What about the Other Boats?

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost: Mark 4:35-41

I love reading familiar Bible stories with an eye for the odd and often overlooked detail that invites further inquiry. In the story below of Jesus calming the storm, we jump right over one strange detail and focus on the storm, the frightened disciples, Jesus sleeping on the cushion, and his divine power that calms the angry sea with a word. Here’s the story:

“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)

But what ever happened to the “other boats” and why did Mark mention them in the first place? A historical-literal reading concludes that it’s not important or else Mark would have told us more. A spiritual reading, on the other hand, is free to speculate and offer some Biblically-informed spiritual lessons or warnings.

So, let’s activate our imagination, crack open this mysterious door, follow the enchanted trail, and wonder together with the Holy Spirit about the fate of those other boats and their occupants. Truths that emerge can be spiritually true even if it didn’t literally happen in history. (See excursus below.)

‘Other Boats Were With Him’

What sets all of these other boats apart from the disciple’s boat, or DiscipleShip, is one essential fact: Jesus isn’t in their boat, and therefore is not their captain and guide. This reality makes all the difference in this story long ago, as well as in our stories today. Let’s climb into a few of the other boats.

The HardShip

First, we have the HardShip—ironically named after what the people in this boat most wanted avoid. This boat is full of “sunny-day disciples” who selectively choose some of Jesus’ teachings to embrace, while rejecting others—especially the call to take up a cross and suffer the storms that discipleship may bring. Their captain shrewdly observed the dark clouds circling over Jesus’ boat and immediately changed course and sailed back to shore to avoid the storm altogether.

The people in this boat desire comfort more than companionship with God. They’ll follow Jesus so long as he’s handing out free bread and doing miracles, but abandon him as soon as they see clouds setting in and His path leading to a cross. These folks choose a comfortable life without God’s presence over a life with God that may entail storms of adversity and a call to self-denial. In my imaginative telling, they indeed avoided the storm by turning back; but they also missed the miracle and another brush with divinity.

The CraftsmenShip

Second, come aboard the clever CraftsmenShip. This boat of practically minded men set sail with every precaution and means of navigating any storms that may arise on the voyage. They kept their distance from Jesus’ boat, confident in their own means of reaching the other side at their own pace and in their own way. When the winds rose and the waters surged, they lowered the sail, implemented their safety plan, and every crew member manned their station. Their boat was larger and more strongly crafted than the other boats, and they trusted in the integrity of their vessel to handle the storm.

Despite their best planning and skilled training, they found they were no match for the severity of this storm. When one of their own suggested they cry out to God for help, he was brushed aside by panicking men doing all that was humanly possible to keep the boat afloat. He was met only with, “We don’t have time to pray! Keep bailing water before we sink!” They all perished in the storm, a boat full of gifted and enterprising craftsmen full of skill and planning whose plans unfortunately failed to include what to do when all our best human plans and skills ultimately fail us.

The ScholarShip

Third, turn your attention to the boat of inquisitive minds trying to stay as close to Jesus’ boat as possible in hopes of catching a late night sermon or another juicy parable to crack open and debate over. Welcome aboard the ScholarShip—a boat carrying scribes and teachers of the Law who love studying the Scriptures, but don’t always get around to living them out. Unlike our last crew of handy craftsmen, this boat carries men of letters and learning who don’t know the first thing about sailing and withstanding a storm. Everything becomes a metaphor for this lot.

When the winds first picked up, instead of lowering the sail and hunkering down, they began discussing the chaos waters of creation and the fate of Jonah. When someone onboard began to panic and yelled, “We’re all gonna die!” the Pharisees began a debate with the Sadducees over whether or not they would rise again on the Judgment Day. When they overheard Jesus rebuking the wind by the authority of God, they accused him of blasphemy, of being in league with the Devil, and parted ways with him only to be swallowed by the sea where they now await the conclusion of their debate on Judgment Day.

The ApprenticeShip

Fourth, a more positive fate awaited the boat filled with serious Kingdom disciples called the ApprenticeShip. While not among the Twelve, this disciple-ship of men and women has been traveling along with Jesus for weeks, hanging on his every word and trying to put his teachings into practice. They’ve watched him heal. They’ve watched him pray. They’ve watched him rebuke demons. Most importantly, they are learning to trust in the God whom Jesus calls his Father in Heaven.

As soon as the winds began to blow and a storm seemed imminent, the captain of this boat sailed immediately over toward Jesus to seek His help. Observing the Master resting with his eyes closed in the stern of the other boat, they remembered his teaching about the Father’s love and the need to pray, and so they dropped to their knees and did likewise. As the tempest swirled all around them, they experienced an inexplicable peace within as they lifted prayers to the Heavens. Jesus’ words “Peace be still” spoken harshly over the churning seas was spoken lovingly over every frightened heart, and had the same effect.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the “other boats” and types of people we can imagine sailing in proximity to Jesus that fateful night. Likewise, these are the kinds of people and types of faith we encounter everyday. Here are some questions we would be wise to ask ourselves.

Are we sailing toward or away from Jesus?
Are we prepared to face the storms that devoted discipleship brings?
When storms do arise, do we turn to God in prayer or solely rely on our own knowledge, skill and common sense?
Are we trying to be the master of our own fate and captain of our own soul?
Are we in the boat with Jesus? Are we inviting Jesus into our boat? Or are we climbing into Jesus’ boat? Is there a difference?
What other boats do you imagine on the sea with Jesus and what of their fate?

EXCURSUS: A Deeper Spiritual Reading of Scripture

We’ve inherited a cold and incurious approach to reading the Scriptures that just wants the raw historical facts and discourages speculation that goes beyond what the author states. But this isn’t how generations of Christians have read and interpreted the Bible down through the centuries.

Whether it be the Midrash of the Jewish rabbis, the spiritual readings of the early Church Fathers, the visions and revelations of Medieval mystics, or the creative typological interpretations of the Old Testament by the New Testament authors themselves, the Scriptures have always lended themselves to a deeper, multilayered readings that go beyond the letter to the deeper truth revealed by the Spirit.

“The Spirit will lead you into all truth,” Jesus told his disciples before he ascended. Not the Bible alone. The Scriptures illuminated by the Spirit of the Living God active in the heart and mind of the devoted believer and reader of the text has been the goal.

Church Fathers like Origen and the Alexandrian school who paved the way for a more multilayered approach to the sacred text, were well aware of the danger of reading one’s own ideas and untruths into the Biblical text. The solution, for them, was not therefore to resort to a crass literalism. Rather, it was to make sure the reader or interpreter or teacher (remember the average person didn’t have access to a Bible, and the literacy rate was very low) was so steeped in the narratives and truth of Scripture that their entire imagination was washed and baptized in its waters.

A mind that is going to venture beyond the literal word in search of a deeper spiritual truth better be a mind tethered to Scriptural truth and led along by the Holy Spirit in the process. Again, “The Spirit will lead you into all truth”—including Biblical truths that don’t have chapter and verse assigned to them.

Some will view Mark’s mention of the other boats as an unnecessary detail that should have been cut out in the editing process. Others (like myself) think maybe Mark put this little gloss into the text as a wink and nod and subtle invitation to a deeper reading inspired by the Spirit.