Lord Of The Storm

It is humbling to stand at the edge of the ocean. Looking out over the water, seeing the pounding surf and hearing the noise of the breakers, you realize your smallness. This is creation’s awe-inspiring power. And it’s not only impressive, it can also be dangerous. Sometimes the surfers have to stay on the shore, and even the ships don’t dare to venture out. And on so many occasions the ocean has swallowed up hundreds of lives at a time.

Then how amazing to think that the power of God’s sovereign rule extends even here! He governs the world of the ocean and all created things. Mankind can never tame the sea, but God is Lord of it all.

This is what the Psalmist sings in Psalm 93. He first marvels at the power of the ocean: “The floods have lifted up, O LORD; the floods have lifted up their voice.” And then the Psalmist praises God for his sovereign rule over all, even the waves, “But the LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, He is mightier than the mighty waves of the seas” (vv 3-4). As their Maker and Lord, God is greater than the greatest display of creation’s might.

It’s good to remember this, because it means there is nothing outside of God’s control. There is nothing that can get in the way of God’s purpose, nothing that will prevent him from taking good care of his people. Even the so-called laws of nature have to bend at the command of the Lord our God. We get a glimpse of these things in our text from John 6:16-21,

Jesus shows that He is King of all creation:

1) the power of the storm

2) the power of the Lord

1) the power of the storm: At the end of a really busy day, sometimes you just need to find a bit of quiet. This is what Jesus does. The first verse of our text says that it was the evening of the same day that He fed the thousands of people. It was a miracle, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t tiring: breaking all that bread and fish, hour after hour, handing it out, managing his disciples—all in the midst of a huge crowd who then started pressuring him to become king.

So we learn that Jesus has withdrawn “to the mountain by himself” (v 15). He’s looked for solitude so that He can rest, and even more importantly, to pray. This is what we see him do so often during the rush and commotion of his ministry. He was too busy not to pray! It is a powerful example to us how prayer sustained Jesus, how through praying Jesus kept connected to God his Father and in harmony with his will.

But for the disciples this night, there will be no quiet. They come down to the lake, where they get into a boat. Earlier in the chapter, Jesus and his disciples came here to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, where it was fairly secluded. Now it’s time to head back to the western side, to Capernaum and the other villages.

And as they set out, John reports that “it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them” (v 17). Now, it’s a puzzle in our text, why the disciples would leave without him. Maybe they waited and waited for him to finish on the mountain, but got impatient and decided to go. More likely, He had told them that He’d meet them on the other side. At any rate, there’s an ominous tone in those words, “Jesus had not come to them.” They’re soon going to find out how important it is to have Jesus near, to keep Jesus near.

And without Christ, things look bleak. That’s what John says, “And it was already dark” (v 17). The sun has set, twilight has faded, night has come. Is John simply telling us roughly what time of the day it was? It is probably more than that.

Throughout John’s Gospel, there is a battle between light and darkness, a sharp conflict between day and night. For example, in a couple of chapters, Jesus will announce, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (8:12). When we’re with Christ, walking with him, trusting him, we can enjoy his light—but the absence of Christ means darkness, confusion and discouragement.

So we’re not surprised later on, when Judas Iscariot leaves to betray Jesus, and John says simply, “Having received the piece of bread, he went out immediately. And it was night” (13:30). Because night and darkness are times and places when the devil gets to work. This is when our need for the light of the world becomes most obvious.