Mark 6:56
And wherever he went — into villages, towns or countryside — they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed — the summary verse generalizes the Gennesaret experience to the entire Galilean campaign: every location (villages, towns, countryside), every person who managed to touch even the edge of his cloak (the hem, the tassel, the minimum contact possible) was healed. The touch of the cloak's edge echoes the bleeding woman's faith in Mark 5:28 — the same faith-contact that produced her healing now characterizes the entire Galilean response.
Mark 6:48
He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them — the seeing from the shore communicates Jesus' awareness of the disciples' struggle even at distance and in darkness. Walking on the lake — the same Greek verb (peripatōn) used for ordinary walking, applied to the surface of the sea. He was about to pass by them is a theophanic phrase: in Exodus 33:22 and 1 Kings 19:11, God passes by in glory. Jesus' sea-walking is a divine self-manifestation — he is not merely rescuing the disciples but revealing himself.
Mark 6:49
When they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out — the disciples' response to Jesus walking on the water is to identify him as a ghost (phantasma, apparition). Their cried out is the cry of fear, not recognition. They have just experienced the feeding miracle and are now in a wind-beaten boat, and the figure walking on the water does not register as Jesus but as a supernatural threat. The category available to them (ghost) cannot hold the reality they are encountering (the Son of God).
Mark 6:50
Because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid — the take courage (tharsete) and don't be afraid bracket the central declaration: it is I (egō eimi). The Greek ego eimi is the divine self-identification of the Septuagint — the I AM of Exodus 3:14 and Isaiah 43:10. Jesus' self-identification in the storm is simultaneously the reassurance of the disciples and the revelation of his divine identity. The same voice that spoke the world into being speaks to the disciples' terror: it is I — the one you already know is more than you yet understand.
Mark 6:51
Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed — the wind's death at Jesus' entry into the boat mirrors the storm stilling of chapter 4, but the response is different: not who is this that even the wind and sea obey him (4:41) but completely amazed. The amazement is the appropriate response, but Mark will immediately note in verse 52 that it was inadequate — the amazement that the wind died down does not yet produce the understanding that the one who died the wind also fed the five thousand.