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 dangerB. 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. 48-5148 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 - (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 proag 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 pro, 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.