Walking on Water
If Jesus had had a boat, would he have walked on the water?
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going. The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal." - John 6:15-27
When the crowd arrives and notices there is only one boat and they knew that Jesus did not go with the others, they asked him how he got there.
His response was surprising.
He accuses them of seeking the wrong things. He says their motive is the food he provided and not the signs from God and the words he spoke. But is that fair?
They had followed him before he fed them with the loaves and fishes.
I believe John wants us to stop and think about our own motivations here. We all work for food that perishes. We all make a living so we can live comfortably.
We don't do the work of looking for the signs that God is with us.
Do we even know how?
We get to a point in our lives where we shift from being students to being participants. We stop learning and start doing.
We believe we know all we need to know, and we can make judgments on what is doable and what is not.
But what if we were in the boat?
What if we saw the impossible right before our very eyes?
Would we think ourselves crazy or would we believe there is more to life than we thought?
Jesus may have chosen to walk on the water to make everyone stop and think of what is possible with God.
And if we see that the impossible is possible, perhaps we will open our eyes to the other signs God is trying to get us to see.
More to come...