Two statements in 6:45–52 bear further witness to the potential of a messianic uprising during the wilderness banquet. Jesus quickly compels the disciples to sail to Bethsaida (the northeast shore of the lake, 6:45), ostensibly to prevent them from becoming swept up in the crowd’s messianic fervor. He then repairs to the hills to pray (6:46). This is the second of three instances in Mark where Jesus prays (1:35; 6:45; 14:35–39). Each prayer is set at night in a lonely place, each finds the disciples removed from him and misunderstanding his mission, and in each Jesus faces a crisis. In this instance, the crisis may be the temptation to assume the populist messianic ideal.

From the hills, Jesus spies the disciples alone in the storm-tossed boat at night, “straining at the oars” (6:48). Th…