GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 11:12
He Was Hungry
Occasionally, one can glimpse the essence of another person through something he or she does or says. I’ve been married to Alice for sixty-four years, and I dated her for three years during high school before we married. Yesterday, she made a comment—a seemingly off-the-cuff remark—that gave me a new insight into Alice as a person. I told her she never ceases to amaze me; I still have much to learn.
I worked under a plant superintendent named Jess for nearly three years while I was in high school. I was his “fair-haired” boy—or, more accurately, his gopher. Our relationship was strictly professional. However, one day, as we ate, he offered me a piece of cake from his lunch. He said that if he took it home, his wife wouldn’t pack any more cake in his lunch. That was an ever-so-brief glimpse into Jess, the man, the husband.
In the Gospels, the writers occasionally provide a glimpse into Jesus the man. Mark does this in one instance: “And on the following day, as they left Bethany, he was hungry.” (Mark 11:12) Amid the magisterial story of the Son of God becoming incarnate, dying, and rising again, Peter remembered to tell Mark that Jesus was hungry—and the word Mark used could be rendered “famished,” reflecting a common human experience.
Some tend to ascribe characteristics to Jesus that make him seem more than human, but he could stub his toe and feel pain like anyone else. Mark’s brief portrait reminds believers that Jesus, the Son of God, was also the Son of Man—he was truly very hungry.
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