Picture with me the Sea of Galilee, which, as Mother Frazier reminded us last week, is not a sea at all, but a lake. The lake is sort of upside-down teardrop-shaped: wider up at the top (in the north) than it is at the bottom. It is about 8 miles wide at its widest place, and about 13 miles long. The Jordan river feeds it from the north, and flows out from the lake in the south.
Now, plot with me, in your mind’s eye, Jesus’ movements around the Sea of Galilee as St. Mark relates them to us. Along the northern shore, you find Capernaum, which is where most of the activity in the first four chapters of Mark’s Gospel takes place. That’s where we encountered Jesus last week, toward the end of chapter 4, on the northern end of the sea. There, Jesus got into a boat with his disciples for a very particular reason. St. Mark’s reports that Jesus said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And I want to ask you to plant in your mind this question: why did Jesus take this journey with his disciples?
In the midst of that journey across the lake, a storm arose which Jesus stilled with a simple command. Last week, the stilling of the storm seemed to be the highlight (and perhaps the point) of the story, since we read it as an isolated incident. But reading the story that way puts the storm completely out of context, and perhaps elevates its importance. Yes, the stilling of the storm is a big deal. But, the storm is a diversion and a distraction from the real purpose and activity of Jesus’ travel, work, and ministry, which we won’t realize until we’ve plotted his movements, to see what’s going on here.
At the start of chapter 5, St. Mark tells us that “they came to the other side of the sea.” More on this in a minute. Now, in chapter 5, Jesus and his disciples have made a trans-limnal journey - they have crossed to the other side of the lake, and the boat, with Jesus and the disciples in it, reaches the southern side of the lake (where Gentiles live, and maybe not so many Jews). There, Jesus stayed long enough to perform a work of wonder, driving an unclean spirit out of a man possessed, and sending the spirits instead into a large herd of swine, which end up plunging down a cliff and drowning in the lake. (It’s sad for the swine, but they aren’t kosher, so, you know, there’s a message there.)
Halfway through chapter 5, St. Mark tells us that Jesus has “crossed again in the boat to the other side.” Another trans-liminal journey, a lake crossing. And that’s where we pick up today, back on the Jewish side of the lake (if I can put it that way) where, among his own people again, Jesus is asked to heal the daughter of the leader of the synagogue, and where, before he can even set out to visit the sick girl, a woman who suffered from hemorrhages for years reaches out to touch his cloak; and with this act of faith, the woman was healed.
We’re still in the midst of chapter 5, we’re back in Capernaum. And Jesus has not yet made it to the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. Before he even sets out to go there, he is told that it is too late, that Jairus’s daughter is dead. But Jesus goes anyway, and finds, when he arrives there, that the mourning has begun, the people are weeping and wailing loudly.
Remember how the people reacted when Jesus urged them to stop their mourning. “The child is not dead,” he said to them, “but sleeping.” And St. Mark tells us that “they laughed at him.” This comment always makes me cringe. They were not the last people who laughed at Jesus.
Then, in one of the most beautiful scenes of the New Testament, with derision and laughter still ringing in his ears, Jesus enters into the house with Jairus, the dead child’s father, along with her mother, and with his disciples. St. Mark tells the story with eloquently spare details. Jesus “went in where the child was. He took her by hand and said to her [in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke], ‘Talitha cum,’ which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement.” And in another verse, chapter 5 comes to an end, after quite a lot has been accomplished.
Remember what I asked you to do with: to plot with me, in your mind’s eye, Jesus’ movements by the Sea of Galilee; and to ask yourself, why did Jesus make the journey across to the other side. Throughout all that’s happened in chapters 4 and 5 - amid the stilling of the storm, the casting out of demons, the healing of the bleeding woman, and the raising of a dead child - something else has happened. Jesus has gone across the Sea of Galilee and come back. He got into the boat in Capernaum, and with his disciples he crossed over to the other side of the sea. And then, they crossed over again to return.
Now, you may not have been an English major in college, but I was. And in literature, it is never just incidental if you go across to the other side of a body of water… especially if you announce with dialogue that your intention is to “go across to the other side.”
Yes, it’s true that there was a storm to be stilled. Yes, it’s true that there were unclean spirits to be cast out. Yes, it’s true that a woman was healed of her terrible bleeding. And, yes, it’s’ true that a twelve year old girl was raised from the dead. (Don’t laugh.). But what about the disciples? What happens to them?
It would appear at first glance that the only thing of consequence that happens to the people who are actually with Jesus, is that their fear is calmed when he stills the storm. But to see it this way, is to fail to see where Jesus has brought them. After all, these were fishermen, whose daily experience of the lake was to set out from the shore and return; set out and return. But twice, in the course of these events, Jesus brings his followers, his friends, all the way across the water to the other side. And the first time he does it, he actually tells them that this is the sole purpose of their journey: to go across to the other side.
It is the only instruction Jesus provides throughout all these works of wonder. He does not teach the disciples how to still a storm. He does not teach them how to cast out demons. He does not explain the power that flowed out from him to heal the woman of her bleeding. And his simple words to the dead child are not an incantation that he shares with his disciples so that they can raise the dead by repeating those exact words. None of these incidents actually transforms Jesus’s disciples. But one thing does happen to them - twice. They reach the other side of the water.
Now, reaching the other side of the water has been a theme before in the Bible. Noah had to wait for the waters of the flood to subside in order to reach the other side of disaster, as it were. The children of Israel were led by Moses, delivered from their slavery in Egypt by crossing to the other side of the Red Sea. Joshua led God’s people into the promised land by bringing them across to the other side of the River Jordan.
Water is the sign and symbol of God’s love in the sacrament of Holy Baptism not only because it cleans and refreshes us. More importantly, we experience bodies of water as obstacles that have to be crossed. And in the covenant of love between God and his people, God promises that he will never leave us on the shore, unable to make our way across, and to wonder what it would be like if only we could get to the other side.
When Jesus takes us with him, it is precisely so that we can go across with him to the other side. Will there be storms on the way? Of course! And he will calm them. But the stilling of the storm isn’t the point. In a way, even the miracles of healing, and casting out demons, and raising the dead aren’t the point either. Because these things happen to only a very few people along the way. But for those who are traveling with Jesus, he brings every one of them all the way across to the other side. The first time across, he brought them into a land that was not theirs, let’s call it a distant and foreign land, just to make the point. And the second time, Jesus brought them across again, to bring them home. The action here, on both occasions, is that Jesus brings those who are with him across to the other side. They make safe passage, all the way across. And I think that this may be the most important thing that Jesus does for his disciples: to bring them across to the other side of the water.
What obstacles lie ahead of you and me, that make us wonder if we could ever get across to the other side? Or that we might never even bother with? The older I get, the more I see the obstacles we all have to cross to get to the other side. Injury, sickness, and weakness. Failure and heartbreak. Betrayal and dishonesty. Addiction and compulsive behavior. Depression and despair. Grief and sorrow. Sin and selfishness. And, of course, there is death: that sea of darkness that looms ahead of each and every one one of us, and we wonder whether and how we can ever make it across, or even if there is another side. But which is also the sea that we know that Jesus has already crossed, so he must know the way.
And the reason I think it is important to read the narrative of these chapters of Mark’s Gospel this way is this: Jesus didn’t put an end to storms: more of them will come. Jesus didn’t cast out every evil spirit: there is still torment for some. Jesus didn’t heal all sickness: there is illness and suffering ahead for some. Jesus didn’t raise every dead child from their too-early death: others will die, too.
It’s not the specificity of the miracles that matters here; it’s the knowledge that you and I can go across to the other side with him. For storms, sickness, and death have not yet come to an end. But Jesus will always bring you across the water to the other side, no matter what. Sometimes he will bring you across to a distant foreign place, if that is where you need to go. And sometimes he will bring you across so that you can go home.
But look, if all you are asking of Jesus is for him to still your storms, then you are not asking or expecting enough from him. Jesus does not just want to calm you down, he wants you to go across to the other side with him. For there, on the other side, there is healing and health, and freedom from the demons that possess you. And there, on the other side, there is new life in the face of of the darkness of death. All these can be yours and mine.
And the surest way to find them is to go with Jesus when he says, “let us go across to the other side.”
Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
27 June 2021
Saint Mark’s, Locust Street, Philadelphia
The Sea of Galilee