As a progressive Christian, I believe there are many names for God and many ways to a loving God; this article reflects one of those ways. Take from here what works for you. Celebrate life with joy and peace!
In the Gospel of Mark 4, Jesus calls us to follow him to the other side. The other side of what? The other side of where? Jesus said to them, “Let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd behind … they went across.”
Jesus lived dangerously and placed himself at great risk for the sake of inclusive love; and Jesus challenged the boundaries and then issued challenges to his followers.
In Mark there are two traumatic boat experiences on the Sea of Galilee. Both stories have common themes. In both stories the disciples were crossing to the other side. And in both stories there is “fear” that overwhelmed them and then Jesus addressed that fear.
Now, there are a couple ways to see and understand these gospel stories. One way is to take them literally, as historical narratives that we could have taken a video on our smart phones if we had been there. If we take the literal approach, we can easily get hung up on whether or not it really happened the way Mark describes it, and debate about it endlessly, and never really get to the core meaning of the story.
Another way is to see and understand these stories as not merely literal historical narratives, but as what many Biblical scholars call metaphorical narratives. Metaphorical narrative recognizes that truth can be delivered through metaphor, and that these early faith communities understood the metaphorical nature of the stories they received and passed on about Jesus.
The metaphorical approach takes seriously the depth of what Jesus meant for those early faith communities; communities that shaped their lives around his teaching, communities that named Jesus Lord. Theologian, J. Holub wrote, “This approach says that the deepest meanings of the stories are found in their metaphorical nature rather than in a strictly literal sense.”
How wonderful that when we take this approach, it can open up great vistas of understanding and wonderful new dimensions of meaning about Jesus and the impact he had on those early communities of faith that followed him, and also how he shaped their community and their individual lives long after he was gone. It also speaks of how Jesus can continue to shape and impact our lives today.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” The “other side” of the Sea of Galilee was not just different in its geographic features a few miles away, but it was different culturally, socially, ethnically, politically and religiously; it was so different it could have been 10,000 miles away or even on another planet!
The Sea of Galilee separated two major regions: a Jewish region and a Gentile region. When Jesus said, “Let us go to the other side,” he was transporting his disciples across a significant boundary. The other side was a center of Greek and Roman culture; an alien culture; a Gentile world. One of the most pronounced lines of demarcation of the ancient world was that between Jew and Gentile. Do we still have pronounced lines of demarcation in 2015?
What this story is about is crossing these boundaries. As we read the gospels, Jesus passed back and forth across these boundaries often, as if they didn’t even exist.
So, Jesus took the initiative with his disciples, climbed into their little boat and crossed a boundary. As they were crossing they encountered a great resistance, and then they were engulfed and almost capsized in fury of fear.
Again, if we read this story strictly literally, it is only about a wind-storm, the disciples’ fearful response, and then Jesus miraculously calming the winds and waves. But as we look at this metaphorically, it opens up whole new dimensions of meaning.
We all know about the power of fear. Fear is a powerful force that can distort our thinking, our attitudes and our perceptions. The first and most powerful boundary the disciples had to cross was that of their fear!
One of the hardest things in life to do is to cross strong boundaries we have drawn in our minds. Many of our boundaries are rooted in a narrow mentality that invokes fear of anything outside of that boundary. And when we are challenged to cross a boundary, we are met with head-on gale force winds of our own fear. The disciples encountered the mighty resistance of their own fear in crossing a boundary they would have never crossed had it not been for Jesus. Are we much different than the disciples?
As we’re reading this story, you can’t miss the ironic humor of Jesus peacefully and calmly asleep in the boat; all around is chaos, panic and fear and Jesus is snoring. You can almost hear the agitated frustration of the disciples when they say, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?”
Here they are, in a great storm, waves were beating against the boat so much so that it was being swamped; and where’s Jesus? Asleep on a cushion! Jesus’ life was not defined by fear.
And this is a journey that Jesus leads us on also; to cross boundaries of overt or subtle prejudice; to cross boundaries of bias; to cross boundaries of narrow-mindedness; to cross boundaries of elitism and arrogance; to cross boundaries that prevent the nurturing of community and greater unity; to cross boundaries that exclude, minimize, dehumanize and categorize people.
Jesus says, “Come on. Let’s go across to the other side.” “Don’t worry, I’ll be with you.” “I’ll calm the storms of fear.” Could that be what the stilling of the wind and the waves is all about? The absence of fear?
When fear no longer controls us love can flow; compassion can flow; justice is possible. Fear is paralyzing and it can also blind us to seeing who and what is on the other side. Fear doesn’t let us listen to “their” story, to feel their pain, to hear their voice, and in this vacuum we come up with all sorts of distorted conclusions about “the other side” that we can mistake for the truth.
Theologian Sallie McFague writes, “People all look alike when you cannot be bothered to look at them closely.”
Mark says, “And leaving the crowd behind …”
If you choose to follow Jesus across one of your fear-based boundaries you will leave a significant crowd behind, and they might give you grief for it. But fear not, the world needs courageous and bold people who are willing to not let narrow attitudes and fear define and rule them.
Let’s be bridge builders of understanding and cooperation with people on the other side. It’s what we are called to do. It’s a bold invitation; Jesus says, “Come on with me. Let’s go across to the other side.” Amen.
