After healing the man with the withered hand, Mark tells us Jesus left the synagogue with his disciples to the beach alongthe Sea of Galilee (Mark 3:7). Matthew informs us that he did so only after he learned of the Pharisees’ conspiring with the Herodians to destroy him (Matthew 12:14-15; cp. Mark 3:6). As Jesus retired to the Sea of Galilee, in an effort to be away from public view, a large crowd followed him, and Mark describes the scene, saying:
So Jesus retired with His disciples to the sea, and a vast throng of people followed Him from Galilee, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from the other side of the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon – yes, a vast throng of people, as they kept hearing of the great things that He was doing, came to Him. (Mark 3:7-8)
Some commentators conclude it must have taken quite awhile for Jesus’ fame to become great enough to get folks from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, the other side of the Jordan, and from gentiles cities like Tyre and Sidon, but this isn’t necessary, if we consider the context of Mark’s record. One of Jesus’ confrontations with the Pharisees, concerning the disciples plucking grain from the fields, shows Jesus had to have begun his ministry in the seventh month of the year, or the harvest season. Folks from all over the world came on pilgrimages to Jerusalem to visit the Temple during the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. Nevertheless, everyone couldn’t possibly fit in Jerusalem, so other areas were designated as official sites for the celebration of the annual holy days. Evidently, some folks from Jewish lands and from gentile cities bordering Galilee came to the designated site of Capernaum. Therefore, the reason for the large crowds from all over the Jewish province and several gentile cities collecting in Capernaum was to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, and Jesus was there teaching and doing wonders in the presence of this ready-made audience.
Mark’s readers need to consider why these folks followed after Jesus. Were they his disciples? No, they were not. Most of the vast multitude never saw or heard of Jesus before this time. They simply heard about his recent great and marvelous deeds, when they came to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Like many clueless crowds, today, who are simply overwhelmed in the presence of a celebrity, they wanted to touch or otherwise be near him. Others, who suffered from plagues or certain painful diseases wanted to be healed and sought to touch him. The crowd was unruly and Mark’s verbs show the people were falling over one another and even against Jesus in efforts to be near him or be the first to be healed.
This kind of thing was dangerous, not only for Jesus and his disciples, but for the folks whose numbers made up the pressing throng of people. Therefore, Jesus had some of his disciples go to the fishing vessel and get a rowboat and follow along close to shore, so, if things got really out of hand, he and the disciples with him could escape to the sea (Mark 3:9-10). In such a case, the multitude would cease being a dangerous throng pressing upon those in front, whom no one in the rear could see.[1]
What is interesting about this affair is that it puts flesh upon the image John gives us in his Gospel narrative. He tells us that the One who created the whole world was in the world, but no one knew him (John 1:10), and he even came to his own nation, whom he called out of the world, but they wouldn’t receive him (John 1:11), and according to Mark plotted to slay him (Mark 3:6).
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[1] Luke gives us an image of this sort of thing in the uprising in Ephesus over the question of the goddess Diana (Acts 19:21-41). The riot that occurred put lives in danger (Acts 19:30-31). Most of the folks making up the multitude were clueless as to why everyone had assembled and were shouting (Acts 19:29, 32).
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