6 February 2023 – Mark 6:53-56
Today we have a passage that summarises what Jesus did for the people who followed him everywhere asking to be healed and restored. The sick, strong in their faith, sought only to be able to touch the flaps of his garment because whoever touched him was healed and cured.
The public life of Jesus as recounted by the second evangelist, Mark, is a relentless going among the people, in various towns, villages, and countryside facing both the snares of the Pharisees and the demands of the crowd, always in search of immediate goods and signs.
In today’s passage, Jesus and his disciples land in Gennesaret.
Here, as soon as he goes ashore, he is immediately recognised and a large crowd gathers from all over the region “…getting out of the boat, the people IMMEDIATELY recognised him” (6:54).
The words used by the evangelist are very evocative: everyone gets out of the boat, but the people fix their gaze on Jesus. It is He that the people are looking for, they need Him.
people need. All the attention is on Him, the others are on the sidelines.
Mark uses the adverb of time “immediately” to emphasise that in the heart of man there is an irrepressible desire that drives him to seek that which can give full meaning to life. This scene is a kind of “icon” that describes very well a very important aspect of the experience of every believer: the Lord reaches out to us everywhere in our lives, especially at times when the “headwind” of our difficulties makes us fear the worst because of the feeling that the Lord has remained far away, on the other shore.
The Gospel page reports details that must have stuck in the disciples’ minds, such as the stretchers of the sick laid out in the squares and the desire to at least touch the flap of his cloak.
‘As many as touched it were saved’ … It is not said healed, but saved’ … It is striking that on the stormy boat, the very apostles are afraid and do not recognise Him, while in the crowd many recognise Him, touch Him and are saved.
Those who really manage to touch Him is because they do not touch a miracle worker, a harbinger of crowds, but a simple man brother and friend, full of the Spirit of God. By trusting Jesus, he in the storms of life, truly saves, restores unity in the person, frees from fears, restores the ability to stand and do good like Him.
For good workers…
At the root of this great enthusiasm of the people was, on the one hand, the person of Jesus who called and attracted and, on the other hand, the misery. of the people who were like sheep without a shepherd (Mk 6:34). In Jesus he attracted because in speaking of God he revealed and communicated something that he himself lived and experienced.
He was not only announcing the Good News. He himself was a living testimony of the Kingdom. In him was manifested what happens when a human being lets God reign in his life.
P JOBY KAVUNGAL RCJ