Unlimited: Healings in the Gennesaret Region
Apr 17, 2024 2419
When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus.They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed (Mark 6:53–56, NIV).
For the second time, Jesus calmed a storm on Lake Galilee in the presence of his disciples. This time, however he wasn’t in the boat with them. Instead, he dramatically walked on the water to the middle of the lake to rescue them.
Gennesaret was Jewish, but only marginally so. It had a rather mixed population of Jews and Gentiles. Their knowledge of the things of God was far less than those of the people of Nazareth.
In fact, the last time that Mark mentioned Jesus doing miracles was in the nice Jewish town of Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, where Mark made the point that Jesus couldn’t do any miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Mark wants us to contrast Jesus’ experience in Nazareth with his experience in Gennesaret. Here they ran from throughout the whole region to welcome Jesus. Here, the people had far less knowledge about Jesus, but they had more faith. Mark is pointing out that what connects us with the Lord is not how much you know, but how much you trust.
The power of Jesus to perform healings in the Gennesaret Region was so great, that everyone who even just touched the edge of his cloak was healed.
There’s an interesting issue here. It’s the relationship between knowledge and faith. It’s a relationship that many people get wrong.
Of course, Jesus wants people to have knowledge. That’s why he spent most of his ministry teaching. But his teachings all had one focus: to teach people to trust in him.
You can have all the knowledge in the world about Jesus, but still not trust him. And actually, Jesus and his enemies basically agreed on the doctrines of their religion. The difference was that they weren’t willing, and didn’t learn, to trust him.
– Eliezer Gonzalez
Eli’s Reflection: So, friend, where do you stand? Do you trust Jesus? Seek Him, and not just the knowledge of Him.
Ketchakah
Nov 25, 2023
This is the main issue that many religious people have, they confuse familiarity with knowledge. The people of Nazareth thought they had knowledge of God, more so then the people of Gennesaret, yet with all their supposed knowledge, Jesus could not help them, because they did not understand, and because they did not understand they had no faith. Knowledge and understanding are two different things. We can have a basic understanding of scripture but cannot have knowledge and faith at the same time. When it comes to God, there is really no way to gain knowledge other then though faith. Knowledge indicates the presence of fact. Faith is belief in the absence of fact. The two just do not go together. We believe the things of Jesus by faith, but we cannot prove them. Now when it comes to The Bible, we can have a familiarity of scripture, but we only KNOW what we read and we have no way of KNOWING for sure if our understanding aligns with God, for this we must have FAITH. Scholars will say they know what God is saying, as did the Jews and people of Nazareth because they have studied the scriptures. But like the people of Nazareth, how much do they really understand about Gods word ? Not much apparently as they rejected Jesus. They had all the supposed knowledge and thought they understood, but they had no faith. This is why we need to allow The Spirit of God to teach us and not the opinions of men. Supposed knowledge is simply confusion. We are to have familiarity of scripture and the Spirit will tell us what we need to KNOW. But bringing it all together is simple faith. Matt 18:2-5 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Why are children used here ? because they have faith without knowledge. Ahoh.
Tony Berrigan
Dec 18, 2020
It is like we wake up each day to an obstacle coarse called life. We think we must climb and traverse the obstacles ourselves. Or we can peer through the obstacles and wave to Jesus 'over here!'. And He comes and takes the burden and leads us thru
Olivia
Dec 17, 2020
There's no greater man I trust with my life then Jesus it was Jesus his father God who place me in this world Yea I trust him with my whole heart amen to my Lord and Savior to Jesus God only begotten son.
Olivia
Dec 17, 2020
Yes I have always trusted Jesus and seek him whole heartily in his name sake amen .
Jane
May 4, 2024
I live by faith I can do nothing else but trust in Jesus. I can do nothing else. This doesn't mean I know everything. On the contrary, I don't. The words of an old song come to me as I write: "Trust and obey - for there's no other way"