WALKING ON THE WATER
John 6:16-21
Have you ever gotten a pop quiz? It is the sudden, unexpected test which takes you by surprise. It isn’t like the final exam for which you spend the previous night cramming.
There is no warning. You walk into class and the professor says, "Take out a sheet of paper because you are going to be tested."
The disciples are about to get a pop quiz. They have just been through an incredible day. After sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing Him teach the multitude, they watched Him feed over 5,000 people with five bagels and two sardines.
This wasn’t done with mirrors. There was no trick photography involved. They felt the loaves of bread with their own hands as they passed them out to the multitude. And then they picked up twelve bags full of leftovers. That was the lesson of the day. It was a lesson in the power of Jesus and it was a lesson in His sufficiency. Now that they have been exposed to the lesson, it is time for the quiz. The quiz takes the shape of a strong wind.
DISCIPLES IN THE STORM
Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. And it had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 And the sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. (John 6:16-18).
Jesus and His disciples had been on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The disciples not board their boat and start across to the northwestern shore where the village of Capernaum is located. It is a distance of about five miles.
As we read this, we might come away with the impression that the disciples of Jesus abandoned Him and left Him stranded. This would be reading into the text something that is not there. To the contrary, Mark 6:45-46 makes it clear that the disciples were operating under the instructions of Jesus. He sent them away. Jesus told His disciples to do something and they did it. They were doing what Jesus told them to do in the right place and at the right time and they still found themselves in the middle of a storm.
Are you in a storm right now? You may be thinking to yourself, "Lord, what did I do to deserve this?" It may be that you have done nothing wrong. It is possible to be completely obedient to the Lord and to still find yourself in the middle of a storm.
If you are reading this passage and thinking that it is familiar, I want you to know that you are not alone. The disciples must have experienced a similar sense of deja vu. Though it is not mentioned in the Gospel of John, the other accounts make us to understand that this was not the first storm the disciples had encountered on the Sea of Galilee. They had been out here before, possibly in the same boat. They had come to this same spot on the lake and the boat had begun to sink. They woke up Jesus who had been sleeping in the back of the boat and He had stilled the storm.
Now they are here again. I can imagine Peter saying, "I know what to do! We’ll wake up Jesus and He can turn the storm off!" John answers, "Uhh Peter, we have a bit of trouble. We left Jesus back on the shore." And to make matters worse, John’s gospel tells us that they had taken the only boat.
What do you do when you are alone in the midst of the storm? You know that Jesus is aware of what you are going through. But look as you might, you can’t see Him.
I believe that there was something in the boat that should have comforted the disciples. There were 12 baskets of leftovers which bore mute testimony to the power and the compassion of God. When they looked at those 12 baskets, they should have realized that the God who provided for the needs of the multitudes would not fail to provide for them in the midst of this storm.
We are guilty of the same thing. We have been blessed by the Lord in an abundant way. But when the storm comes, we forget. That is why we are instructed to remind one another. The world says, "Drink and forget your troubles." Jesus says, "Drink and remember."
JESUS ON THE SEA
When therefore they had rowed about three or four miles, they beheld Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. 20 But He said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." (John 6:19-20).
The disciples had found themselves laboring under a strong wind. Our translation tells us that they "rowed," but this term need not conjure up images of oars as the same word is used in James 3:4 of winds that drive great ships. The point is not so much the method of locomotion, but the fact that it involved heavy toil on the part of the disciples.
The Sea of Galilee is 600 feet below sea level and is surrounded on the east and west by mountains and steep valleys. These can act as a wind tunnel to direct the cold air rushing down from the heights above, whipping across the lake with heavy winds. In the midst of these winds and the cold and the tired night, the disciples see Jesus walking on the water.
1. The Reason for the Walk: They beheld Jesus walking on the sea (6:19).
Why did Jesus come walking on the water? It is more than that He merely wanted to get to the other side. It is to teach the disciples something. But what is it? It is not to teach the disciples how to walk on water. They never learn to walk on water after this and most people running around today claiming to be able to perform miracles have problems with this one.
Jesus walks on water to prove to the disciples that He can. He can always do the impossible.
Why do they need to know this? Because He is going to send them out to do the impossible, too. He is going to commission these very ordinary men to go out and make disciples of all men in every land. Impossible! They are not natural born leaders. They are not even seminary graduates. But they will accomplish the impossible. With God, all things are possible.
Why do you need to know this? Because God has called you to do the impossible. He has called you to leave a clean life in a dirty world. He has called you to be a faithful witness of Him. He has called you to be Christ to the world. And He has shown you that this is possible because He is with you.
2. The Fear of the Disciples: They were frightened (6:19).
It had been a long day. The disciples are now wet. They are tired. They are ready for a rest from their labors. But nowhere do we read that they had been afraid until now. They had faced the storm in the past. It did not especially trouble them. It is now something else entirely that is troubling to them. It is the sight of Jesus walking on the sea.
These disciples were not ignorant. They knew they were in some deep water and they knew that, naturally speaking, it is impossible for a man to walk on water. There was something going on before them that transcended human reason and human experience. They could see Jesus doing the impossible.
What is their reaction? They were frightened. They were frightened because they realized that there was something happening that was much greater than they could comprehend. They were frightened in a way the storm could never frighten them.
What frightened them? They were frightened by the Holiness of Jesus. What does it mean to be holy? The term "holy" often conjures up images of pristine goodness and serenity, but I feel this falls far short of the real meaning of the word. Holiness refers to that quality of "otherness." This is the way in which God is holy. He is set apart and distinct from all the rest of His creation.
The sixth chapter of Isaiah tells us of Isaiah’s heavenly vision of the Lord in His temple and the seraphim crying out, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory." (Isaiah 6:2-3). Isaiah’ reaction to this vision is compelling.
Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." (Isaiah 6:5).
Isaiah realizes that He is in the presence of something that is far beyond himself. His vision of the Lord lets him see his own unholiness in stark contrast. He realizes that he and the rest of humanity are far short of such holiness.
These disciples realize there is One in their presence that transcends human understanding and it frightens them. If you have come into the presence of the Lord and you have not been just a little frightened, then you have not come into the presence of the Lord.
C.S. Lewis captures the essence of this in his Chronicles of Narnia when he describes Aslan, the Christ-figure in the book:
But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn’t know what to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.
These disciples saw Jesus doing that which was not possible for mortal man to do. They saw it and it filled them with fear.
It is at this point that Jesus calls to them and instructs them, not to be afraid. The way in which he says this is particularly interesting: "It is I; do not be afraid." This can be taken one of two ways. On the one hand, the Greek text reads: Egw eimi -- this is the same phrase that is used by the Greek Septuagint in Exodus 3:14 to render the words of the Lord: "I am that I am." Jesus could be saying this to point to the fact of His deity. On the other hand, the same phrase can be understood in the way it is translated in our Greek text: "It is I, the same Jesus with whom you have been traveling and eating and sleeping and ministering. You don’t have to be afraid of Me."
Which meaning is in view here? Perhaps they both are. But whichever meaning is being used, it is a call for them to cease being afraid.
You see, the disciples had been laboring across the water. It was hard going and they would have been exhausted. Now they see Jesus walking on the water and, instead of seeing Him as the answer to their problems, they view Him with fear.
When I was about 12 years old, I had a paper route. The route took me along the back of one of the canals in South Miami and one rainy day, I spotted a baby duckling along the road. He was being stalked by a big old tomcat. I chased the cat away, but he didn’t go very far, figuring that as soon as I went my way he could come back and have some duckling stew. I decided that I would take the little duck home for his own safety. However, as I approached him, he scuttled across the way and tried to hide under some bushes. I wanted to tell him, "Little duckling, I’m not the problem; I’m the solution!"
Jesus must have felt the same way with the disciples and so, He calls out to them and tells them not to fear. He says the same thing to us when we are in the midst of our storm.
TOGETHER IN THE BOAT
They were willing therefore to receive Him into the boat; and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. (John 6:21).
When you get past the fear, then you can come to Jesus and when you come to Jesus, the other problems you face are not so bad. The disciples had been struggling all night and had worn themselves out in fighting the storm. What is your storm? With what are you struggling?
• The storm of acceptance?
• The storm of security?
• The storm of aging?
• The storm of significance?
• The storm of loneliness?
When you come to the point of saying, "I can’t do this any longer," and invite Jesus into your boat, you find that these other problems are not so bad. You find that you have been...
• Accepted in Christ.
• Given an eternal security.
• United with the ancient of days.
• Given the opportunity to accomplish that for which you were designed.
• Promised that He will be with you now and forever.
Looking back, you can see that there was a reason for the storm. The storm was given as a test. The storm reveals on what you are depending. Are you depending upon your own strength? Or are you depending upon the One who can still the storm with a word and who promises to bring you safely home?
There are some lessons that we can learn from this passage.
1. If you follow Jesus, there will be storms. We need to be careful to make this clear to people. There are times when, in our enthusiasm for sharing the gospel, we make it sound as though one can trust in Jesus and there will never again be any storms in this life. It is not so. What IS so it that we have the love and the care of the One who is able to silence the storm.
2. Jesus never denies the reality of the storm. He does not come along and say, "Don’t worry, the storm is not that bad." He does not say anything to indicate that the storm is small. What He does is to show that He is bigger than the storm. That is the important this to remember. God is bigger than any of your storms.
3. The purpose of the storm is to get you to see that the Lord is God and that He alone is the Master of the storm. This is first and foremost a testing of your faith.
