Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 9 Study # 1
July 21, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(174)
NASB
35 On that day, when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side."
36 Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.
37 And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"
39 And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
40 And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
41 They became very much afraid and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"
- I. Mark's Linkage Of The Parables To This Record.
- A. Mark's verb is present tense: always emphatic when used in historical narrative.
- 1. He is saying to them: bringing the reader into the immediacy of the events.
- a. The "them" is "His own disciples" from 4:34, to whom He explained "all things" (in the parables).
- b. The assumption is that these disciples are now "intellectually" prepared to take the next step(s): they have "understanding" of His teaching regarding The Kingdom of The God.
- 2. His words: "Let us go over (Aorist Subjunctive First Person Plural) unto the other side".
- a. The verb is only used here and in 10:25 (a camel going through [the] eye of [the] needle) and, though, perhaps, a bit of a stretch to link them, neither time were those mentioned "able" to do it.
- b. The direction (unto "to peran") is the same as in 6:47 when, again, they couldn't get there because of "wind".
- B. Mark's language is deliberately emphatic.
- 1. Literally, "In that the day, evening having come".
- a. He is insistent: "that" day.
- b. He is emphatic: "evening having come" (which, normally, would mean "the next day had begun", but in this case it means that the activities of the day were over).
- 1) 1:32; the Sabbath was over (Mark makes sure we understand that because he tells us that the sun had set), and Jesus did many healings and exorcisms to begin to establish His identity (with overtones of the general legalism of the people).
- 2) 4:35; current text, includes "evening had come" and a "great wind" (megale anemou) and a crowd and the question, "Who, then, is this?"
- 3) 6:47; a crowd, a "wind" (anemos) against them and He came to them walking on the water.
- 4) 14:17; the Passover was prepared and "evening had come" and He announced His betrayal.
- 5) 15:42; "evening had come" and Joseph of Arimathea sought permission to take Jesus down and put Him in a tomb.
- c. His 'regular' point in respect to the coming of the evening seems to be that certain events have taken place during the 'day' that 'make a point' regarding the impact of that day's events.
- 2. As soon as He completed His teaching of many parables, He instructed His disciples...
- C. An implication is now on the table: these disciples are supposed to have "believed" His words, which, boiled down, declare God's immutable intentionality to bring the Kingdom to pass in human history.
- 1. This "intentionality" is a very large category with many details attending.
- 2. This means that, going forth from the very day they "learned" of this "intentionality", they ran smack dab into a "contrary appearance" to test them.
- 3. In this sense, then, the following record becomes another "parable in action" to expose the actual "attitude" condition of these men to whom He had explained all.
- a. The "problem" is always a variation of "hear, have it explained, and then revert immediately to old patterns of thinking and response". There is a similitude here to 1:32 where it is His "identity" that is revealed to numb minds.
- b. Depravity is only overcome when the events of time and experience actually come into a focus of faith as with Abraham who "received his son back from the dead, in a figure" (Hebrews 11:17-19).