Unlimited: Healings In The Gennesaret Region | Good News Unlimited
Unlimited: Healings in the Gennesaret Region
Apr 17, 2024 1387
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.
