These people didn’t come for instruction particularly. Their presence is obtrusive and does not display a listening attitude. The Lord is forced to get “into a boat.” This reference to the well-known boat places us again in the previous teaching event at the edge of the sea (3:7–10). There people flocked together from far and wide to find healing. They pushed and shoved to get their turn. For safety’s sake, Jesus told the disciples to have a boat ready for him, so that he could retreat into it in case the people should push him into the sea. Now it is necessary to make use of the boat. Jesus climbed on board and sat in it “on the sea” (assuming the posture of a sitting teacher), while all the people that are pushing and shoving remain on the shore. The distance between Jesus, who gives instruction from the sea, and the people who are pushing each other on shore is not just spatial. It typifies the situation. Jesus again begins to teach at the sea, but the people are even less interested in listening than before (3:9). They push the speaker aside to get to the healer! By getting into the boat, Jesus creates opportunity to carry out his own intentions. But now he instructs a crowd that stands at a distance and only continues out of necessity to listen to the sermons of the doctor. It is likely that this listening was an unavoidable delay for many before Jesus again comes back to the shore. Inwardly they were far removed from the Teacher and Jesus emphasizes that by his spatial distance and by creating a distance in his speaking (by using parables).¹