John 6:16-24 Jesus Walks on Water

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Commentary

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 four miles, 

1. “…they got into a boat and set off…”
   

1. 1. Why did Jesus send his disciples away from the crowd while he went to the mountain? Knowing that the crowd had differed from Christ’s teachings so much that he had to remove himself, it is likely he wanted his disciples exposed to the same tempting thought patterns.
      
      
   2. The crowd preferred the gift to the giver.  The disciples left their company, assuring that their thoughts would not start to drift towards their way of thinking.
      
      
2. “A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.”
   
   
   1. The Sea of Galilee, 600 feet below sea level and surrounded by mountains, is prone to sudden, strong winds and storms.
      
      
   2. “Darkness was increasing, discernment was diminishing, iniquity was growing. When, therefore, they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty furlongs. Meanwhile they struggled onward, kept advancing; nor did those winds and storms, and waves and darkness effect either that the ship should not make way, or that it should break in pieces and founder; but amid all these evils it went on.” -Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, 25, 6.
      
      
3. …they had rowed about three or four miles…”
   
   
   1. The disciples rowed all night (six to eight hours) in a brutal storm and only reached halfway across the sea (about three to four miles).
      
      
   2. This struggle wasn’t some sort of punishment; Jesus Himself sent them into the storm.  He has something to teach them here.
      
      
   3. Even though the disciples couldn’t see Jesus, Mark 6:48 explicitly says that Jesus was watching them straining at the oars from the top of the mountain and praying for them.  He never took his eyes off them.

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.

1. “It is I; don’t be afraid.”
   
   
   1. Strangely, they are afraid of the very thing that can save them.  The glory of Christ on the water is a sight they can’t fully comprehend at this point in their lives.
      
      
   2. “[T]he interior effect was fear; and therefore the fear of the disciples, conceived from Christ’s sudden appearance, is set forth when it says: ‘and they were afraid’ — either with a good fear, because it was caused by humility; ‘Do not be haughty, but fear’ (Romans 11:20). Or with an evil fear, because, as is said in Matthew 14:26, they thought him to be a ghost. ‘They trembled with fear where there was no fear’ (Psalm 13:5 [Vulgate numbering]). For fear especially belongs to carnal people, who shrink back from spiritual things.” -Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on John, Ch. 6, 882.
      
      
2. Here, Matthew’s Gospel mention’s Peter’s attempt to walk on water (Matt. 14:22-33), which is an incredible act of faith, even though he faltered.
   
   
3. “Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.”
   
   
   1. Jesus waited until the disciples were willing to take Him into the boat. He doesn’t force His way in; He waits for an invitation.
      
      
   2. The moment Jesus entered the boat, they “immediately” reached the shore.  This is a second miracle, which shows the the power of letting Jesus take control.

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.

1. “Our Lord, though He did not actually shew Himself to the multitude walking on the sea, yet gave them the opportunity of inferring what had taken place; The day following, the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto His disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples were gone away alone. What was this but to suspect that He had walked across the sea, on His going away? For He could not have gone over in a ship, as there was only one there, that in which His disciples had entered; and He had not gone in with them.” -Chrysostom, Hom. xliii. 2.

Full Transcript

“Sow a financial seed on your MasterCard, Visa, or Discover and watch the heavens open up and the blessings of the Lord come down on you.”

Last week, we started talking about John chapter 6 with a conversation about what’s known as the prosperity gospel—this idea that God wants you to have everything you could possibly want. He wants you to have a million dollars; he wants you to get that raise at work; he wants you to have an attractive spouse. He wants you to have health, wealth, and prosperity—everything you could ever dream of. The problem, according to this view, is you. You don’t have enough faith. If you just had a little more, he would give you everything you wanted.

Now, that’s not true. You can tell because even the people in the biblical era didn’t have big hordes of cash. The apostles were poor. Jesus was poor. Throughout history, there have been a lot of great Christians who have not been particularly wealthy or healthy. Your faith does not directly correlate to you getting everything you’ve ever wanted.

The prosperity gospel is not true, but I do want to clarify something here. I think we can go in the opposite direction pretty easily and end up in a bad place. We can say, “Oh, God doesn’t like us talking about money. Maybe he can’t handle money. Maybe I should never pray about money or health. Maybe God’s a spiritual God and he only handles spiritual things.” We might think that when we pray to God, we should only bring the spiritual stuff, but for the real world—for this life—we shouldn’t go to God because that’s too worldly.

I think of a monk from a long, long time ago named Evagrius. Isn’t that a great name? Evagrius. He sounds like a wizard. Evagrius the monk was someone who wrote about prayer. He wrote a lot of good stuff and a lot of bad stuff—it was kind of a toss-up. In his writing on prayer, he said that if you’re a really mature Christian, you should only have to pray one prayer: “Thy will be done.” That’s it. You don’t need to pray for anything else because you should just be able to trust God. Don’t worry about the details; just one prayer: “Thy will be done.” I can see what he was trying to get at, and I don’t want to be uncharitable—there is some wisdom to that—but I can’t help but notice that it doesn’t sound very much like what Jesus said.

In Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 through 11, Jesus said, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?” You can ask God about food and worldly things. It is interesting that Jesus gives the specific examples of bread and fish. Those are two things he brings up that someone might ask for.

Isn’t that exactly what Jesus dealt with last week? We saw that he was dealing with bread and fish in the feeding of the five thousand. Remember, there were probably more than five thousand men, and we don’t know how many women and children. “The feeding of the five thousand” sounds really cool, so we just go with that. Jesus did this miracle, and while there were certainly symbolic and spiritual elements to it, keep in mind the primary reason he did it: people were hungry. They needed something to eat.

Our God is not just the God of the spiritual realm. He’s not someone you can’t go to about your real physical needs. Jesus cares about all of it, and he’s the God over all of it. So don’t fall into that opposite trap of thinking Jesus doesn’t care about physical stuff. He does. The problem with the prosperity gospel isn’t that God can’t give us whatever we ask for—God can do whatever he wants; he’s God. The problem is that sometimes we’re more interested in the gifts than the Giver.

Sometimes we forget to seek God and trust that he knows more than we do. Sometimes the things he is trying to help us with are things we don’t even know about. We think our biggest problem might be that we don’t have a million dollars, but God can see other things. Sometimes he’s working on our character or teaching us to trust him. He is teaching us lessons that are really important in the face of eternity. If we only lived 100 years, that would definitely change our needs, but we know we’re eternal beings. There are things really important beyond this life that God might be working on in us. We need to be open to God, trust him, and let him work on what we need. We must trust that he knows what we need and not get angry and say, “Well, God hasn’t given me all the stuff I want. God, you owe me some stuff.”

This is one of those things we’re going to keep hearing about as we continue. If God has all this power, why doesn’t he give me all this stuff? Last week at the beginning of chapter six, we looked at the feeding of the five thousand. We saw how Jesus turned to Philip and said, “Hey, we need to feed all these people.” Philip said he didn’t know how they were going to do that because they didn’t have the money or the logistics. It didn’t make sense to him. Jesus was testing him, and Philip failed the test because he relied on what was in his control. He didn’t rely on Jesus or trust him; he tried to solve it by himself.

Andrew, a different disciple, introduced the young boy who gave Jesus his lunch of bread and fish. Jesus took that lunch and started handing it out. He just kept going and going. Not only was he able to feed everyone who had gathered, there were actually whole baskets of food left over. It wasn’t just enough for everyone to have their fill; it was more than enough.

Then those people got to thinking: “If Jesus can do this, what else can he give me?” They wanted to force Jesus to become their king. It didn’t matter what he wanted; they wanted him in charge so he could solve all their problems. This is something I didn’t talk about last week, but I wanted to touch on it because they say, “Surely this is the prophet who has come into the world.” From that, we learn that Jesus knew their intent was to force him to become king.

Why would they say that? It seems like an odd, random thing to say, but it’s a reference to Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 15. That is where Moses is speaking to the Israelites and says, “The Lord will raise up a prophet like me from among you.” Moses was the greatest prophet of all time. David was a great king, but Moses was the one—the Ten Commandments guy who got them out of Egypt. You can’t do better than Moses, and Moses said there would be a prophet like him. People were waiting on that guy who was going to be as incredible as Moses.

Now here comes Jesus. Moses led them into the wilderness and fed them bread from heaven to sustain them for forty years. Jesus leads them into the wilderness and doesn’t just give them enough bread to sustain them; he gives them more than enough. This guy’s not only like Moses, he’s even better. That’s where that phrase connects.

They want to make him king, but Jesus has had this offer before. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus went into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan. One of the temptations was to bow down, and everything he saw would be his. Of course, Jesus said no. Jesus does not need the approval of the world. He has authority of his own. He doesn’t need an earthly crown; he has a heavenly one. Jesus said no to Satan, and here is this crowd hoping he will seize a crown for himself. Jesus leaves and goes to a mountain by himself.

This morning, I am going to rely on a few different passages. This story of Jesus walking on the water appears in three of the gospels: Mark, Matthew, and John. The only one that does not contain it is Luke. I’m going to rely on all of them. Normally, I don’t always do this. I think there is wisdom in looking at individual passages and letting them stand on their own. But as I read the other two accounts, I couldn’t help but notice that they all add something really important. Mark tells us so many details about motivations, Matthew tells us about the reactions of the disciples, and John tells us some of the more miraculous elements.

At the end of the day, I am not just looking at this passage because I want to know the words John chose. I am learning about it because I want to know what happened that day with Jesus and the disciples. If you want to look at them in the coming week, I encourage you to—they are well worth it. The other two are Mark chapter 6, verses 45 through 52, and Matthew chapter 14, verses 22 to 33. It is really interesting to read them all next to each other and see how those elements interact.

Mark tells us a little more about the motivation of why Jesus left. John just says, “And Jesus left and went to a mountain by himself.” Mark tells us he went to the mountain to pray. Now we know what Jesus is doing: he is spending time with his Father in heaven. While Jesus is on that mountain praying, see verse 16: “When that evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum.”

Again, we can rely on Mark to tell us why. Why are these disciples getting into a boat and going across a lake when Jesus is going up the mountain? Why don’t they follow him? Mark tells us Jesus told them to do that. Before he went up the mountain, Jesus turned to them and said, “Hey, get in the boat. Go across the lake. I’ll catch up.”

Isn’t it interesting that he tells his disciples to get out of here in a way that’s difficult for people to follow? The crowd wants Jesus to become king. They are so hopeful he will solve all of their problems after seeing his divine power. Don’t you think the disciples might have been a little tempted to do the same? They already believe in Jesus and think he’s incredible. They don’t always understand him, but they know he’s an impressive guy. With all these people wanting him to be king, there would be that temptation to say, “Maybe Jesus doesn’t know what’s best. Maybe he should be king. Maybe he doesn’t believe in himself enough, and I believe in him more than he does. Jesus, yes, we’re going to make you king. The crowd is right.”

Rather than stay and allow them to be continually tempted, Jesus tells them to get out of there. That is a good reminder for all of us. How often do we put ourselves in situations where we are tempted to do something we know God wouldn’t want us to do? Rather than leave, we stay and see how long we can make it, continually fending off that temptation. Don’t do that. Get out.

Maybe you’re in a situation where you’re working with someone who’s just irritating. They’re driving you nuts, they’re getting everything wrong, and they’re saying crazy things. You’re about to give them a piece of your mind—get out of there. If you need to talk, come back later when you’ve cooled down. Don’t allow yourself to be continually tempted. Remove yourself from the situation.

Or maybe you’re with a friend and you’re enjoying your evening, but suddenly you start talking about things that aren’t very edifying. Suddenly, you start sniffing around some gossip. You might say, “Oh, we shouldn’t talk about that,” but then you come around for another pass. You just keep getting closer and closer. Don’t do that! Get out of there. Change your environment. When you see yourself being tempted in an environment where it’s continually coming at you, move. Maybe Jesus is telling you, “Get out of there! Go!” That’s what he tells the disciples.

So they get on this boat and they go. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. There seem to be an awful lot of storms on the Sea of Galilee, don’t there? This is not the only miracle about a storm on that sea. I am sure you remember another one where the storm is raging and Jesus is sleeping. The disciples tell him, “Jesus, we need help,” and he quiets the storm.

The Sea of Galilee has a lot of storms because of a geographical feature. Galilee is a mountainous region, and the Sea of Galilee is six hundred feet below sea level. When a wind comes whipping down off those mountains, it becomes very easy for the weather to get rough. It’s just a region given to storms because of its geography. Now, these disciples knew this well; some of them were experienced fishermen.This was not their first rodeo. It wasn’t that they’d never seen a storm before, but this one was especially brutal. John tells us that they had rowed about three or four miles, which is about halfway through the Sea of Galilee. They were at the halfway point, and Mark tells us how long it took them to reach that spot: he says it was about dawn.

They left the night before, meaning they had been rowing all night and were still only halfway. That would be brutal. Just imagine being in that boat. Imagine the darkness around you and the wind howling. Imagine the thunder and lightning. Imagine sweat dripping down your brow, interspersed with seawater. You are straining at those oars, and blisters are forming on your hands because you’ve been at it for hours and hours. It’s three or four in the morning at this point, and you’re still going.

But when they had made it about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water. Now, you have to admire where they’d been until this point. They worked hard, didn’t they? The venerable Bede, one of the most prolific commentators in the Middle Ages, wrote regarding this passage: “The ship does not carry a lazy crew.” They were all stout rowers. The Church is not lazy or fragile; we are tireless, constantly persevering in good works, eager to reach the harbor of everlasting salvation. These were men who worked hard. Jesus told them to do it, so they did it—even though he sent them right into a storm.

Some of you might be in storms right now. I know several of you have told me about the storms you’re facing. This week, more than usual, I feel like a lot of people are facing some hard stuff. If you are in a storm, just remember: that is not evidence that you are doing something wrong or something that Jesus doesn’t want you to do. There is that prosperity gospel thinking that says, “If God wants me to do it, it will be easy.” That’s really tempting. We think, “Oh man, this is getting hard; God must not want me doing this.” That is not necessarily true.

Here, Jesus sent these men into something very difficult because he was teaching them something. There was value to this. Going into something hard was not worthless; it was important. If you are in a storm, stay with it. You never know when you are right on the brink of something. You never know when Jesus is going to come walking to you over the waters.

Where was Jesus to these disciples? They didn’t know. They couldn’t see him. We know he was up on a mountain, and the book of Mark provides those little details: he was watching them and praying. He saw them straining at the oars. He knew they were having a hard time, and he was praying for them. They were never out of the sight of Jesus. They may not have been able to see him, but Jesus never took his eyes off them.

When he saw it was time, he came down off that mountain. I don’t know what that looked like. Did he just zoom down? Did he make a trek? We only know that he made his way over those stormy waters. These were not still, gentle pond waters, either. I imagine it would be harder to walk on storm waters—that’s just my hot take.

Jesus comes walking over the storm waters, and they are terrified. Verse 19 says: “When they had rowed three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water, and they were frightened. But he said to them, ‘It is I; don’t be afraid.'” Maybe that is something Jesus is saying to you. If you are in a storm, if you are having a hard time, if you are facing something that’s frustrating and just beating you down, Jesus is saying to you: “Do not be afraid.”

Matthew tells us the part where Peter gets out of the boat and tries to walk to Jesus. He makes it a couple of steps across those waters, but then he ultimately falls in because he does not have enough faith. Usually, that is a lesson about how Peter should have had more faith. But I have to give Peter a little bit of credit. Even making one step on the water is more than I’ve made. That’s impressive—to have so much faith you could even take one step on water. We should all try to have as much faith as we can.

After that incident, they were willing to take him into the boat. Now, Jesus had just walked across the water; if he wanted on that boat, there wasn’t a thing anyone could do to stop him. But Jesus doesn’t just jump onto the boat. He waits. He waits until they want him on the boat.

I’m not going to say Jesus always follows this rule, because sometimes he does things that are unexpected. For example, Paul, who wrote so many of the epistles in the New Testament, was someone who persecuted the church, and Jesus blinded him so that he would see the truth. Sometimes things happen in unexpected ways. But as much as that is true, more often than not, Jesus does not go around blinding people on a regular basis. Most of the time, he waits. He waits just outside the boat, waiting for someone to let him in. He stands at the door and knocks, waiting for someone to answer.

Is there an instance in your life where Jesus is waiting just outside of it? You haven’t let him in yet. You’re trying to do it on your own, working by your own power, and Jesus is just waiting for the invitation to come in. Look what happens when he is on the boat: it says that immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

This passage doesn’t get enough credit. A lot of people don’t notice that this right here is a miracle. It doesn’t say, “And the storm subsided and they got there pretty quickly.” It says immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. They were exactly where they needed to go. The minute Jesus got on the boat, they were there.

How many of you need to learn the same lesson that Philip learned: that if you are trying to make it through something on your own power, it’s going to be hard? It might not be enough. Maybe there is a storm in your life, a challenge that you are facing. You are straining at the oars and working hard, giving it all of your effort, but making little to no headway. Jesus is coming to you across the water. He is waiting. Let go of those oars, let him into the boat, and trust that he will get you where you need to go.