15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
Can you imagine this? Here is the One who created the universe, our sovereign King, and the people think they can force him to be king of a piddly little country that is oppressed by Rome. He is omniscient and lets his human nature know what the people are about to do. Even in his human nature, it was no problem for Jesus. He simply left town. More details about this are provide in Matthew 14:22-23. Jesus didn’t just leave town; he went up on the mountain to pray after he dismissed the crowd. He also made the disciples leave in the boat.
Do we have the presence of mind to get away from the crowds and even the closest friends and spend time in prayer when we face hostilities? I would venture to say that most of us say a quick prayer and then try to maintain control of the situation. Jesus did control the situation and then went to pray – alone.
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
Jesus is the Light that came into the world (John 1:9). Yet here, we see Jesus leaving the disciples and letting them go off without him as darkness comes upon them. How often do we march off into the darkness without Jesus? The results can have long reaching negative effects as it did for Israel (Josh 9:14). It is only when we are doing things without first consulting him that we do it. The difference between us wandering off and this example is when Jesus intentionally sends us to into a situation that will test us. Testing the disciples on how to feed the 5,000 was to see how they would trust in him while he was with them. This time, they would be tested in how they would react when he was not with them.
18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.
To the disciple’s credit, they kept on going in the direction Jesus has designated. Their progress was labored and slow. When Jesus came to them it was the fourth watch of the night (between three and four in the morning according to Matthew 14:25). I can’t imagine ministering all day long to a crowd of people then straining at the oars for another six hours. They must have been totally exhausted. This is the prime time for any of us to let circumstances frighten us or misinterpret what we think is going on.
Then Jesus appears walking on the water. The wind is blowing; the waves are high; a figure appears in the dark walking on the water. No one has walked on the water before. They don’t have the Gospel accounts to inform them that this is Jesus. Matthew 14:26 says that they believed him to be a ghost, (translated from the Greek phantasma, meaning specter, appearance, or phantom). In other words, they didn’t believe what they were seeing belonged to their reality. I would suspect that they would have classified these in the category of demons and other malevolent creatures, or they would not have been terrified.
When we are doing the Lord’s work and we don’t seem to see Jesus working with us, we shouldn’t give up (1 Cor 15:58). We shouldn’t be terrified when things get rough because we now know that he is always with us (Matt 28:29).
20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
What a comfort it is to hear a reassuring word from the Lord. The Lord had to repeat this to people from the beginning of time and still does now. Don’t be afraid. We don’t need to be afraid when we know that Jesus is with us. We don’t need to test Jesus the way Peter did by asking to walk on the water (Matt 14:28). We simply need to be willing to let him into our boat. We must trust him completely or we will never reach the shore. Salvation only comes by trusting Jesus alone for our salvation. Our hard work and rowing may seem to get us closer to God and salvation, but salvation comes only by trusting Jesus. When we do trust him completely for our salvation, we immediately reach our destination.
See how Jesus made up for all their toil and trouble by taking them to the shore immediately? While it demonstrates our immediate salvation, it is also a truth and no less a miracle that feeding 5,000 and walking on the water.
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