Talk 19 Mark 6:45-56 Jesus walks on water
Welcome to talk 19 in our series on Mark’s gospel. Today we are looking at Mark 6:45-56 where we read the remarkable story of Jesus walking on water.This story, which takes place just after Jesus had fed the 5000, is a wonderful example of how Jesus continues to challenge and to strengthen the faith of his disciples. In it we see how:
· The disciples were very slow to learn and to believe.
· Jesus deliberately challenges their faith.
· He supernaturally intervenes to bring them safely through the problem they are facing.
The disciples’ slowness to learn and to believe
Jesus was training his disciples to become fishers of men.
The most important part was teaching them to understand exactly who he was – the Son of God. He did this by the things he taught and the miracles he performed.
But the disciples were slow to learn and to believe.
Even after Jesus had risen from the dead he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen (Mark 16:14).
They were amazed when they saw the miracles, but again and again they reveal their lack of faith. Remember the storm on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus asks, Do you still have no faith?
And, in Chapter 8, when the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread with them, Jesus asks:
Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:17-21).
It seems that Jesus was constantly working
· to bring his disciples to a deeper understanding of who he was
· and to develop their faith in God’s love for them
· and his ability and willingness to meet their needs.
And believe it or not, he’s doing the same for us too.
So let’s look at the passage in more detail,
bearing in mind that Jesus’ aim is to strengthen the faith of his disciples – and our faith too.
Jesus challenges their faith
45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.
Notice that Jesus made them get into the boat. The verb can be translated compel.
So he must have had a definite purpose in sending them on ahead of him and putting them at some distance from himself.
Part of that purpose was so that he could be alone and pray.
Perhaps he was talking to his Father about the disciples’ lack of faith.
And perhaps he sent them on ahead to test and strengthen their faith.
Soon they would be facing a storm without Jesus being physically present with them.
This is made clear in the next verse.
47 When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake and he was alone on land.
John 6 tells us that the boat was about three and a half miles from the shore.
Matthew 14 adds that it was buffeted by the waves.
The disciples are in trouble, but Jesus is alone on the land.
At least in the earlier storm he was with them in the boat, even if he was asleep!
How often when we face problems do we feel that Jesus is no longer with us, no longer aware of our need? Help seems miles away. But look at the next verse.
48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night (i.e. between 3 and 6 am) he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them…
The disciples were having a hard time. The wind was against them.
They were straining at the oars. They were finding it difficult to cope.
But even though it was dark, Jesus saw them. He saw the problem.
And he sees us too, even when our circumstances are so dark that we cannot see him.
Jesus intervenes supernaturally
So …he went out to them, walking on the lake.
He found a way of getting to them, even though it was humanly, scientifically, impossible.
He walked on water! If he can do that, surely he can do anything.
Mind you, walking on water wasn’t his usual way of getting places. He only worked miracles when there was a need.
But why was he about to pass by them? Or he intended to pass by them.
He had come to help them, so why pass by them?
You would have expected him to go straight to them.
Was it to test their faith? To get their attention?
We don’t know, but sometimes when it seems that he’s passing us by, he’s doing it to test our faith or get our attention. Maybe he wants us to really cry out.
Note that when he hears them cry out in fear he immediately encourages them by speaking to them.
His power to answer is not limited by the way we ask for help.
Even when we cry out in fear he is there to help. Look at verses 49-50.
49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Why did they think he was a ghost?
Because it couldn’t possibly be Jesus, could it?
Surely nobody, not even Jesus, can walk on water.
So they settled for another, even more implausible, supernatural explanation – a ghost.
And it’s very much the same today. So many prefer other forms of ‘spirituality’ rather than believing the solid evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
But Jesus says, Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid!
But how can we take courage when we’re being buffeted by the waves?
How can we not be afraid?
The key is in those three little words IT IS I.
In context it could simply mean, It’s not a ghost. It’s me.
But literally translated we can understand it to mean far more than that.
Jesus actually says I AM. The name by which God revealed himself to Moses.
The eternally self-existent one.
If we wonder how it was that Jesus could walk on water, and how he could give Peter the power to do so, we have only to remember who he was –
The I AM with whom all things are possible.
But Mark doesn’t mention Peter walking on the water.
It’s Matthew who tells us. At this point in the story before Jesus gets into the boat, Matthew tells us that Peter says, Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.
And Jesus says, Come.
Then Peter gets out of the boat, walks on the water and comes towards Jesus.
But when he sees the wind, he’s afraid and begins to sink.
So he cries out, Lord, save me!
And immediately Jesus reaches out his hand and catches him.
You of little faith, Jesus says, Why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:28-31).
We won’t take time to discuss why Mark does not include this amazing miracle. Any attempt to do so would be sheer conjecture. What’s important here is that
· Jesus is giving one of his disciples an opportunity to exercise faith in him
· Peter actually walked on water
· He soon wavered after Jesus told him to come.
This is so typical of the fluctuating faith of all the disciples throughout the Gospels,
and, if we’re honest, of ours today.
But back to the passage in Mark.
51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
Notice that Jesus didn’t rebuke the wind this time.
It died down as soon as he was in the boat.
His very presence was enough to calm both the wind and the anxious hearts of the disciples.
But what does Mark mean when he says that they had not understood about the loaves, and that their hearts were hardened?
And how do we reconcile this with Matthew’s account which says that they worshipped him saying, You are the Son of God!?
The reference to the loaves, of course, relates to the feeding of the five thousand earlier in the chapter.
It’s clear that they were not expecting such a miracle,
and, even when it happened, they did not fully understand the full significance of it.
Surely miracles like this were pointing to the fact that Jesus was the Son of God, and yet they hardly dared to believe it.
They were amazed because they hadn’t understood who Jesus was.
And so, as we’ve already pointed out, their faith frequently fluctuated, up one minute, down the next. Or, down one minute, up the next!
And this may explain why Matthew could say that the disciples worshipped Jesus and said, You are the Son of God.
They’re doubting one minute, believing the next.
Their initial reaction is amazement. They want to believe, but they hardly dare to.
But after they witness the miracle of Peter walking on water their faith rises and they worship Jesus and acknowledge who he is.
Compare Peter’s confession in Matthew 16.
The realisation of who Jesus is comes by revelation from Heaven.
The process of coming to this understanding was gradual, reaching a climax in a flash of revelation. And it doesn’t just happen once. We need repeated revelation, and repeatedly to confess who Jesus is. And this was Jesus’ purpose – building their faith and bringing them to a steadfast understanding of who he is. It was a gradual process, as it is with us.
But however wavering our faith we can be sure that his faithfulness will always bring us to the other side. As verse 53 tells us – they crossed over, they landed… and they anchored there.
So, to summarise, in this incident we see how Jesus tests and strengthens his disciples’ faith. He sends them ahead without him. He allows them to go through another storm, but he still has his eye on them. He does the impossible by walking on water to encourage them and even allows Peter to walk on water too, despite his wavering faith. And of course, he gets them all safely to the other side. It was Jesus who had told them to make the journey in the first place. And all this enables them to appreciate better who he is.
But before we leave Mark 6, let’s read the last few verses of the chapter.
54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went – into villages, towns or countryside – they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.
These verses are a summary of Jesus’ ministry at that time. Notice the words wherever he was, wherever he went. The healings recorded in the Gospels were no isolated incidents. They were happening everywhere, in villages, towns, and countryside. As we saw in earlier talks, they were evidence of the truth that the kingdom of God was among them and that Jesus was who he claimed to be, the Son of God.
The need for any of us to walk on water today would be exceptional, but the need for healing is always with us. In the passage we have just read five facts stand out:
They recognised Jesus
They ran to him
They requested (begged) him to heal them
They reached out and touched him
They received their healing.
Is it always like that today? If we’re honest, the answer is no. The extent to which miracles of healing are happening varies from place to place. As we saw in Chapter 5, even Jesus’ power to work miracles was limited in Nazareth because of their unbelief. And there were times in his ministry when he didn’t heal everyone as we see from John’s account of Jesus healing at the Pool of Bethesda. The key to his miracles, and indeed to his whole life, was that he only did what he saw the Father do (John 5:19).
We cannot tell God what to do, but we can like Jesus spend time with God and let him tell us what to do. So the five points mentioned above are not a formula for healing. There’s no such thing, and the belief that there is can lead to bitter disappointment. But in our search for healing we can and we should recognise that Jesus is Lord, run to him with our request, and reach out in faith, believing that we will receive our healing in God’s own good time. He does work miracles of healing today, but we need to remember that all healing in this life is temporary. The ultimate healing will take place when we receive new bodies when Jesus comes again. Meanwhile, keep your eyes on Jesus. He will get you there.
For more on this important subject, please see Just a Taste of Heaven – a Biblical and Balanced Approach to God’s Healing Power, available from my website: www.davidpetts.org