14.8 Even the phrasing sounds like a petulant demand from an immature girl: “Give me here on a platter…”
14.9 At least he was distressed: a crumb of conscience remained. A weak man who had foolishly promised too much, but did not want to lose face publicly.
14.13 Jesus wanted to grieve privately, but the crowd demanded attention.
14.25 Fourth of four watches, so 3am to 6am, the time just before and around dawn. Did Jesus do this easily, as the appropriate means of passage of the Son of God (which seems to be their reaction in 33)? Mark 6.48 says he meant to pass by them, implying his purpose was simply to cross the lake. Yet, while the fullness (pleroma) of Godhead dwells in him (Col 1.19, 2.9), he has also emptied himself of divine attributes (kenosis Phil 2.6-7), so cannot shift up into “God gear” and access powers unavailable to mortals. What he does, he does as a praying human being, and we can also do (feeding thousands v16, walking on water v29)
14.36 Matt 9.21, Acts 5.15, 19.12. Amazing times of God’s Spirit!
Tom has such a gift with words: “Jesus has just fed five thousand people with what started out as next to nothing.” Also in his own translation: “smashed around” (v24), “panicked” and “screamed with terror” (v26), “ ‘Master,’ he yelled, ‘rescue me!’ ” (v30).
Modern Westerners do indeed sneer at walking on water; but fishermen knew better than us how impossible it is. It’s the walk of faith, in the face of the world’s sneers: we look at the waves and start to sink, we cry for help and walk on.
And we even hear what happened to Tom’s college friend!
No comments:
Post a Comment