GOSPELS 12 JESUS WALKS ON THE SEA John 6 Matthew 14 Mark 6When we come to the end of the story of the feeding of the five thousand which was included in all the four Gospels, we see that the crowd wanted to make Jesus their king… ‘Jesus saw that they were ready to take him by force and make him their king, so he went higher into the mountains alone to pray’( John 6:15). And in the Gospels of John and Matthew and Mark Jesus tells his disciple to row back to another part of the seacoast of Gal...
GOSPELS 12 JESUS WALKS ON THE SEA John 6 Matthew 14 Mark 6
When we come to the end of the story of the feeding of the five thousand which was included in all the four Gospels, we see that the crowd wanted to make Jesus their king… ‘Jesus saw that they were ready to take him by force and make him their king, so he went higher into the mountains alone to pray’( John 6:15). And in the Gospels of John and Matthew and Mark Jesus tells his disciple to row back to another part of the seacoast of Galilee. The story goes on to tell us of the disciples rowing against the wind in a storm-tossed sea while Jesus is praying up on a mountain and Mark includes that Jesus was watching them as they rowed, He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. (Mark 6:48)
The story then tells of Jesus walking upon the sea to join them in their boat for the rest of the journey, and each Gospel talks of their fear of the storm and their even greater fear when Jesus appears walking on the water towards them like a ghost or some apparition.
Some details are included in one Gospel and left out in another but that does not mean the details are ‘either/or’ because the details are ‘both/and’.
Matthew’s Gospel includes the miraculous story of Peter asking Jesus if he could walk on the sea to meet him. (Matthew 14:27).
And John’s Gospel talks about the miraculous incident of how the boat instantly arrives at their destination in Capernaum the moment that the disciples welcome Jesus on board their boat.
According to Luke the feeding of the five thousand was at Bethsaida on the northeastern side of the Lake of Galilee (Luke 9:10) and they were told to row to Capernaum on the northwestern side of the lake (John 6:16), and they would have been about halfway to Capernaum, when Jesus came to them walking on the sea.
The story about Peter walking on water is in Matthew and I’m reading from Ch. 14
Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him, they were terrified “It’s a ghost!” they said, crying out in terror. But Jesus was quick to comfort them. “Have courage, it’s me. Don’t be afraid.” Peter, suddenly bold, said, “Master, if it’s really you, call me to come to you on the water.”
Jesus said, “Come ahead.” Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, “Master, save me!” Jesus didn’t hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, “such little faith, why did you doubt?” The two of them climbed into the boat, and the wind died down.
This story has a particular message about faith for us - and the personal message of faith for Peter was prophetic of so much of Peter’s impetuous boasts of how great his faith was, only to find it sinking and having Jesus lift him into faith again.
Jesus had told Peter at the Last Supper before his trial that Peter would deny him three times but that he would be praying for his faith to not fail. Peter boasted that he would die before he would ever forsake Jesus, and very soon afterwards when Jesus was arrested to be put on trial, Peter denied Jesus three times telling people he didn’t even know him. Peter’s boast of faith and denial was another trial of Peter’s sinking and being helped up again into faith.
But Peter received a new kind of faith after Pentecost when he became free from being under the law as a Jew and now knew that salvation was only through faith in Christ. However, when he was told by God to preach the Gospel to a Gentile Centurion named Cornelius, Peter’s faith sank again as he wasn’t convinced that Gentiles could be saved. But Peter obediently preached to Cornelius and his family, after letting Cornelius know that it wasn’t lawful for him as a Jew to even come into his house. God helped Peter’s faith up again and Cornelius and his family all received Jesus and were baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. Fourteen years later Paul had to rebuke Peter openly before all the apostles in Jerusalem for separating himself from the Gentile Christians in Antioch and refusing to eat with them, and this became another lesson of sinking faith for Peter who eventually did become a champion of faith like Paul.
This is also a message for our faith, which may fail and sink, and we learn that only Jesus can complete our faith with his faith. The Bible says that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebews12) and in being the finisher of our faith he completes the faith that we offer to him in our prayers of trust and obedience to him. We believe as best we can, and Jesus takes our faith and completes it and presents that faith to the Father who fulfills our surrendered prayer with his good will and Divine purpose for us.
We now look at the miraculous incident in John’s Gospel of how the boat instantly arrives at their destination in Capernaum when Jesus gets in the boat; ‘when suddenly they saw Jesus walking toward the boat they were terrified, but he called out to them and told them not to be afraid. When they were willing to let him in, they suddenly arrived at their destination in an instant! (John 6:20) The weary disciples welcoming Jesus into their boat allowed Jesus to miraculously complete their journey. God does this for us personally in our own journeys of faith with him, especially when we have been faithfully and obediently doing the rowing which means doing what we have heard him say to us and then he comes into our boat and complete that journey.
And there is also a picture here of his church family - all of us rowing in the boat together in toiling for two thousand years and the Church getting as far as it has in that time. But there is a greater destination that Father God has for his beloved family and there will be a time when Jesus will come to us in the boat in the midst of the storm and the darkness and he will bring us into the promise that he has for his people, his destination for his Church, which is.
‘till we all come into the unity of the faith, unto a perfect (complete) man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13).
What this means is that all God’s people will have the one faith, not the same dogmatic doctrine but the same Jesus on display (or being glorified) in our lives, not as a powerful organisation of this world but as a reflection of the likeness of God – a people of togetherness with God and one another in love and truth and agreement with his will on earth, as it is in Heaven. Only Jesus and the lifegiving Logos Word of his power can complete this measure of faith for each single one of us and also corporately for all of us together as the Body of Christ, to come into that promise. His boat - his Church family, will become an Ark of refuge in the midst of the storms and trouble that surrounds us in these times, as when Noah’s family was made safe from the flood and the darkness - and the storm ceased, and the flood subsided.
(Luke 17:23 – As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man).
We are living in times when the darkness could not get much darker and the storm does not get much fiercer, but Jesus has been watching us rowing from his mountain top Heavenly place of prayer as our intercessor and planning to come into our boat and take us to our destination (Romans 9:28). Things are happening in history that Jesus prophesied about that could signal a beginning of the times of great trial upon the earth before he returns. When the disciples asked Jesus what things will happen at the times of the end, he replied that concerning his people Israel, they would be hated by all nations for his name’s sake (Matthew 24:9). The times of fulfillment of that statement and of other things that he mentioned in that chapter are beyond our power to understand, let alone predict. Only the Father has these times in his hands and knows how his Kingdom in Heaven and on earth will come together through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
But when the Father sees the suffering of his children on the earth, his love and compassion for the people will draw people to his Son and they will come running, coming from places that we would not have considered or imagined, and they will want to know about God. They may look like they couldn’t fit in, with strange ways and beliefs that don’t belong. But God will say they do belong and that he will change their beliefs and their ways. And Isaiah prophesies this along with his other prophesies for Israel that are also for the Church and our personal lives.
‘Peoples unknown to you will come running to you, because I, the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel have caused you to put God on display in your lives (made you glorious).” Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will mercifully forgive’. (Isaiah 55:5-7)
