about his adulterous marriage to Herodeous, the wife of his brother Philip the Tetrarch, John is imprisoned, but not killed because of his popularity as a prophet.
That changed however, when the daughter Salome from that first marriage danced at feast and so pleased Herod Antipas that:
. . . he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask . . .
After consulting her mother, she replied:
“Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.”
The end of John's ministry was immediate and the reaction of his disciples was natural, but that of Jesus was not.
And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.
Instead of ministering to their grief or enfolding them into his group of disciples Jesus uncharacteristically attempted to withdraw by Himself.
But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
The Sea of Galilee is small enough that you can see the boat from shore. They raced around the edge and arrived at the desolate location before Jesus' arrival.
When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Once again we are brought back to the word "compassion" (splagchnizomai). This is a strong physical emotion. The English equivalent is “pang”. This was not, however, His Disciples' response.
“. . . send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
What follows is the feeding of the Five Thousand, where Jesus reinforced the pattern of the Sermon on the Mount, with the importance of compassion and generosity, fueled by prayer and the multiplying power of God.
With that lesson complete, Jesus, again uncharacteristically, sent both the crowd and his disciples away. He truly wanted to be alone. The disciples struggled through the night to cross the sea by boat and toward dawn Jesus caught up to them walking on the water. In Mark 6:45-52, the detail is added that He was intending to walk past them!
And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them,
Jesus' desire to be alone, was actually a desire to teach his disciples compassion, by showing them what it was like to be without Him. He wanted them to feel the same desperation that John's disciples felt when He walked away. He wanted them to feel what it was like.
The lesson is repeated, when a Gentile woman pleads with Him for the healing of her daughter. The disciples reaction was again to send her away! And Jesus said something very uncharacteristic of Him:
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
We have already seen Jesus heal the servant of a Roman Centurion and cast out demons from two men from the Gentile region of Gadarenes, so His compassion did cross that line, but for the moment He wanted to echo their sentiment. After the disciples felt the coldness of statement, He relents and grants her request for crumbs from the master's table [Yes, this is the namesake for this author's blog!]
Jesus then attempts the lesson again, with Four Thousand hungry people.
Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat . . .
Their response, having seen this miracle once before, is classic:
“Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?”
Jesus showed them, again. He . . .
. . . took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
Then, after repeatedly demonstrating His power, Jesus asks a question.
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
In Daniel 7:13-14, a prophecy predicts that a son of man would be an everlasting kingdom. When asked who they thought it would be, they gave the choices that most people thought. He asked a second follow-up question to bring them closer to the answer.
“But who do you say that I am?”
And miraculously the dullest knife in the drawer got it. Simon, declares:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Here the ministry of Jesus changes.
Up to this point He was teaching disciples the ramifications of the Sermon on the Mount and teaching them to be forgiving and compassionate. Now He must prepare for the Sign of Jonah -- His death, three day burial, and His Resurrection.
To which, the freshly renamed Peter, the rock (petra) on which the church is to be built, responds rashly.
"This shall never happen to you.”
And so the lessons for Peter begins:
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!
No comments:
Post a Comment