“16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But He said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading” John 6: 16 - 21.
This is one of the most wonderful stories in John’s Gospel, but we will never completely appreciate this story unless we look behind the meaning of the Greek to find that it really describes not some extraordinary miracle, but a simple incident in which John found, in a way he never forgot, what Jesus was like.
We need to reconstruct the story. After the feeding of the 5,000 and the attempt to make Him king, Jesus slipped away, “away to the hills alone.” The day wore on. It came to the time which the Jews described as ‘the second evening’, the time between the twilight and the dark. Jesus had still not arrived. Don’t forget how Mark tells the story: Jesus sent them on ahead (Mark 6:45), while he persuaded the crowds to go home. Clearly it was his intention to walk round the head of the lake while they rowed across to rejoin them in Capernaum(John 6:19) .
So the disciples set sail. The wind got up, as it can in the narrow, land-locked lake of Galilee, and the waters were chopped up by the wind. It was Passover time, and that was also the time of the full moon (John 6:4). Up on the hillside, Jesus had prayed and communed with God, and as He began to continue on His way, the silver moon made the scene almost like daylight, and down on the lake below Jesus could see the boat and the rowers toiling at the oars, making heavy weather of it.
So He came down.
We must remember two (2) facts. At the north end of the lake there were no more than four (4) miles across, and John tells us that the disciples had rowed between three and four miles, that is to say, they were very nearly at their journey’s end. It is natural to suppose that in the wind they hugged the shore of the lake, seeking what shelter they might find. That is the first fact — but there is the second fact. They saw Jesus walking on the sea. The Greek here is vitally important and gives us a whole new meaning: It says, epi tēēs thalassēs, which is precisely the phrase used in
John 21:1 (Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee, and It happened exactly this way.) where it means – it has never been questioned – that Jesus was walking on the seashore. That is what the phrase means in our passage, too.
“Jesus was walking epi tēs thalassēs, by the seashore — and it has never been questioned that Jesus actually did walk on the water. The toiling disciples looked up and suddenly saw him. It was all so unexpected, they had been bent so long over their oars, that they were alarmed because they thought it was a spirit they were seeing. Then across the waters came that well-loved voice – ‘It is I; don’t be afraid.’ They wanted Him to come on board; the Greek most naturally means that their wish was not fulfilled. Why? Remember the breadth of the lake was four miles and they had rowed about that distance. The simple reason was that, before they could take Jesus on board, the boat grounded on the shore, and they were there.
Here is just the kind of story that a fisherman like John would have loved and remembered. Every time he thought of it, he would feel that night again – the grey silver of the full moonlight, the rough oar against his hand, the flapping sail, the shriek of the wind, the sound of the surging water, the astonishingly unexpected appearance of Jesus, the sound of His voice across the waves and the crunch of the boat as it reached the Galilaean side.
So, as John remembered, John saw wonders which are still there for us:
(1) He saw that Jesus watches. Up on the hill, Jesus had been watching them. He had
not forgotten. He was not too busy with God to think of them. John suddenly realized that all the time they had pulled at the oars, Jesus’ loving look was on them. When we are up against it, Jesus watches. He does not make things easy for us. He lets us fight our own battles. Like a parent watching a son or daughter put up a splendid effort in some athletic contest, he is proud of us; or, like a parent watching a son or daughter let the side down, he is sad. Life is lived with the loving eye of Jesus upon us.
Jesus is ALWAYS watching you. You are never out of sight of the Lord.
(2) John saw that Jesus comes. Down from the hillside Jesus came to enable the disciples to make the last pull that would reach safety. He does not watch us with serene detachment; when strength is failing, Jesus comes with strength for the last effort which
leads to victory.
Jesus doesn’t JUST watch — no, He COMES to our aid. He loves us too much to be a spectator alone. He is a participant, and leader, a teacher, a lover, our Savior.
(3) John saw that Jesus helps. He watches, he comes and he helps. It is the wonder of the Christian life that there is nothing that we are left to do alone.
In Africa, when I lived there, a teacher in a little rural country school told this story to her children, and she must have told it well. As usual there was a dust storm of scorching heat and wind. When school finished, the teacher was walking the children home (Kusindakiza). Sometimes she had practically to drag them through the piercing burning dust. When they were all very nearly exhausted with the struggle, she overheard a little boy say, half to himself: Sisi tunahitaji Jesus sasa na mileli. (We need Jesus now and forever.) We always need Jesus now and forever.
(4) John saw that Jesus brings us to “a port in a storm.” It seemed to John, as he remembered it, that, as soon as Jesus arrived, the keel of the boat pulled up on the shoreline – and they were there. As the psalmist had it: ‘Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven’ (Psalm 107:30). Somehow in the “presence of Jesus the longest journey is shorter and the hardest battle easier.
One of the loveliest things in the Fourth Gospel is that John, the old fisherman turned evangelist, found all the wealth of Christ in the memory of a fisherman’s story.
When can you remember when Jesus brought you safely to the shoreline when you were going through a storm?
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
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