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Walking on the sea waves (Mk 6:45-52; Mt 14:22-33)
After feeding the five thousand, Jesus sent the disciples to the ship first to keep the people from following: “And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida.” (v45) He remained on the land to scatter the crowd. Until now, he did not have time to pray. So at the quietest moment of the evening, he “departed into a mountain to pray” (v46). Prayer was an essential part of his life. In this instance, prayer was necessary, not only for chatting with the Father, but he knew he was about to walk on the sea to join the disciples. We need to pray before we are going to do something by great faith.
(‘Be of good cheer’)
Though not as dangerous as last time they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, yet the disciples were rowing hard and moving slowly because they were rowing against strong wind. In fact, the ship “tossed with waves” (Matt 14:24) generated by the gusty wind. Later, we are told that “Jesus went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased.” (v51) The Lord was not present on the ship; the disciples exhausted their energy to row against wind and waves, and the ship moved very slowly. Without our Lord, we can spend a lot of our efforts and still feel like moving just a bit. With the mighty hand of our Lord, things that look difficult becomes as easy as quieting the gusty wind and the surging waves. Just think about it: Jesus is walking in the same environment while the twelve disciples are painfully rowing, who is supposed to be faster? Jesus, when walking upon the sea, “would have passed by them” (v48). In other words, Jesus was absolutely able to overtake them and reach the other side first. He seemed to have such plan in mind. As such, the wind and the waves did not affect him at all. This miracle of walking on the sea against the wind and waves is to show the disciples his supernatural ability to overcome the nature. On the contrary, we can easily be overcome by the power of nature.
While they were painstakingly rowing, they might be thinking of their painful experience the last time they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes and how Jesus quieted the storm by an order.(Mark 4:39) At this moment, I think they would be extremely desiring for Jesus to be with them. Yes, at their toughest moment, their Lord was approaching them and was about to offer assistance. However, they took their Lord for an evil spirit! “They cried out for fear.” (Matt 14:26) They simply did not anticipate their Lord to appear that way—walking on the tossing waves at “the fourth watch of the night” (v48)! Jesus suddenly appears in such a horrible night. Anyone can get confused and take him for a demon. While they were still “troubled” (驚慌) and not knowing what to do, he “immediately” comforted them, “Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.” (v50) Jesus proved himself to them by word as their Lord, whom they longed to see so much at the time—not an evil spirit. Their fear was gone immediately. In tough times, while we feel strongly for the need of our Lord’s presence and are wondering where He is, He appears to us wonderfully in time and says, “Be of good cheer; be not afraid, because I am with you always.” “And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased.” (v51) As soon as we “suddenly” sense the presence of our Lord, our trouble is gone right away. The Lord reminds us to “be of good cheer”. He understands our situation very well and will quiet the wind and waves at the appropriate time.
(from “afraid” to “amazed”)
When the wind ceased suddenly, the disciples “were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.” (v51) What did the disciples wonder about? They still wondered all that they have seen just now. They could hardly believe what they have just seen with their naked eyes—Jesus walking on the sea and the gusty wind died down after Jesus boarded the ship. Everything that just happened was so supernatural and was just beyond their rational mind to understand. The author, Mark, put a comment at the end of this account: “for they considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened (心裡還是愚頑).” (v52) Their amazement reflected the fact that they still perceived Jesus as a human. When they saw him as a mortal man, they could hardly relate his human identity with his marvelous act. They should have recognized his godly identity from the miracle of feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. However, they failed to learn from that miracle concerning his deity. Jesus once again attempted to manifest his godly identity before the disciples through this incident, but they failed to learn from it again. (Matt 14:33 showed that the disciple finally recognized a bit of Jesus’ deity by this incident: “Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.”)
(The enemy of faith is doubt)
Matthew’s account added an incident about Peter jumping into the sea (Matt 14:28-31). There are two possible reasons for him to jump into the surging sea. (1) He wanted to prove whether it was truly the Lord who was walking on the sea. Therefore, he challenged him, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” (Matt 14:28) However, this reason is not very strong, for he proves by risking his own life. (2) He challenged himself by putting a simple faith on the Lord that He could make him walk on the sea like Himself. Remember that the wind and waves were still strong. As soon as he heard Jesus saying “Come,” he jumped out of the ship and “walked on the water, to go to Jesus.” (Matt 14:29) However, in midway “when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink.” (Matt 14:30) Sometimes you need to take risk when you exercise real faith by courage. But your faith must persist until your goal is achieved. Peter had faith at the start but not enough to reach Jesus. His faith was diminished by the surrounding environment. His faith sank along with his body into the sea. No wonder Jesus, after saving him out of the water, commented to him, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matt 14:31) James is absolutely right in speaking about the believer’s struggle between faith and doubt, “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:6-8) Peter was double-minded while he was walking on the sea. On one hand, he was exercising great faith to go to the Lord. On the other hand, he was afraid he might sink as he was being hit by the wind and the sea waves. Had he focused his eyes on the Lord and disregarded the tossing wave, he could have finished his risky walk. The Lord indeed showed to the disciples what he meant by perfect faith with his concrete example of walking to the ship from the coast. His strong word of allowing Peter to come to him is trying to convince us that if we have the same amount of strong faith all the way through, we can really do the same thing like him. It is important to hold fast our faith until we see the outcome.
“And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, ‘Lord, save me.’ And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him.” (Matt 14:30-31) No matter how “little faith” we possess, anytime we cry to the Lord, “Lord, save me,” he will immediately stretch out his mighty hand because he cares for our fragile life.