As a kid I amassed a comic book collection just north of 600. One of my good friends in elementary school, Jim Daigle, collected comics. We had a lot of fun doing trades. I was into Marvel–Spiderman, the Hulk, Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Men, and a number of others. I tried to get into D.C., but their characters didn’t resonate with me as much as Marvel’s characters who seemed more like real people with real problems. I kept it up until about 7th grade. In the little Wisconsin town of Tilleda, I’d eagerly cross the street to the post office, anticipating the latest issues waiting for me in our P.O. box. Then I lost interest.
Jesus Christ radically saved me when I was a junior in college. After graduating in May of 1991, I returned to my hometown of Green Bay for several weeks before moving to Virginia. I felt then that I should get rid of all my comic books as they had been an idol to me. I wanted to be free from all my past that held me back so I could love Jesus more. So I posted an ad in the local newspaper and sold the whole collection for several hundred dollars, way less than they were worth. I’d purposed to give the Lord 90% of what I got for them and keep just 10% for myself. That I did. Later on while struggling to find a job in Virginia and my finances dwindled to $5 to my name, I thought about that 90% more than once. But that’s another story for another day.
Superheroes enable us to enter into a story bigger than ourselves. I can root for the good guy, knowing that no matter how dismal it seems, eventually the villians will lose and good will triumph. God has His good guys too. Their superpowers are fundamentally different than the fictitious ones of comic book lore. But they share a common destiny: good, no matter how overwhelming evil and chaos seem, eventually triumphs. The prophet Isaiah will show how the universe’s greatest Avenger, the Lord Jesus Christ, will triumph.
As mentioned in a previous blog, the boxtop of the puzzle is useful to help us see the bigger picture. The following diagram shows a portion of Isaiah 30’s chiastic structure, contrasting verse 14 with 25. Mark integrated several Jesus accounts around Isaiah’s framework, as shown.
What the boxtop doesn’t allow you to do as well, though, is focus in a way to make sense of it all. There are so many moving parts. Where does one start? The next diagram isolates today’s theme of interest.
Let’s zoom in on Mark’s hyperlinks, moving from left to right. You’ll notice that there’s a play on words “upon every” (Isaiah) and “were walking” in Mark chapter 16. These two who were walking were the same two walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus that Luke spends a good chunk of chapter 24 on. At first glance, “upon every” and “were walking” is an odd couple. What does it mean? Well, we have to factor in the context of both scenes, not the words alone. In Isaiah, “upon every” is upon every lofty mountain and upon every high hill. What is it that’s “upon every” mountain and hill? Running water. Mark wants us to connect the two disciples walking with running water. This will make more sense as we move to the right where this theme is expanded upon.
On the right there’s a wordplay on “running” and “not find” of Isaiah 30:14. Water is common to both verses, and they are in stark contrast with each other. The pitcher was shattered, so badly splintered that not even a drop of water could be found. This depicts one aspect of the Passover offering of Jesus, a sacrifice completely smashed to smithereens like an earthen vessel (see “The Man Carrying the Jar of Water Explained!“). “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Lk 24:26 NKJV) One of Jesus’ glories is running water. It’s so abundant one doesn’t even need to go looking for it. It’s in plain sight. It’s found. The running water isolated in the diagram above is the living water of the Holy Spirit nor the words of Jesus. Running water does mean this in other connections. But here we want to follow the spotlight of the Holy Spirit to see what running water and walking and going people means.
Observe the next wordplay: “running” (διαπορευόμενον) and “going” (πορευομένοις). These road-to-Emmaus disciples were “going” into the country. The Greek word for country is perhaps better translated as a field or farm. It’s cultivated land. The imagery here is running water irrigating the farmland. These people who encountered Jesus after the resurrection experienced a personal transformation, analogous to running water! Just as rain and river water the field, disciples who’ve encountered Jesus water the spiritual field. What field is meant by that? Look at the next verse in Mark 16: “These returned and reported it to the rest.” People are the field. Paul noticed this analogy in 1Co 3:8-9: “The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose…you are God’s field…”
As a kid, I was introduced to Aquaman as a superhero in the Justice League cartoons on Saturday mornings. Aquaman ruled the deeps, commanding undersea creatures at his beck and call. Jesus has His aquamen. Now, these aquamen don’t live and breathe underwater and marshall fish and dolphins for battle. Jesus’ aquamen are the water, Eden-like rivers that bless the dry and parched fields of withered humanity. Note: so I could preserve the pun on Aquaman I say “aquamen,” but this includes both male and female.
Our superpowers as aquamen has a context. It is our identity. But our identity expresses itself best when in context with the Mark 16 storyline. Between the two “walking” and the two “going” is Jesus–“he was showed in another likeness to them.” Our fresh encounter with the living Word, Jesus, is what primes the pump of our identity, transforming us into rivers to fill the earth in fruitfulness and multiplication. Our superpowers are not what we have but Whom we have. There’s one superhero: Jesus. But the good news is He delights to partner with us, His aquamen and aquawomen. We need these fresh encounters with Jesus to effectively live out our identity as running water. Good, no matter how overwhelming evil and chaos seem, eventually triumphs. So we’ll have one last look at the Isaiah 30 boxtop to show how we encounter Jesus to effect this marvelous transformation. That’s the subject for next time.
Glory Unveiled: Discovering Jesus 