Slices
Prepare
Are you rowing into a headwind, or is the wind in your sails right now? Reflect on these words: ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you’ (Isaiah 43:2).
Bible passage
Jesus walks on the water
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.
47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 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.’ 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.
53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognised Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried those who were ill on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went – into villages, towns or countryside – they placed those who were ill in the market-places. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
Explore
Jesus needed time alone with his Father (v 46; see also 1:35). So do we. Up on the hillside, he can see his disciples straining on the oars. This is a wonderful picture of Jesus now. Risen and exalted, he sees when I am struggling. He is still interceding for us (Romans 8:34).
Jesus makes his disciples go ahead without him. They aren’t in danger, but they are going nowhere. Sometimes we hit times when life is just hard going. Where is Jesus? Why doesn’t he deal with the headwinds that make life such a struggle? Despite the disciples’ situation, he intends to ‘pass by them’ (v 48). To us, this is puzzling. However, a wider look at the Bible shows that Jesus has a bigger agenda than solving his disciples’ problems.
In wanting to ‘pass by’, Jesus is wanting to show them his glory. God ‘passed by’ Moses (Exodus 33:19 – 34:7) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:11,12). Jesus does what only God can do (Job 9:8). But the disciples are characteristically blind to the revelation in front of them, just as they had been when Jesus had fed the 5,000 (v 52). Their progress is slow.
Respond
The Lord wants to reveal his glory to his people. For Moses, Elijah and the disciples he did this when life was challenging. Remember the Lord may have a bigger intention than making life easier for you.
Deeper Bible study
‘Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us / o’er the world’s tempestuous sea. / Guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us, / for we have no help but thee.’1
The disciples had had a long day, returning from their mission, reporting to Jesus and then rowing possibly 10 km, vainly trying to outwit the crowd. They had heard Jesus teach, assisted at the feeding of the 5,000 and now, at about 4am, they had been rowing for hours against the wind. To the Jews, historically a desert people, the sea represented chaos, danger and fear. By the time Mark was writing, early Christians had come to understand in this event what the disciples did not. The storm was an allegory of the chaotic and dangerous human world and the boat was the early church, struggling to negotiate the ‘world’s tempestuous sea’. Conscious that soon he would no longer be physically present to guide and protect, Jesus, like the prophets of old, made his own life into a living parable.
Jesus knew that the disciples were struggling. Although not physically with them, he wanted them to feel his presence, but they didn’t. So he made himself more obvious, passing by them, walking on the water. In this momentous encounter, he thrice declared that he was God. First, while God’s prophets could heal or raise the dead, God alone ‘treads on the waves of the sea’.2 Second, Jesus was about to ‘pass by’, the term used in the Scriptures for God’s close self-revelation to Moses and Elijah.3 Third, Jesus used for himself the name of God, not ‘it’s me’ but I AM, lost in translation here.4 So it is with us: whether alone as God’s child or together as Christ’s body, the church, Jesus knows when we struggle against the buffeting of the world. Jesus comes to us, through the turbulence. ‘Don’t fear the storm’, he says to us, ‘I AM is here. I AM is with you, always with you until the end of time’.
Jesus, Lord of all calmness, come to us through the chaos. Stay with us in our frail boat. Steer us through the storms. Take us home.
1 James Edmeston, 1791 – 1867 2 Job 9:8 3 Exod 33:16–23; 1 Kings 19:11 4 Exod 3:14; Heb YHWH (Yahweh); Gk Ego Eimi, not ‘it is I’ but ‘I am’
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Lamentations 3–5; John 20
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray that the Shine Your Light at Halloween resource will enable Faith Guides and youth leaders to engage with children and young people at this time, helping them to discover that Jesus is the true Light.
