The Gospel of John Lesson 16 (12-23-12) John 6:14-21

The Gospel of John (12-23-12)

Lesson 16 – John 6:14-21

After the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 those present now begin to believe that Jesus is worth making at least some sacrifices in life for. As we continue to study this chapter we will see that Jesus will continue to challenge them with the awareness of a ‘bigger picture’ of what this life is all about being not just physical, meeting physical needs only, but challenging them with the perspective of Kingdom Living. Kingdom living includes the spiritual realm which recons on the reality of a Living God, living our life daily in communion with Him and His ways. He continues to speak to His followers even today with this concept, this focus and this challenge of how to live.

Even though they have yet to commit to Him as Savior, they at least begin to see the benefit of having Him around elevating Him to the status of the Great Prophet referenced to in O. T. passages. Their perception of Jesus has at this point now changed so much that they want, if need by force, to elevate Him to earthly kingship, hoping that possibly He might free them from their present situation and their captors.( Joseph Stowell – Kingdom Living)

The reference to that Prophet that they were referring to was found in the O.T. book of Deuteronomy chapter 18:15-19 which makes reference to a Promise and prophesy from God to raise up from their breathen Someone that would be the representation of God Himself to them. In that passage in Deuteronomy it refers to an incident in their past found in Exodus chapter 20 (restated to the next generation in Deut. 5:22-31) where God came down and visited them coming down on Mt. Sinai. The encounter of meeting with God was so dramatic and traumatic to those present on that day that the people being overcome with God’s Presence were naturally afraid and drew back being terrified.

Some might be critical of their action here and it is true that they did exhibit a lack of faith even during their fear, but I must say that I can sympathize with them. In Exodus 20:18-23 we see that after that encounter the people make a request that Moses go talk to God instead of them and then have Moses after the conversation come back and brief them on the details of the meeting saying in essence that they would hear him and obey what God tells him. In other words, you tell us what God said to you and we will obey. In Deut. 5:22-33 we see this arrangement restated to the next generation as Moses was preparing them to eventually enter the Promised Land.

In Deut. 18:15 God makes a Promise to go a step further than the Exodus encounter promising them a future Prophet that will rise up from their own brethern better than Moses fully representing God and yet identifying with them, their struggles, their frailties and their fears. This miracle of the feeding of the 5,ooo was so dramatic that as blind as they were to Him being their offered Savior, they could not deny His connection to being that Great Prophet Promised by God doing such miracles in human form.

Not being the right time and not being the right context for His coming, Jesus rightly so backs off from their prematurely wanting to make Him king. Jesus even though a King and in actually the King (King of Kings) would not step forward presenting Himself in this position receiving His throne yet for at least another couple of thousand years. He now departs into the nearby mountains in all probability to commune with the Father in prayer. His disciples are not with Him having been sent on ahead by Him by boat to their next destination. John tells us that He had sent them out heading toward Capernaum whereas Mark says gives us the destination of Bethsaida. Although there is a pretty good idea of where Capernaum is there is a fair amount of conjecture as to the exact location of the Bethsaida referred to here.

It is now late in the night, or very early in the morning, Jesus had not yet caught up to them. It was now 3 or 4 in the morning Jesus was still on the mountain praying to the Father. It is interesting to compare the different Gospel accounts seeing their different perspectives and the additional details that they give giving us a better understanding of what actually happened here. At the time that they had set out for Bethsaida the weather conditions were probably not that bad. It was getting dark and His disciples were familiar with this body of water knowing that conditions could change at a moment’s notice. It is hard to believe that they would have set out in the evening as they did even if they thought the conditions had the possibility of going the south so to speak.

However, conditions did digress, and it appears that they did so rather quickly. At this time they were well out in the water, about 3-4 miles out, apparently out in the middle of the Galilean Sea with no land in sight. As anyone will tell you that has experience on the water, 3-4 miles out in a small boat on rough seas is a long way out. All of the three Gospels where this miracle was recorded tell us that the disciples were in trouble being on the water at night facing a stiff headwind and making little to no progress rowing toward their destination.

The accounts tell us that Jesus was still on the mountain praying. Marks Gospel tells us that while He was still on land He was aware that they were having a difficult time making headway. Mark’s Gospel does not tell us that when He saw their difficulty that He left immediately to rescue them. Instead he gives us the impression that Jesus did not leave for some time yet and continued to pray to the Father even while His disciples were fighting the elements.

However, after some time passes, Matthew and Mark both tell us that during what they call the forth watch, or in other words prior to dawn, Jesus leaves the mountain and goes to catch up with them using a method that gets their attention, i. e. walking on water. The seas were rough. The winds were contrary. Yet, the Lord of the troubled sea was walking on water. Pretty amazing!

His disciples seeing Him could not believe their eyes. Seeing Him come to them walking on water was the last thing that they would have looked for. Mark gives us an interesting observation in 6:51-2 telling us that His disciples even after all that they  had seen having been with Him were about as unbelieving if not more so than the crowd so they never would have considered such a thing. Evidently Jesus had not yet gotten through to them even after the feeding of the five thousand. It almost seems interestingly enough that that miracle had more impact on the crowd than it did on them.

Mark makes the point in Mk. 6:48 that Jesus in walking on the water apparently did not have them as His destination saying that He actually intended to pass them by on his way to their next destination. Jesus did not have to be right there to care for them. His disciples had caught sight of Him and were sorely frightened of Him thinking that He was a spirit or ghost. They were so frightened that Jesus being the good Sheppard caring for His own could not pass them by. They had all seen Him. The night can do strange things to your imagination. If one person even thinks that they might have seen something fear can grow exponentially. But, all four of them had seen this…it was the real deal and was not going away. Knowing their fear Jesus called out to them to comfort them.

In reading the other Gospel accounts apparently His words did the trick, so much so that Peter calls back to ask Him if he can come to Him walking on the water also, Jesus giving him the nod to do so. We all know what happened next. Peter steps out of the boat and actually begins to walk on the water, but very quickly loses sight of the Master, instead focusing on the wild seas and begins to sink. But, Jesus quickly reaches out for Peter and after He rescues Peter they both get into the boat and in v. 21 John gives us what most believe is another noteworthy detail.

Matthew and Mark tell us that when Jesus got into the boat that the winds and the seas calmed immediately. John adds another detail and tells us that after Jesus got into the boat that they found themselves immediately at their destination. It is true that there is no record of how far they were from shore when Jesus met up with them, but it appears that from the way John makes this statement that they were not really near their destination before He entered the boat, but somehow being transported they had arrived miraculously ahead of schedule.