29    The King Who Walks on Water

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33

Popular excitement reaches new heights

“This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world” (John 6:14). Such was the reaction of the more than 5,000 Galileans who witnessed, and themselves benefited from, the miracle of the multiplying of the loaves and fishes.

Earlier miracles of Christ had also, surely, impressed the multitude. In fact, many of the five thousand had followed Jesus that day, even into the desert, precisely because of their interest in His works. And, having followed Him, they were not disap­pointed, for Christ had again healed their sick. All those miracles, how­ever, though surely wonderful, were of individual benefit. They had there­fore never generated the kind of pop­ular excitement that now resulted from the miracle of the loaves. Five loaves and two little fishes, in His hand, had been sufficient to feed the whole multitude!

Their thoughts turned at once to Old Testament prophecies concern­ing “that prophet” (a reference, proba­bly, to the Messianic promise of Deu­teronomy 18:15). Can there be doubt any longer, they ask one another, that this Jesus is indeed the Mes­siah? It lay within His power not only to heal their sick and to raise their dead, but also to feed them all. Were Jesus to be their king, He could so provide that they need no longer work for a living. And what, really, could be beyond His power? Surely in Him lay the solution to all their problems, whether they be physical, economic, or political.

A king to their own liking, of their own making, and out of their own imagination

Can you imagine the excitement that must have gripped the people out there in the desert? For centuries the Jews had eagerly awaited the coming of the Messiah. And here He was, before their very eyes! He would be their king! And if it should happen that He would be reluctant to assert the right that they were convinced was His, they were prepared to “take him by force, to make him a king” (John 6:15).

They had, you see, cor­rectly understood from the Scriptures that the promised Redeemer would be a king. Fact is, they craved a king. And for a fleeting moment here in the desert it seemed to them as if they were about to get one, too. For, the promised Messiah had come. So convinced were they of that, that had Jesus not prevented it, they would have proclaimed Him their king, knowing full well that to do so would be considered a challenge to the mighty Roman Empire. What had they to fear, after all, with such a king as this!

But, as Calvin writes, “they erred in inventing a kingdom that the prophets had never promised.” The notion of an earthly, world kingdom, with a Messiah who would sit in pomp and splendor at its head, came not from the Scriptures but from their own imaginations. Nevertheless, it was a notion that prevailed among the Jews of that day.

That explains why a man like Judas Iscariot would be interested in joining the ranks of Christ’s disciples. He was an ambitious man, and he wanted to be part of the world king­dom that he hoped to see estab­lished. The remainder of the twelve, for that matter, were not themselves free of ambition (see Mark 9:34); nor did they have a clear conception of the nature of Christ’s kingdom (see Acts 1:6). They must have watched the proceedings there in the desert with eager interest, and were very likely, as Rev. Ophoff suggests, “not unwill­ing to take part with the multitude.” They must have rejoiced in what appeared to be a rendering of due honor to Christ, and they were caught up in the excitement of what could be the beginning of something great.

Failure to see the sign

Jesus, however, saw it all for what it really was, namely, a carnal craving for “the meat which perish­eth.” As Christ Himself would later declare to them, they had not seen the sign. That is what Jesus’ mir­acles were, after all. Through His miracles, writes Rev. Hoeksema, “He meant to preach to them the mys­teries of the kingdom of God, and reveal Himself as its mighty King.” His healing of the sick was a picture of the true, spiritual healing that He, as King of His people, would ac­complish for them at Calvary. And in giving them bread He preached the fact that He is the Bread of life that came down from heaven.

The multitude, however, saw not the sign. Their excitement and their carnal zeal for Jesus at this time was simply a result of their seeing in Him a pro­vider of bread. They would make Him their king in order that He might usher in an age of prosper­ity and, in delivering them from the Roman yoke, give them not only free­dom but domin­ion in the world.

Jesus’ emphatic rejection of alternative to the cross

“All these (kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them) will I give thee” (Matt. 4:8, 9). Indeed, this was the enticing offer of Satan all over again, though this time indirectly through the clamoring of the multi­tude. A mighty world kingdom, they wanted, with Jesus at its head. And . . . forget the cross. Such was again the temptation of Satan. Jesus surely recognized it as such. For He at once took steps to remove the disciples from the influence of these bread-seekers. “Straightway he con­strained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side be­fore unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people” (Mark 6:45).

That it was necessary to con­strain the disciples means, of course, that they were not altogether willing to do as Jesus said. They were reluctant, perhaps, to leave their Master alone in the desert with night fast ap­proaching. But it must be the case, too, that they were caught up, to a certain extent, in the spirit of the crowd and were unwilling to abandon what appeared to be such promising circumstances. But Jesus quickly and emphatically over­ruled them, and then, returning to the multitude, He “dis­missed them in such a way, with such words of power, that they at once disperse” (Rev. Ophoff).

A night of fervent prayer for strength on way to real Kingship

“And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray” (Mark 6:46).

That Jesus spent long hours in prayer might seem a bit strange, in view of the fact that He was Himself the very Son of God. But we must remember that He was that in a weakened human nature. He had need, therefore, for com­munion with His Father, especially in this hour of crisis in His dealings with the Galilean people. Jesus stood, at that moment, at the very peak of His popularity. The people had in effect offered Him their al­legiance, would He only become their king. By sending the multitude away, He had already given a hint concerning His response, which was, really, “I will not accept the crown you offer. I will not give you earthly bread. I will not solve your political problems.” This He would make abundantly clear to them in Caper­naum, a day or two later; and the result, for many of them, would be . . . a parting of ways. The Galileans would reject Him who would not be their king. And to Jesus it would become ever more clear that the way to His Kingship was the terrible way of the cross, the way of bearing the wrath of God against sin.

Jesus needed strength for that battle. And it must surely have been for such strength that He prayed during what appears to have been about six hours that He spent in the mountain (an ex­ample, surely, to us, concerning what is really our only source of strength).

A night of contending with contrary winds

The disciples, meanwhile, dur­ing those same six hours, were “toiling in rowing” (Mark 6:48). The trip would ordinarily have taken them only a couple of hours. But that night “the winds were contrary” (6:48). The result was that, by the fourth watch of the night (from 3 to 6 a.m.), they had, according to John 6:19, covered only “about five and twenty or thirty furlongs”—the lake being about 40 furlongs wide (about six miles). Whether the wind was such that it appeared to be a threat to their lives, we do not know. Cer­tain it is, though, that in the storm they were able to make little if any headway.

And this time the Master was not with them in the boat. They were apparently left to fend for themselves.

Jesus’ walking on water

And, yet, they were not so left—as we also are not. That became clear to the disciples when Jesus came to them “walking on the sea” (John 6:19). Christ, though not pres­ent with them, had seen all their struggling (Mark 6:48).

The disciples should have known at once that it was the Lord. But they didn’t; for, as Mark mentions (6:52), they “considered not the mir­acle of the loaves.” In that miracle, says Calvin, “they had been taught enough and to spare that Christ had the divine power to help His people and that He is careful to provide for them when necessity demands.” It was indeed a divine power that they had witnessed out there in the desert. Had they but understood that, they would have wondered at nothing that Jesus might do. In their blind­ness, however, they are, at this new manifestation of the power of the man Jesus, “sore amazed in themselves beyond measure” (6:51).

When the disciples saw Jesus approaching, in the dim light of the dawning day, they were at first struck with terror. Since the form did not sink into the sea, they as­sumed that it must be a ghost, and “they cried out for fear” (Matt. 14:26). Jesus, however, identified Himself, with the comforting words, “It is I; be not afraid.”

Peter’s walking on water

The fear vanished at once, it seems, and the impulsive Peter, thrilled at the Lord’s obvious mastery over what would be called today “the laws of nature,” wanted to share in Christ’s triumph. At Peter’s request, the Lord bade him come, and the disciple actual­ly began to walk on the waves.

The childlike faith of Peter in the power of Jesus to sustain him began to fail, however, when he looked about him at the tempestuous sea. And as his faith began to fail, so Peter began to sink. He looked again to Christ and cried out in alarm, “Lord, save me” (14:30). And Christ immediately “stretched forth his hand, and caught him” (14:31).

Peter’s faith no doubt revived, with the result that, as Rev. Ophoff writes, he needed not to be “dragged through the waters, but, walking by his Master’s side, he made his way back to the little vessel . . . a wiser and humbler man.” Jesus, you see, bade Peter come, not only so that, walking on the water, he might know the power of Christ, but also so that, in beginning to sink, he might learn to know his own weakness and utter dependence on the Lord.

Lesson for us in Peter’s experience

Peter surely understood full well why he began to sink. As long as his faith in the word and power of Christ remained firm, the waters were solid under him.   It was only when his eye left the Master, and, seeing the waves boisterous around him, he began to wonder about the certainty of the power that kept him above those waves, that he began to sink. Peter should have learned, and we should learn too, that in the midst of the troubles of life there is One who is a sure retreat. We need not fear. We need only keep our eye of faith fixed upon Christ, the Lord of the church.

Evidence of the surpassing glory of Jesus’ real Kingship

Yes, Christ is Lord. He refused a crown that day—but not because He was no King. His walking on the water, His empowering Peter to do the same, His stilling of the storm (14:32)—all these must have been intended to prove conclusively to the disciples that Christ was King, in a far more glorious sense than would have been the case were He simply to rule in an earthly kingdom. He is Lord over the entire creation, and He exercises His power on behalf of His church.

Con­sidered in that light, an earthly crown could only detract from the true glory of Christ’s Kingship. It is as Matthew Henry says, that the sort of king the multitude would make of Jesus “was as great a disparagement to His glory as it would be to lacquer gold or paint a ruby.”

One more wonder was in store for the disciples on that eventful morning. They had already seen Christ’s power to walk on the water, His power to give Peter the ability to do likewise, and His power to still the winds. Finally, there was the fact that, upon Jesus’ entrance into the boat, “immediately the ship was at the land whither they went” (John 6:21). Since the disciples were yet approximately two miles from shore when Jesus came, we can only con­clude that there must have been a miraculous movement of the little vessel through the calmed waters.

In returning, presently, to Capernaum, Jesus still had to cope with those people who had eaten of the loaves, and had not yet aban­doned their hope of finding in Jesus a king who could satisfy their carnal desires. But, for that, we will have to wait till next chapter.
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