It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
The sea was stirred up 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 began to be afraid.
But he said to them, "It is I. Do not be afraid."
The story of Jesus' walk on stormy waters in the Gospel of Saint John heralds an astonishing new teaching, hard to swallow:
"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you."
The essential message is not that he can walk on water, no more than "Noah's Ark" is about a prehistoric flood. Jesus was never a magician, nor did he intentionally entertain anyone with cheap tricks. It helps, when studying the Bible, to beware of these inane distractions which are engineered by people with little knowledge of scripture.
The story signals Jesus' divine authority. While his disciples suffer a reasonable terror of the stormy sea and a superstitious dread of ghosts. he appears as master of the natural elements, the so-called "supernatural" and human psychology. Nor will he be tamed by their practical suggestion that he get in the boat.
The story follows hard upon his feeding of five thousand in the wilderness. The crowd was so excited by the incident they wanted to make him king. Seeing that, he fled up the mountain and only reappeared on the water, late that night, far from land and mountain. On the following day the crowd would wonder how he managed to come to Capernaum without a boat. This habit of asking the wrong questions and positing the wrong answers is ancient!
His feeding the five thousand with a few loaves of bread and couple of fish evoked an incident of the ancient past and announced the foundation of a new religion. The "guests" at this "banquet" should have remembered how the Lord fed the people in the Sinai desert after their escape from Egypt. It was not Moses who gave them the bread, but the Father of Jesus. But, as they pursued Jesus to Capernaum, they only wanted more free food. What an asset that would be for an army, an endless supply of food! They might enjoy the rebirth of David's ancient kingdom.
In the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus continually challenges ordinary expectations. The disciples, the crowds, Jews and Romans continually try to make sense of what Jesus is saying and doing by what they already know and understand. But they do without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, they misread and misunderstand him and his message. Frustrated and unwilling to accept him on his own terms, they have no recourse but to kill him.
These stories of Jesus' feeding the five thousand in the wilderness and his walk on water -- the first establishes his identity with the One who fed their ancestors and the second signals his divine authority -- introduce his teaching about the Eucharist. Only those who are prepared to accept Jesus on his own term will receive the Bread of Life. Many will turn away.
These stories of Jesus' feeding the five thousand in the wilderness and his walk on water -- the first establishes his identity with the One who fed their ancestors and the second signals his divine authority -- introduce his teaching about the Eucharist. Only those who are prepared to accept Jesus on his own term will receive the Bread of Life. Many will turn away.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.