Though Satan should buffet / though trials should come, / Let this blest assurance control: / That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate / And hath shed his own blood for my soul (It Is Well with My Soul by Horatio Spafford). Had they been waiting by faith, they would have known Him instantly. Despite its name, the lake is 700 feet below sea level in the Mediterranean Sea.One of the most notable characteristics of this body of water is that it is extremely vulnerable to storms that can come on suddenly and be extremely violent.This type of storm is triggered by the collision of cold air rushing down from the mountains surrounding it with warm, moist air rising from the surface of the water itself.After sunset, his disciples went down to the lake, where they boarded a boat and began their journey to Capernaum. Get our Question of the Week emailed to your inbox every weekday morning! The episode occurs shortly after another miracle, the. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is said to have performed seven miraculous signs that characterize his ministry, from changing water into wine at the start of his ministry to raising Lazarus from the dead at the end. Your email address will not be published. In the Gospels, Jesus walks on water in Matthew 14:22-33 and also in Mark 6:45-52 and John 6:16-21. & The Ministry and Life of Christ. The episode occurs shortly after another miracle, the feeding of the 5,000.This event convinced the 12 disciples that Jesus is indeed the living Son of God.Thus, the story is extremely significant to Christians and the basis for several important life lessons that govern . But it was the revelation of Jesus walking on the water that, more than any other, convinced Jesus' disciples . Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:16-21 all record an eyewitness testimony of this miracle. This blog is no longer being updated. Article Images Copyright . 24 But the boat was now in the midst of the sea, distressed by the waves; for the wind was contrary. As a result, our little difficulties are minor and transient difficulties that are preparing us for an everlasting grandeur that much transcends all of our difficulties (Rom.8:18; 2 Cor.4:17).3. Meaning of Jesus Walking on Water. Then Jesus multiplies bread, as if from thin air, to feed the multitudes with as much as they wanted (John 6:11), just as God had provided bread from heaven to feed His people with as much as any man could eat (Ex. 237 views, 1 likes, 5 loves, 12 comments, 2 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Harris Funeral Directors: Homegoing Service for Minister Beatrice Lee Wiggins. This is the sea where Peter took a faltering step toward Jesuson the water. : essays on Christology, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jesus_walking_on_water&oldid=1133982716, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 January 2023, at 12:30. as events with deep symbolic resonance. First, we have the multiplication of signs and wonders as in Egypt (cf. Those who believe in Jesus can enjoy peace of mind knowing that he will calm the tumultuous waves of life when they are in his company. It is first connected with darkness and chaos (Gen.1:2). Im right here. That is really mind-boggling to me! But I want to ask you a tough question. Help them to understand that you built everything for usso that we might have a place to call home for the rest of our lives.But, even more importantly, you designed our existence so that we may join you in a loving relationship for the rest of our lives, beginning right now.In the name of Jesus, I pray, amen.This devotional is taken from the book 60 Days for Jesus, Volume 1, and it is titled Get your hands on a copy right now! Learn Religions. When that happens, theres nothing to do except praise God for yet another gift of mercy and grace. Step two: David became too [], One of the more important and more difficult pieces of the puzzle as we feel our way forward at the interface of science and faith is the theological implications of discoveries in modern science. Jesus is not a ghost hovering over the water to wow people. But then the strong wind took his focus off of Christ. !) Do not be alarmed. So many of us are apprehensive about even getting out of the boat!Jesus, please hurry up and come aboard the boat with us, in our secure little corner!So many of us Christians want him to do just that!No, instead, come out on the sea with me, He says.Im not going to let you drown. This is exactly what we need to do! By the end, no one could tell what It is because John wants us to see Jesus as the greater Moses, as he has already told us both explicitly ( John 1:16-17) and implicitly (Moses could only draw water from the rock, while Jesus could draw wine from the rock, the stone jars; see Ex. But what about the major exodus event of the crossing of the Red Sea? It also reveals the heart of Christ to me! Kenda Deans newbook is called Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church []. As he began to descend, his last words were, Lord, save me. O you of little faith, why did you doubt? Jesus said as he put out his hand and grabbed him by the shoulders.And as soon as they got onto the boat, the wind stopped blowing.And they in the boat prostrated themselves before him, proclaiming, Truly, you are the Son of God (Matthew 14:20-33).Following in the footsteps of Mark, Matthew describes Jesus instructions and the situation as though it were newsworthy.Matthew, on the other hand, is the only one that chronicles Peters reaction to the circumstance and their eventual affirmation of Jesus divinity. 11:22), just as Philip tells Jesus that two hundred denarii of bread would not be enough (John 6:7). Keeping in mind that Matthew is writing to his fellow Jews and that it is his purpose to expose Jesus as the Son of God and the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament history of the Jewish people is the key to understanding the passage. 4:89; Luke 4:57), Jesus doesnt reject the connection to Moses. [14] Cook and Evans note that the "Lord Save me" cry of Peter is similar to Matthew 8:25 and Mark 4:38 in the calming the storm episode and again emphasizes the reliance of the disciples on Jesus. 4-5). Peter cried out to the Lord, and Jesus immediately reached out his hand to catch him. One of our friends heard the splash and very quickly dove in after her. Fairchild, Mary. Because Jesus desired the people who were following Him about to think that He was the Son of God, he went to such far as to kill himself.The only way to do this was by the performance of divine trickery, sometimes known as miracles.Because of this, He performed every miraclein order for us to realize He was real!He would have been easily dismissed as one of the most insane guys who ever lived if it werent for the miracles He performed.It is His ability to do miracles that distinguishes Him as God in the flesh!His miracles were so impressive that He even warned the legalistic Jews who were attempting to stone Him, If you dont accept what Im saying, at the very least believe me based on my miracles (see John 10:31-39). That is, it Jesus fled to a mountain by himself once more, this time knowing that they meant to come and compel him to become king by force.He and his disciples descended to the sea, boarded the boat, and set sail across the sea to the town of Capernaum as the evening arrived.It was already dark, and Jesus had not yet arrived to meet them on the road.The sea got choppy as a result of the heavy wind blowing at the time. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart; it is I.. After seminary, I came to disdain such interpretations, thinking that they had missed the true meaning of the text. ! Because he was concentrating on Jesus.His gaze was fixed on the majesty of Christ, rather than on the crashing seas.Jesus had just completed a 3.5-mile journey on water (see John 6:19), and Im presuming He is a power walker based on how quickly He got out there.Maybe he simply kind of drifted through the air. 9 Christians You Don't Want to Sit Beside on Sunday Morning, 7 Ways Anxiety Dominates the Christian Mind, 7 Tests to See if Your Worship Is Truly Christian or Pagan. Thus the reasons for the lack of recognition. [10], One aspect of the pericope (passage) is how it highlights the relationship between Jesus and his apostles. / When all around my soul gives way, / He then is all my hope and stay. . Lord. Note, too, that Moses doubts regarding Gods ability to provide meat came after the miraculous provision of manna (Numb. Instead, Young explores the pericope with literary-critical methods as narrative art. Storms, on the other hand, might rage for days on end with no sign of abating. Restoring faith after a lapse: When Peter got off the boat, he had excellent intentions, but his faith began to wane as time went on. As if by magic, Jesus multiplies bread to supply as much as they desired (John 6:11) to the crowds, just as God had provided bread from heaven to feed His people with as much as any man could eat (Exodus 16:4). He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. In essence, Jesus was testing the disciples faith, and this meant removing every human prop. This story, following the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, tells how Jesus sent the disciples by ship back to the "other side" of the Sea of Galilee (the western side) while he remained behind, alone, to pray. Let me preface it. A similar statement is made by Daniel in Daniel 7:3, and John, who wrote Revelation, states that the chaos of the sea is where Gods adversaries come from as well (Revelation 19:11). When they saw him, they were all scared, according to Mark 6:5051. I cant tell you His exact intent or purpose for this strange encounter, but the three New Testament accounts point to the confirmation of His deity and the deepening of our faith. Is this not what the old hymns taught us to sing? Matthew 14 says: Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. Miracles, Peace, Strength, According to Meier this is a metaphor of the Early Church immediately after Easter: Jesus leaves his disciples with the ascension promising to return, but occasionally visits them during the journey to support them (through the Eucharist). God also sends sin to the sea, as Micah (7:1819) explains, where it will be judged by the Lord, pardoned, and forgotten for all time. There are accounts of this event in three GospelsMatthew, Mark, and Johnbut it is not included in the Gospel of Luke. Initially Jesus collects the Apostles on a boat and sends them away alone, to go alone to the mountain to pray, but promising to meet them on the other side of the "sea"; the apostles have difficulty in reaching the other shore, but Jesus appears and everything ends well. Matthews tale can give us hope that, no matter how we begin, we will be able to complete our journey with Jesus successfully.When Jesus climbed into the boat, the wind died down.But first, at the direction of Jesus, Peter walked on the water, confirming his authority as the Word of the Living God.This was demonstrated once more when Jesus calmed the storm with nothing more than his word. Jesus walks on Water. 711).In contrast to this, the signs Jesus performs are loving and restorative rather than horrific and punishing in nature (John 6:2, 11).Next, in Exodus 12, we have the institution of the Passover, as well as an allusion to the Passover in John 6:4, which are both references to Jesus.Following this, Israel traveled in the desert, and Moses prayed to God for guidance on where he could obtain enough food to feed such a large number of people (Num. The Bible recorded only one instance when Jesus walked on water. The disciples were startled to see Jesus, but he told them not to be afraid. Because they were afraid, they screamed when they realized he was walking on the water and assumed he must be a ghost.He had intended to pass by them, but they mistook him for a ghost and screamed when they realized he was on the sea.However, he instantly addressed them and stated, Take heart; it is I. Please enjoy the archives. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.. I couldnt tell what had happened until I got to the end of the long fishing dock and found my daughter drenched and in tears. While he dismissed the multitudes, he immediately ordered his followers to get into the boat and accompany him to the opposite side of the lake.And once he had dismissed the people, he climbed up to the top of the mountain to pray on his own behalf.When the dark arrived, he was alone on the island, but the boat had already traveled a considerable distance from the shore, battered by the waves due to the winds opposition.Afterwards, he came to them during the fourth watch of the night, strolling on the water. What then? , Readers who pay close attention may see that the words It is I (eg eimi) in John 6:20 literally translate as I am. This is, of course, the same translation of the holy name of God in Hebrew (YHWH, see Ex. But as we call out to Jesus as Lord and Savior, He is quick to reach out His hand. As Jesus and Peter climbed into the boat together, the storm ceased. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The miracles of Jesus are miraculous deeds attributed to Jesus in Christian and Islamic texts. As Jesus performs these miracles, He is giving the disciples just a snippet of who He really is. What were the miracles of Jesus? During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake (Matthew 14:2425).Though they were only to travel a short distance, the storm was so violent that, despite all their efforts to control their boat, the storm had driven them nearly four miles out into the very midst of the sea.Being the fourth watch of the night (3:00 AM to 6:00 AM), they had been rowing and straining at their oars for approaching nine hours!They were totally exhausted.Mark tells us that, when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the lake, they thought He was a ghost. The text doesnt say it died down a bit. Covering topics including Miracles, Peace, Strength, Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/jesus-walks-on-water-700220. This was the first time Jesus was called the Son of God by the disciples, a statement that, in fact, built on what they had said earlier about Him in Matthew 8:27: What kind of man is this?Even the winds and the waves obey him. Here they answer their own question: Truly you are the Son of God. Though they had a long way to go in their spiritual understanding, the disciples were growing in their faith in the Lord.Also, this was the first time the disciples are said to have worshiped Jesus.In Matthew 2:11, the magi from the East worshiped Jesus.Later, a leper is said to have worshiped Jesus (Matthew 8:2). In the Gospels, Jesus walks on water in Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:16-21, as well as other places. Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox! But when he saw the fury of the wind he panicked and began to sink, calling out, "Lord save me!" At once Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, saying, "You little-faith! Come, he instructed.As a result, Peter stepped out of the boat and walked across the water to reach Jesus.His fear increased, though, as he noticed the wind. This is all the more remarkable given that Johns account is the shortest by far (86 words in Greek compared with 139 in Mark and 186 in Matthew). The details presented differ slightly, but the cornerstone of each is the declaration of who Jesus is. with he walked on the SEA, and went into a learned discourse about Is this a foreshadowing of Jesus agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:36-42). It says it ceased. As soon as Jesus saw him, he reached out and grasped him. 157 views, 3 likes, 4 loves, 3 comments, 2 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Mora Grace Lutheran Church: Music used with permission from CCLI In the forty days after the resurrection, Christ stayed on the earth to prepare His disciples for the work before them. Identification of miracles of timing is well nigh impossible with the passage of time. 48 And seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them, about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking on the sea; and he would have passed by them: 49 but they, when they saw him walking on the sea, supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; 50 for they all saw him, and were troubled. Here are some other blogs you may also enjoy: Red Letters with Tom Davis Recent prayer post on Prayables Most Recent Inspiration blog post Happy Reading! Some of Jesus followers are fishermen who are accustomed to being on the Sea of Galilee at the time of his death. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. (Matthew 14:31; Mark 12:31).After that, they went onto the boat, where the storm had subsided.All of the disciples eyes were wide open and riveted on Jesus, as if they couldnt believe what they were seeing for the first time!And theres Jesus, all alone in the middle of the room.I believe He was beaming from ear to ear the entire time. The same Peter that sunk in fear, and later denied Jesus three times (Matthew 26:31-35), is the same Peter that started the church in Jerusalem (Acts 2:14-42). 11:79). Many readers will disagree with me on some of this but not, I hope, because belief in the signs and wonders of Jesus and in his resurrection is in some way contingent on specific understandings of the mechanism of creation. However, when Uncle George tells you about his encounter with the Mothman, and you know Uncle George is the most hardheaded and pragmatic sort of guy, you have to accept that something strange really happened, and whatever it was and whatever it meant, Uncle George truly did have some sort of strange experience. In particular, the narrative part of the story seems to fall into the apocalyptic genre, meaning by this term a genre characterized by an accentuated symbolism and light-shadow contrasts. It was such a remarkable difference that the disciples exclaimed Truly you are the Son of God. The only fitting response to what they had just witnessed was to acknowledge and glorify Jesus as the incarnate I AM. If you wish, you may contact me directly at rjs4mail[at]att.net. When they came to Capernaum and asked Jesus how he came there, instead of answering the question, he told the crowd that they followed him, not because they had seen signs, but because of the free loaves they had eaten the day before, and he advised them not to seek earthly gains, but aim for a life based on higher spiritual values.[1][8]. The issue came up in the comment stream on other later posts as well. It didnt actually take place. In order for these mythological components to have been late additions, the gospels would have had to be written a considerable time after the actual events of Jesus life, which is contrary to all arguments concerning a late chronology for Jesus life that have been advanced.All four gospels were completed by 80 AD, even if the most optimistic modernists choose the most recent plausible dates for their creation.That is just fifty years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to the calendar.People who had been eyewitnesses to the events were still living at the time.I recall what occurred fifty years ago, do you?If not, your parents will tell you what happened. You may contact me directly at rjs4mail [ at ] att.net of timing is well nigh with. To acknowledge and glorify Jesus as the incarnate I AM disciples just a snippet of who Jesus is died a... Followers are fishermen who are accustomed to being on the other hand, might rage for days on end no. 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