Jesus Walks on the Water
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.
In John 6 we see that the people were so excited about this miracle that they intended to make Jesus king by force. The disciples, too, were likely excited that the time had finally come.
And it's so subtle you almost miss it...
Jesus made the disciples leave Him and get into a boat, and He made the crowd leave.
A crowd that wanted to forcibly make Him king - He simply made them leave. And He made the disciples leave - rowing right into a storm that they likely saw coming. What power and control He had over people! And it's so subtle, you almost miss it.
And then Jesus left His disciples out in the storm almost all night long. Why? He knew they were there. He knew there was a storm. He knew He was in control of the storm. He had divine knowledge of the entire situation. Yet, He delayed. Why?
I think to show them the sheer force of His power. How much more impressive it is when He calms the storm that's been terrorizing them all night, then if He had silenced it before it barely started.
And when He does finally go out to help them, the text tells us very matter of factly that He came to them, walking on the water. Like it's no big deal! And that's another lesson for us. The disciples thought they were in that storm alone. They knew there was only one boat and they knew Jesus wasn't in it. They thought there was no way He could come help them. But we can never be out of the reach of Jesus. Never. No matter what the storm is that we're going through, no matter how severe it is, no matter how long it's lasted - Jesus knows, Jesus cares, and He is able to help us.
Notice to how He came to help them - He came on the storm. As MacArthur says so eloquently, He uses the very trial as His footpath
Isn't that beautiful? There is no trial in your life that God does not know about, and it doesn't affect Him or His power or His control, not one iota. In fact, He uses it to rescue you.
But then, not only did He delay, according to Mark 6, when He did walk out on the water He was about to simply pass by them! Why? He waits for them to call out to Him for help.
The Lord will always be there, but wants to illicit from the heart of the one in need, the cry. He responds to the cry. He always stops for the ones who call
You and I can't walk on water. We can't calm the storms in our lives. We can't rescue ourselves. But God can. God can do all of that.
And because He can, because He is in control of men and creation itself, because He is all-knowing. because no storm or trial can remove us from His sight, because He cares and is ready to help us when we cry out to Him - we do not need to fear.
MacArthur sums it up this way....
If I were to sum up this marvelous account in one simple statement, I would think the great lesson here is that, with Christ, we need not fear any storm because He is God who protects His own, the protector of His beloved. Let me take it a step further. Jesus had said to the disciples in verses 22-23, "Go to the other side." Mark and John tell us that He sent them toward Capernaum and Bethsaida, which were adjacent cities. The amazing thing is, the text says, that when they started that way, the wind was contrary. It would have been so easy for them to have turned around and gone with the wind back to where they came from. But instead of that, they continued to pursue the direction that the Lord had told them to go, so we find them in the midst of the storm, but we also find them in the midst of obedience.
When a believer is in the place of obedience, no matter how severe the storm, he is as as safe as if he were at home in his own bed, because the place of security is not the place of proper circumstances or of desirable circumstances. The place of security and safety, for the believer, is the place of obedience to the Lord. They were safe in the midst of a storm in obedience.
And I love what he says about Peter....
You may want to say that Peter was impetuous, and you might be right, but don't ever say that he didn't love the Lord Jesus Christ or that he didn't trust Him, and don't assign to him some kind of silly motive for what he did here. People don't jump out of boats in the middle of the storm to walk on water to show off or demonstrate presumption. The thing that consumed Peter's heart was that he loved Jesus Christ and sensed in His presence tremendous safety. He believed that if the Lord could walk on that stuff, he could get to where He was and be saved in the midst of an environment that he could not control and of which he was in great fear.
I like that in him. I like the fact that he knew he had no resources, and all he could think about doing was running to where Jesus was, even though it wasn't possible. He was consumed with wanting to get to Jesus....
that's why he was the leader that he was. That's why he could lead the other apostles, and why he is the first name in the list of the apostles every time it appears in the Bible. He was the leader, and the closest to Jesus Christ, because he wanted to be there and longed to be there. There was security there, safety there, strength there. That is as it should be, and I think he got out of that boat because he wanted to be with Jesus.
But when Peter got out of that boat he got into a situation unlike any he had ever been in his entire life. And even though he was heading towards Jesus he was afraid. But he did exactly the right thing - he called out to Jesus to save him.
The Lord runs us out as far as our faith will go, and then when our faith ends and we start to sink, He lets us begin to sink. Then we say, "Lord, save me!" and when He does, that extends our faith that much further. That is what the Christian life is all about: learning more and more to trust God, believing Him more and more so that we can step out on faith and attempt those things which we believe ourselves to be inadequate to accomplish....
I think all of us could be characterized as having little faith mixed with doubt. That is why the Lord brings into our lives the difficulties, trials, vicissitudes, struggles, and the pains - so that, going through those things, we see that He sustains us. Little faith grows and grows.
And the disciples worshiped Him, recognizing Him as God, as One with God, as the Son of God. Why?
He demonstrated the sovereignty of God, the omniscience of God, the protective care of God, the divine love of God, the power of God; how can He be else but God in human flesh? You are called, as they were, by the clear sight of what He did to bow the knee.
Truly you are the Son of God.
Worship Him with your life today.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 15:1-20
3 comments:
"The place of security and safety, for the believer, is the place of obedience to the Lord."
Love that! Also something to think about is the portion about Jesus waiting for them to call out to Him for help. Sometimes I wonder if we miss out on blessings we could have because we don't ask. Maybe if we ask He will say "no" or "not yet", but maybe there are things that He would say yes to, except that we don't ask?
I do think that's true. It's so hard to reconcile our response and God's sovereign plan and how those two are different yet work together.
I guess we keep coming back to spending that one-on-one time. Read, listen, ask, listen some more, praise, listen some more... I mean, there is always the story of Sodom & Gomorrah. If Abraham hadn't asked God for how many righteous he would spare the city, Lot and his whole family would have perished together with the rest of them. Not that it turned out so well for them anyway, but still. If Abraham hadn't asked...
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