Mk 6:53-56
53After making the crossing, [Jesus and his disciples] came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. 54As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. 55They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.
People immediately recognized him: While the people have no problem recognizing Jesus, the Gospel writer does not seem to know the people. They are nameless folk, in contrast to the town that is identified.
There are many people in our lives with no names. The jeepney driver who brings us home, the market vendor we buy our food from, the waiter who takes our orders, the newspaper boy who delivers our papers—they have no names, and we may never know them. But this does not mean that they do not need our attention and our healing, that we cannot stop a second to touch them with one simple hello or smile, that we cannot care for them, and that they are lesser human beings than us.
If the Lord returned today, he would likely go to these nameless people first, and we might not recognize and name him again.
Tassel: The works of Jesus appear to the crowd as a manifestation of divine power so that people treat him as a miracle worker or a divine man whose power is released through touch. They are convinced that even a simple contact with Jesus’ clothing, like the tassel on his cloak, or fringe of his garment, can bring healing. Picture shows cords for tying a man’s outer garments which would include his cloak with tassels.