John 6:16-25

Jesus Walks on the Water

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 three and a half 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.

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

Jesus the Bread of Life

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"



Dig Deeper

Who doesn't love Christmas time as a kid? It was always my favorite time of year. I loved everything about Christmas including the music, the decoration, and days spent smelling and eating the baked goodies that mom was making. And, of course, there was the great hope of Santa coming and brining gifts. Before we went to sleep on Christmas Eve we would make all kinds of special preparations for Santa's arrival. The most important components of that preparation were the milk and cookies that were left out for Santa to give him a little extra energy on his long trip that night. We would then go to bed every Christmas Eve so full of anticipation and adrenalin that was it was difficult to actually sleep that night. I remember one year in particularly waking up and going downstairs and getting so excited. He had been there! Santa was in our house. Oh, I didn't actually see him, but I knew. How you may ask? Because someone had done things that only Santa could do. The glass door on the fireplace was open, the milk and cookies were gone, and the ground underneath the Christmas tree was full of presents. These were not things that some mere mortal could do, I reasoned in my young mind. Clearly this was evidence of Santa himself. Of course, now I know better, but at that time, it seemed pretty clear.

It's not too difficult to fool a young child into thinking that things had been done that only Santa Claus could do, but as I get older and have more time to reflect on those things, I understand how silly my reasoning and logic were. What is perhaps amazing is that as the early Christians had time to reflect upon the things that they saw and heard Jesus do, they begin to understand even more deeply who he was and what he was doing, rather than realize that they were somehow fooled and that he was just an ordinary human after all. No, they understood that this wasn't a situation of them being fooled like a child believing in Santa Claus. This was a man who was doing things that only Israel's God could do. Time after time, he said things that only God would say, and even more impressively, he did things only God could do.

Compared to many of the people around them, the Israelites were never a sea-faring people. If anything, they were a sea-fearing people. Oh, there were plenty of fishermen and people who made their living on the sea, but for the most part, they stayed away from the sea. Going back to ancient times, the sea became one of the most powerful symbolic elements in all of the Jewish culture. Going all the way back to the dark abyss of pre-creation in Genesis 1 when the earth was void and filled with water, and the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea in the book of Exodus, the sea became a symbol for evil and destruction. It was the place the evil came from or would be sent to be destroyed. (Is. 17:12; Is. 23:4, 11; Is. 27:1; 42;10; 57:20; Jer. 6:23; 50:42; 51:42; Ezek. 26:3; 27:32-34; Dan. 7, etc.; See also Rev. where the Beast comes from the sea and things like the great millstone are cast into the sea to be destroyed.) The sea was wild untamable only fit for evil, symbolically speaking. God's people would not go near the sea for only God could handle chaos and evil of that magnitude.

No one could tame the seas except for YHWH Himself, the creator and ruler of the world. When the Israelites were trapped on the precipice of the sea, with the Egyptians bearing down on them, it was only the arm of the Lord that could part the sea, allow them to pass through, and then cover over the Egyptians with water. The evil hordes, in the eyes of the Israelites, went back to where they belonged. It was God along who controlled the seas. "The seas have lifted up, LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea—the LORD on high is mighty (Ps. 93:3-4)." No human being, regardless of how great they might have been could be thought to control the great abyss of the sea. It was only the Lord God who "gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses (Ps. 33:7)."

When I was a kid, I thought there were certain things that only Santa could do. Accounts like this one of Jesus miraculously walking on water are quite different from that. First of all, I only thought that certain things, like someone coming down the chimney were done, but I was wrong. Jesus really did walk on water, and there is simply no way that this is anything other than a sign of the new creation (During the first creation, the Spirit hovered above the waters, but now the son will physically walk across them). Many have tried to find logical explanations for this event but they simply won't do. Jesus wasn't walking on a sand bridge, nor were the disciples simply seeing him on land but thought he was out in the sea. This brings us to the second difference. I didn't actually see Santa or any of the things I thought had happened. John was there. He saw and he testified that it was fact.

The disciples went down to the lake and set off across the lake for Capernaum without Jesus. The fact that they left without Jesus seems to indicate that Jesus had told them to leave if he didn't join them right away. Jesus knew what was coming and he knew what he was going to do. A strong wind blew up as they can do quickly in this part of the world which made the waters rough. This is when they saw Jesus approaching the boat. Mark's account of this story fills in the details that they were afraid when they saw Jesus because they thought he was a ghost of some type. When they realized that it was him, they were left with a real quandary. This was not, perhaps, something that they could come to grips with immediately, but with later reflection they had to face reality. Jesus had tamed the sea. He was "mightier than the thunder of the great waters" and had put the sea "into jars." Who could do this but God alone? This was no ordinary man. This was no ordinary Messiah (if there is such a thing). He was doing things that only the God of Israel could do. He didn't just have the ability to control the seas, but he could control the forces of evil and chaos that the seas represented as well. John clearly wants his readers to take this all in and reflect upon the fact that this is the same God who controls the seas and made a world out of watery chaos. This is that same God, and this is another moment of creation, the new creation when God is setting about restoring the world to the way things were supposed to be.

Verse 21 presents an interesting end to this sign. Was there another aspect of this miracle? All the text tells us is that they were willing to take him into the boat, but not that he ever got in. Then it says that immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. The word rendered "immediately" can also be translated "instantly." It seems that it could indicate that the boat miraculously and instantly reached the land after they recognized that it was Jesus. The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) tell nothing of this aspect of Jesus' walking on water, but they may have simply chosen not to include it. Ultimately, we do not have enough material to determine definitively whether or not there was a miraculous landing, but it is a very distinct possibility.

John gives us a fair amount of detail to make the point that the crowd was every bit as puzzled by what had happened as we might expect. They likely didn't know exactly what had happened, as did his disciples, but they apparently did figure out that he had somehow arrived in Capernaum quicker than would have been expected, especially considering that they were all aware that he had not gotten on the boat with the disciples. What we will discover in the next section is that Jesus leaves them confused, in a sense, with an answer that is far more profound challenging than they could have ever imagined.



Devotional Thought

Have you ever had times in your life when you feel like you are on a wind and wave-swamped boat? Sometimes during rough spots like that, Jesus' presence can initially be more disconcerting than comforting. We should remember his words to his disciples to not be afraid. If we are willing to trust him and let him climb him aboard, we might find that the storm abates and we get to our desired destination faster than we had hoped. It is, after all, only God who can truly handle those kinds of situations.