GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 5:1
Into the Fire
There is an aphorism that reaches all the way back to ancient Greek literature: “Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” In one of Aesop’s fables, for example, a fish jumps out of the frying pan into the coals. An acquaintance was dissatisfied with his job—too much responsibility and too many hours, so he transferred to a similar position with less responsibility and fewer hours. However, the supervisor in the new position was aloof, demanding, and always critical. Soon, he realized that he had leaped from the frying pan into the fire. In a similar scenario, citizens were unhappy with their government—inflation, confusing policies, high taxes, so they voted in a new government only to experience worse administrative confusion, skyrocketing inflation, and repression—out of the frying pan and into the fire.
In St. Mark’s Gospel, Jesus, his disciples, and the other boats with them experienced a sudden, life-threatening, violent storm during the five-mile trip across the Sea of Galilee. “And they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes.” (Mark 5:1) They left the crowd on the western shore late in the evening (Mark 4:35), so it was likely well past dark when they landed on the northeastern shore. Writers describe this as a barren area with a limestone hillside rising from the lake shore. In this area, there were many caves used as tombs in which bodies were laid. In the best of times, this would have been an eerie place; at night, it must have been grim indeed. In literature, authors paint graveyards as places to avoid, especially at night; for the disciples, it was an instance of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
One has to wonder why the party landed in this foreboding area. First, it is likely that the boat was blown this way by the wind, or they were looking for a lonely place away from the crush of the crowds who were now following Jesus wherever he went, or there may have been a goal not specified by the writer, or there was divine providence at work.
A pastor’s innovative ideas did not sit well with his congregation, so they asked him to leave (a euphemism for being fired). The only position open to him was a small, struggling congregation on the outskirts of a city. He was out of the frying pan and into the fire. However, the new congregation was not opposed to leadership creativity. The congregation began to flourish, and before long they had to build a larger building as their ministry expanded. Therefore, jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire is not always a bad thing.
Directory