Still In Doubt? Jesus Walks on Water

Introduction

We are in a series going through Mark and getting a glimpse at who Jesus is.

Last week we looked at Jesus calming the storm in chapter 4.

Today we’ll look at another time Jesus calmed the sea.

But before I do, let me ask you

By Joel Gregory: Is the Bible for you a subject or an object?

In the formal sense, a subject speaks to you, but on object is examined by you.

For you who read the Bible, study it, teach it, or share it, this difference between subject and object is not marginal.

It Is not secondary.

It Is not an indifferent matter.

Indeed, it could be the most crucial distinction of all.

When you make the Bible your object, you examine it like a frog on a dissection table in high school.

You cut it open, examine its entrails, discover, and label.

Did you notice, however, that frog says nothing to you?

That frog is the object of your examination.

To be absurd, you would be shocked if that dissected frog addressed you as if the frog were the subject speaking and you were the object of its speech.

It’s easy for us to parse verbs, decline nouns, get behind the text, get in front of the text, look at the world of the text…and in all of it the text is the object your examination.

Now, all of that is well and good.

The peril, however, rests here: the text as the speaking subject never speaks to you.

It is safe to keep the text an object for your examination.

Do you ever consider letting the text expose you rather than you expose the text?

Have you considered letting the text interpret you rather than you interpret the text?

Have you every pondered that the text is full of light and you are full of darkness?

Have you ever thought you are irrelevant, and the text is relevant?

The text is not a frog on the board.

The text is a mirror on the wall. Look, and perceive

As we will see in our text today, the disciples were watching and listening to Jesus as an object and as the subject.

They were realizing just exactly who He was.

They seemed to miss that He was fully God and I don’t think they fully understood until the resurrection.

Let’s read Mark 6:45-56

Mark 6:45–56 CSB

45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After he said good-bye to them, he went away to the mountain to pray. 47 Well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 He saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Very early in the morning he came toward them walking on the sea and wanted to pass by them. 49 When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke with them and said, “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. They were completely astounded, 52 because they had not understood about the loaves. Instead, their hearts were hardened. 53 When they had crossed over, they came to shore at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized him. 55 They hurried throughout that region and began to carry the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 Wherever he went, into villages, towns, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch just the end of his robe. And everyone who touched it was healed.

We Should Have Faith in Jesus

Jesus has just fed 15 to 20 thousand people in total.

Messianic excitement is at a fever pitch.

John tells us in his account that the people “intended to come and make Jesus king by force.”

However it was neither the time nor the means on how He would receive His kingdom.

The way to His throne is only through the cross.

We Are Guided By His Plans Verse 45

As Jesus sees this excitement build, He sends His disciples in the boat to Bethsaida.

This would allow Him to disperse the crowd and calm everything down

Also, He didn’t want them to get caught up in the fever.

The disciples left Him alone and their obedience put them exactly where He wanted them to be.

He purposely sent them into trouble.

Jesus may indeed send us into trouble and difficulty but with a redemptive purpose.

There our understanding of His providence and power is increased.

In those times our faith and dependence on Him and Him alone grows.

His plans are not always easy or what we want, but they are always best.

Just believe and don’t doubt.

We Are Encouraged By His Prayers Verse 46

Jesus leaves the crowd and goes up to a mountain and prays.

Mark records Jesus praying three times.

At the beginning of His ministry after the events in Capernaum

After the feeding of the 5,000 just prior to this.

And following the Last Supper in the Garden of Gethsemane.

So what do we learn from Him?

Any time He faced a critical moment, Jesus prayed.

Each time was at night and He was by Himself praying

It was intense for Him due to the spiritual conflict

We should learn to do the same, not as a last resort.

He no doubt prayed for Himself

No doubt He prayed for the crowd for whom He had compassion.

And I’m sure He prayed for disciples who were in need of His intervention and help.

We Are Blessed By His Power Verses 47-50

It now late in the night somewhere between 3 and 6 in the morning.

The disciples were at sea and another storm comes up causing problems for the them.

You know whenever the master is absent from the disciples (or appears to be so, as in Ch. 4:35–41), they find themselves in distress.

And each time they experience anguish because they lack faith.

This is clearly the case in this episode where the physical exhaustion of the disciples was aggravated by stark terror when they encountered what they believed to be a ghost.

As they were struggling, Jesus miraculously sees them struggling on the sea.

Moved by compassion He does what no one has done before or since: “He came to them walking on the sea.”

He probably had to walk about 3-4 miles in pitch black darkness in wild waves and wind.

As their and our Lord, He knew where they were and what they were going through.

Now the phrase “He wanted to pass by them” is hard to translate exactly.

But the best way to understand it’s meaning is to know that it is rooted in the OT understanding of a theophany or an appearance and manifestation of God Himself.

In Exodus 33: 18,20-23, Then Moses said, “Please, let me see Your glory.” . . . But He answered, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.” The Lord said, “Here is a place near Me. You are to stand on the rock, and when My glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back, but My face will not be seen.”

And in 1 Kings 19: 11 we see this encounter with Elijah: “Then He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord’s presence.’ At that moment, the Lord passed by.”

As the Lord “passed by” Moses at Sinai and Elijah at Horeb, so now the God of the Old Testament, who is Christ, “wanted to pass by” His disciples so that they might see His glory and believe!

Only God can walk on water, and Jesus is showing them beyond question that is who He is!

Yet, the disciples still do not see who He is; they think He is a ghost.

And they scream in terror.

Don’t laugh, I’m sure we would scream too.

Mark skips the part about Peter walking on the water to Jesus because he is more interested in the One walking on the water and than those in the boat.

We Are Blessed By His Person Verses 50-51

This event was not just about Jesus rescuing the disciples from their problem, it was a manifestation of His deity.

He recognizes their terror and eases their fear by simply saying, “Have courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.

Have courage - they are in the place of obedience and Jesus is there.

It is I - ego eimi in Greek. In a moment

Don’t be afraid - a command telling them to stop an action in progress: Stop fearing!

Now let us consider the statement, “It is I.”

In the Greek it is simply “I am.”

“Have courage!” Jesus says, “I am.”

These are the words God spoke to Moses at the burning bush (Exod 3: 14)!

Our Savior declares Himself to be the great “I AM” (John 8: 58) who led the Hebrews out of Egypt and safely through the waters of the Red Sea.

Jesus not only walks where only God can walk, He also bears God’s name!

The “I AM” has passed by, showing and declaring His deity.

And now deity is in the boat!

The disciples are overwhelmed, but they still don’t get it, and won’t until the resurrection.

We Are Blessed By His Patience Verse 52

Once again we see the disciples being exposed for their lack of trust in Jesus.

The miracle about the loaves and feeding the five thousand didn’t make a lasting impression on them.

They only saw a marvel and that’s why they were so afraid.

They missed the significance of the miracles.

So instead of being confident and joyful in the midst of the storm they were in a faithless panic.

Their ignorance and non-understanding led to a hardness of heart

Mark is saying that at this stage in Jesus’ ministry the disciples are not essentially different from his opponents, who also fail to recognize his unique character and exhibited a hardness of heart.

Can you see yourself in their shoes?

Would you fully understand?

But why wouldn’t the disciples believe?

Perhaps they simply couldn’t bring themselves to consider that this human being was actually God’s Son.

Or maybe they thought that if and when the Messiah really did come, he wouldn’t choose them for followers.

The disciples needed a good healthy dose of faith in order to be able to see and understand what their Master, the Messiah, so beautifully and amazingly continued to teach them.

Don’t we all need a good dose of faith?

They receive no rebuke from their Master, the compassionate Shepherd (Mark 6: 34).

He knows they still have much to learn and endure.

He will not give up on them.

Praise God, He did not give up on us in our ignorance and hard-heartedness either!

A Contrast With Trust In Jesus’ Healing Power

After Jesus had gotten in the boat and the seas calmed, they had been blown off course and and they did not land at Bethsaida as planned (6:45).

They were to meet Jesus in Bethsaida, but Jesus had come to them on the water; so after the storm ceased, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat.

Gennesaret was a small fertile plain located on the west side of the Sea of Galilee as well as the name of a small town there.

Just opposite of where they were headed.

Capernaum (Jesus’ home base) sat at the northern edge of this plain.

They get out of the boat and immediately people recognize Jesus and a flurry of activity begins.

There is no rest for the weary.

News spreads and people all over the region bring the sick on mats for Him to heal.

Some just wanted to touch the tassel on His robe to be healed.

They knew that He could heal them and they did not doubt it.

They had faith in Jesus’ healing power.

Now contrast that with the disciples.

The disciples had seen great miracles, but their hearts remained hardened.

The people recognized Jesus as a great healer, but few understood who he truly was.

Miracles do not produce faith, only temporary excitement.

The sick people were brought to Jesus for physical healing, but few came for spiritual healing.

They prolonged their lives on earth, but did they secure eternal life?

Jesus, facing the disciples’ unbelief and the crowds’ empty excitement, still compassionately taught, loved, and healed the people.

Perhaps he continued to see them as “sheep without a shepherd”

We should be like these people coming to Jesus with expectancy and happiness.

We need the enthusiasm that comes from recognizing Jesus.

Each morning we should meet Jesus at the boat, give him our hurts, and go throughout the countryside to bring others to Him.

Do You Have Faith?

J. I. Packer says, “The true God is great and terrible, just because He is always with me and His eye is always upon me. Living becomes an awesome business when you realize that you spend every moment of your life in the sight and company of an omniscient, omnipotent Creator” (Packer, Knowing God, 86).

Jesus knows you better than you know yourself.

He loves you more than you love yourself (which is a great deal).

He is more compassionate than you could ever hope.

He is more powerful than you could ever imagine.

And He knows your needs more perfectly than you or I could ever comprehend.

This “Bread of Life” allowed His body to be broken that your soul might receive the spiritual nourishment it needed.

He walked the stormy waters through the dark night that led to the cross, so that He might rescue us and that we might never again be terrified or afraid.

Through the wonderful touch of His bloody, redemptive hands, we can forever be healed of sin’s diseases and made well forever.

He walked across the stormy waters of judgment in our place, and He took on our sicknesses in His own body.

“Take heart,” He says. Understand, “I AM!”

Let’s Pray