Just As He Was

What special preparations were needed to take Jesus somewhere?

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" - Mark 4:35-41

Mark tells us that they took Jesus in the boat "just as he was."

It sounds like maybe he was drunk or something, but according to commentators, it meant they made no special preparations.

Okay, so what special preparations would be needed for Jesus?

Jesus told them to go in twos with nothing but the clothes on their back. If they are accepted where they go, stay there, but if not, leave. So, you would think that Jesus would do the same, right?

I think he was exhausted. 

Evening had come, and Jesus had been teaching by the lake all day. Thousands had come to listen to him. He was dead tired, so they took him onto the boat as he was, spent.

That makes sense, right?

I doubt he had been drinking. Mark doesn't even mention food or drink for the whole day. He does say that Jesus spoke to them in parables, but that wouldn't have taken all day.

So, whatever they did all day, with him teaching them lesson after lesson, he was beat. Evening had come and he decided to go to the other side.

Now, Peter and his brothers had been fishermen. They would have known that a storm was coming, wouldn't they?

I have been writing these reflections for years now. When we read the same stories over and over again, we start to see what is missing. We know what is written down, but what else happened?

Don't you want to know?

Mark didn't think it important, or maybe he didn't know. He was relying on stories told for years before he wrote them down.

The story in the gaps is what intrigues me. What did the people ask him when they heard the parables? Why did Jesus decide to cross the sea at night with a storm coming? Why didn't the apostles try to stop him?

We get the story just as it is. We can imagine what is missing and create our own version of the story in our heads, but we won't know for certain.

Maybe Mark wants us to ask why. Maybe that is the point of the Gospels, to give us enough to wonder and imagine.

Maybe, we are not supposed to lock into what is there, and open ourselves to what it all may mean.

Or, maybe it is all just poor writing.

I like to think we are supposed to imagine we are in the boat with Jesus and we are supposed to be calm, even though the storm is coming.

More to come...