separation

The Sea of Separation

/ EllieJ

If you read the Gospels, you’ll likely notice that much of Jesus ministry takes place near or even on the sea. You can take it at face value or you can look deeper into what the sea represents. Of course that’s what I did.

According to a study by Mark Ballenger (applygodsword.com), bodies of water are often a barrier to blessings. God had to split the Red Sea to set the Israelites free from slavery. God had to stop the flow of the Jordan during flood stages so his people could enter the promise land. In other parts of the Bible, bodies of water are symbols for evil, death, and chaos…

Some might question then, why Jesus spent so much time near such a representation. I ask, why wouldn’t He? Didn’t Jesus come to defeat evil, death, and chaos? Ballenger goes on to write, if bodies of water symbolize death, evil, chaos, and all the other things which are not natural to God’s original creation, then for Jesus to walk on the stormy waters seems to symbolically reveal the reality that Jesus conquers death, evil, and brings the order creation groans for.

So why is this important? My most recent studies have been in the Gospel of Mark and it took me two months to study my way through the fourth chapter. It opens with Jesus teaching by the sea.

He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land.

Mark 4:1 (NASB 1995)

This is usually a fly over verse in that it describes Jesus, where He is, and what He’s doing, but doesn’t seem to reveal anything significant. On to the next flannelgraph.

But wait, there’s more. Jesus got into a boat on the sea while the crowd remained on land. There’s a separation happening here. And if we apply what the sea represents, this verse suddenly becomes much more significant. Jesus is in a boat over the representation of death, evil, and chaos. That very thing separates Him from the people on the shore. Jesus, the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah is separated from the crowds of people by death, evil, and chaos. This is the reason He came—to remove that separation. But it hadn’t happened yet.

Jump ahead to verse 35. Jesus now instructs His disciples to go to the other side. Notice that He didn’t give them a choice. They were already in the boat, and Jesus said, “Let’s go.”

A post from St. Stephen Presbyterian says it better than I can:

“Let us cross over to the other side,” Jesus says in our Gospel today. When Jesus says those simple words to his disciples, they probably about had a heart attack. Jesus had been preaching on the western bank of the Sea of Galilee, which meant, basically, that he was preaching to people like himself and his disciples—his fellow Galileans, mostly poor fishermen and their families, mostly Jewish, with a strong regional identity. And suddenly Jesus is saying, Let’s go to the other side, by which he means, let’s cross the Sea of Galilee, at its widest point, from west to east, and go to other side, which in modern times we’d call the Nation of Jordan, and which back in those days was a land filled with people completely different from Galileans. This was Gentile territory, an area called the Decapolis, or the Ten Cities, populated by Arabs and by people from every part of the Roman Empire, sophisticated types, people who were proud Romans. Even the Jews who lived on the other side were completely different from Galileans. Jews who lived in the Decapolis were comfortable with compromises most Jews wouldn’t have made. They were willing to live among and work among people that Jews considered unclean, maybe even engage in unclean practices like eating pork. There were key Roman units garrisoned there. These people didn’t like Galilean Jews and Galilean Jews didn’t like them; and here’s Jesus saying, let’s cross over to the other side and hang out with them! The other side isn’t just any other side, it’s the dark side, and it’s like Jesus saying to them, “Come to the dark side, Luke!”

St. Stephen Presbyterian

It was bad enough that Jesus didn’t give His disciples the option of whether or not they wanted to spend the evening on the sea travelling to a heathen land, but then a storm kicks up. What I find amusing here is that no less than four of the disciples were professional fishermen. They knew this sea better than most and had surely encountered storms before. Either their commission to fish for men had turned them into pansies or this was one heck of a storm.

Jesus was not bothered by the storm. The disciples had to wake Him up to tell Him they were all going to die.

Most preachers use this account to let us know that Jesus is in the boat with us! No matter what storm we encounter, He’s there ready to calm it! But what if that’s not what this is about at all?

Maybe the boat is simply a boat. Maybe the point is that Jesus is just trying to get us to the other side.

Because left to our own devices, we’d rather stay where we are. That’s human nature. But it also seems to be the nature of faith. We can’t seem to hear Jesus’ invitation — “Let us go across to the other side.” How easy it is to stay in our comfort zones; to default to our pet theologies; to remain in what is known, even though that which is known has become unbearable. We would rather ignore the desperate need for change than make the change happen. So we sit. And we wait. For what? The right time? For someone else to make the first move? Maybe this is why Jesus doesn’t give the disciples any time to think about the trip — “On that day … ” We would think about it forever. “Thinking about it” is always one of our best excuses.

Karoline Lewis

Have you kept in mind what the sea represents? Death, evil, chaos.

Do you know what the wind represents? In a positive light, the wind often represents the Holy Spirit, but in a negative light, wind is often used as a picture of futility… Wind also negatively signifies doubtfulness or uncertainty (jesusway4you.com).

Jesus wasn’t concerned about death, evil, or chaos, nor did He have any doubt or uncertainty. He wasn’t bothered by the storm at all. But the disciples, on the other hand, weren’t so confident. They accused Jesus of being uncaring while the storm threatened to overtake them, filling the boat with water.

Now what’s the real threat here? The water isn’t. Think about it. Water on its own does nothing without outside interference. It’s there. It sits. It has no power unless acted on by an outside force. The sea on its own is powerless. Death, evil, chaos are powerless.

But enter the wind. The wind is what causes the waves to rise up. That doubt and uncertainty makes the death, evil, and chaos seem like more than they really are.

Take a look at what Jesus does when He’s so abruptly awoken.

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.

Mark 4:39 (NASB 1995)

It was the wind that caused the storm and Jesus rebuked that, but what we have recorded are His words to the sea. Jesus spoke to the chaos, not the doubt and uncertainty. At least not the representation of it.

He addressed the doubt in His disciples.

And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 

Mark 4:40 (NASB 1995)

There are a lot of questions we can ask ourselves as we consider these passages in a new light:

  • Am I looking for more options when Jesus gives me a direct instruction?
  • Do I fear the death, evil, and chaos even though they are powerless?
  • Does my doubt feed the chaos around me?
  • Do I expect Jesus to rebuke every storm for me?
  • Can I overcome my doubt and uncertainty to avoid the storms?

If you think this is a lot, just wait until the boys land on the shore. If you think there’s peace after the storm, read on into Mark 5.

Please, Daddy.

/ EllieJ

Read: Deuteronomy 20-22, Mark 14:26-50

As kids, most of us were asked by one or both of our parents to do something we didn’t want to do. Maybe some of us begged not to have to do said task. We’d plead. Even throw a tantrum, depending on how distasteful we perceived the task to be. Eventually, and maybe with the help of a firm hand to the behind, we’d grudgingly do what we were told. That tenuous relationship with our parents was a love/hate one. We loved them for what they did for us and hated them for what they made us do. In all but a few rare cases, all that forced labour was for our own benefit.

Even Jesus had a moment where he questioned God’s resolve regarding the task at hand.

Mark 14-36.jpg

The double title Abba Father occurs only two other times. “Abba” was a common way young Jewish children addressed their fathers. It conveyed a sense of familial intimacy and familiarity. The Jews, however, did not use it as a personal address to God since such a familiar term was considered inappropriate in prayer. Thus Jesus’ use of Abba in addressing God was new and unique. He probably used it often in His prayers to express His intimate relationship with God as His Father. Abba here suggests that Jesus’ primary concern in drinking the cup of God’s judgement on sin necessarily disrupted this relationship.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary

As technically as this paragraph is written, it brought me to tears. In my mind, I’ve known since I was a small child that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. I knew that he was/is the Son of God. But in thinking about the intimate relationship Jesus had with his Father, we can see just how wrought with pain Jesus was in this moment. Never before had anyone recorded him calling out to God on such a personal level. Maybe he was even hoping that, like with Abraham laying Isaac on the altar, a substitution would be made at the very last minute.

Even greater than the thought of feeling every thorn, every lash, every nail, Jesus would feel the eternal pain of separation from his Father. It is literally a pain worse than death. In death, you know that person is gone. Jesus knew that neither he nor his Father would be gone, but rather there would be an eternal separation between the two.

And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:8 (NIV)

Think about the one person you are closer to than anyone else in the world. Now imagine knowing that they are still there, but you can’t see that person. You can’t speak with them. You can’t touch them. For eternity. If you knew ahead of time, that would be the result, would you still go through with what was asked of you?

Jesus did. The pain of his torture and death was unimaginable. But I think the pain of separation was even greater. As the time grew near, Jesus became distressed and cried out to God, not as a servant to a master, but as a child to a father, “Please, Daddy…”

Yet he still submitted his will to God’s so that we would not have to endure that pain.

In His own image

/ EllieJ / Leave a comment

Read: Genesis 1-2, Matthew 1

Genesis-1-27

Reading through the account of creation, we see that man is the only thing God created in His own image. Man is the only being that God breathed His own life into. Though they were made on the same day, man was different from the beasts of the field.

Man was made upright. His understanding saw Divine things clearly and truly; there were no errors or mistakes in his knowledge; his will consented at once, and in all things, to the will of God.

Matthew Henry

Before Adam made the worst decision in the history of humanity, he was at one with God. He knew no separation from his Creator and lived in perfect communion with Him. We know, that at the moment Adam chose to eat from the forbidden tree, that unique relationship was severed. While that relationship can never be fully restored on this side of heaven, God made a way for us to still have communion with Him. But it takes work. It’s not an instant fix; it is a lifelong effort on our part.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

The only way to gain back even a portion of what Adam experienced with God in the garden is to continually renew ourselves to His will. You truly to become like the people you most spend time with, so spend time with God. Become more like Him—the way we were all created to be. This process of renewal must be constant and consistent. always moving forward and never looking back.

Paul said we need to be forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead (Philippians 3:13). We have a decision to make. We can continue to live in separation from God and do as we please. Or we can approach Him through the grace provided through Jesus’ sacrifice and get to know Him and His will for us. We can live as we were created to live in perfect harmony with our Father.