Just a Healer or More?

Opening Prayer (Gratitude & Intercession)

Read Mark 6:53-56

Imagine being before the one and only Jesus Christ, while suffering from a deep case of myopic vision. You see the physical needs being met clearly, but you cannot tell the forest for the trees when it comes to the spiritual reality of who this man is and what he has come to do for the glory of God. This is case as we see it in the Scriptures, in Mark 6:53-56. We have the tremendous blessing of learning from these events with the clarity of the Scriptures.

Healing souls is the real work that Jesus came to do.

Millard J. Erickson

The Big Question: Who is this Man, Jesus of Nazareth?

I. Jesus leads the Disciples from a storm to a garden. (v. 53)

The storm has ended, the waters and the winds have come to an unnatural stillness, and now the boat not making its original destination, is moored on the shores of Gennesaret.

The open plain leading to the sloping hills of Galilee is remarkable for its rich soil and abundant lush grounds for agricultural development. Some ancient Jewish scholars have referred to this strip of land as a second Garden of Eden.

Here we continue to see the remarkable vision of Psalm 23 in real life. A good Shepherd takes care of his own and leads them to green pastures for rest and provision.

They believed in him, but they did not realize the constraint of a supreme influence. They did not hold themselves as solemnly engaged to him. It was this engagement to be his, going where he went, and dwelling where he dwelt, which was the work of the day by the Lake of Gennesaret. Now, see in this a reminder that there may be a belief, sincere and true so far as it goes, which prepares for, but which is not, the faith unto salvation. It establishes a certain intellectual relation to Christ, but nothing more. The effectual call is still wanting—the call, i.e., to an entire self-surrender, leaving all and following him. 2. There is a sovereignty of grace in this call.

H. D. M. Spence

II. Jesus, the healer, is recognized far and wide. (v. 54-55)

Calling back to Mark 6:1, we see the following events: 1. Jesus is rejected by his own community; 2. John the Baptist is beheaded; 3. Jesus feeds the five thousand; 4. Jesus walks on water. God is driving the narrative of the Gospel to display Jesus’ power as more than what the people expect.

The text shows that Jesus is renowned in the area as someone who is able to do wonderful signs that display the power of healing and expelling demons from those afflicted with them. However, a statement should resonate for the readers of the Gospel as the Chapter closes with this healing event—“Their hearts were hardened”… and… “Sheep without a Shepherd.”

The people are rushing to find relief for their physical needs, similar to the experience of the five thousand men fed through Jesus miraculous power, but they do not recognize that there is more than a wonderful physician among them.

Your own soul is your first and greatest care.

Robert Murray McCheyne (Scottish Minister)

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 LSB

13 The end of the matter, all that has been heard: fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the end of the matter for all mankind. 14 For God will bring every work to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

Are we so fixed on what we think we know about Jesus that we cannot or will not receive the whole of Jesus with all the discomforts of his self-revelation?

III. The Crowds rush to Jesus, but they are missing someone greater. (v. 56)

It is important for us to note the importance of the people’s attitude through their actions. They seek to experience in the here and now, what Jesus Christ alone comes to give each of us for eternity—A kind of peace that makes us truly whole forever.

Jesus shows he is a devout Jew as he wears a prayer shawl, which would have tassels on the corners of the garment, and sometimes all throughout.

Here the people exhibit what we see when we look into the eyes of someone in desperate need of food, clothing, or shelter, whose life is totally upside down by the consequence of the sin around and inside them—Immediate needs blur the eternal one.

Deuteronomy 22:12 LSB

12 “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

God speaks to his people regarding this again:

Numbers 15:37–41 LSB

37 Yahweh also spoke to Moses, saying, 38 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. 39 “And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot, 40 so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God. 41 “I am Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am Yahweh your God.”

The Scriptures makes it simply clear: The focus is the person, not the gift or the command; The person who is speaking or safeguarded by Word’s Word.

IV. The Big Question: Who is Jesus of Nazareth?

Our Lord is displaying the needed clues to disclose himself to those around him. Our call as disciples blessed with 20/20 vision is to call these small details to the world’s attention.

The real issue is the same indictment Jesus levied against the Disciples—Humanity’s heart, left to their own devices, will remain hardened.

Each of us must hold to the promise and source of joy that faith is a gift of God that not only makes us clean of sin, but also allows us to see the glory and majesty of the only true human being in all human history.

1 John 5:14–15 LSB

14 And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

Closing Prayer (Adoration & Petition)