As we continue our ongoing journey through the Gospel of John, we come to a familiar passage we could simply title: “Jesus Walks on Water.”

This is the fifth of seven signs that John records to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. As we ended our study last week, Jesus had just fed ten to twenty thousand people, multiplying five small barley loaves of bread and two “tiny” fish. The thousands, now with their bellies filled, immediately decide to make Jesus their earthly king. “If He can produce enough food to feed all of us, surely, He can now lead us and overthrow the Romans.”

Let’s pick up John’s gospel following the miraculous feeding, in chapter 6, beginning with verse 15:

15Jesus, knowing that they (the crowd) intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.

16When evening came, His disciples went down to the lake,

17where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them.

18A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.

19When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified.

20But He said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”

21Then they were willing to take Him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

As the crowd plots His future, Jesus dismisses them and withdraws to the mountain by Himself. Jesus is not running away. The Father was drawing the Son away from the crowd to renew His Spirit after a physically exhausting day. We must not forget that Jesus was fully man, with all of the same physical needs as each of us including rest and renewal.

It’s an incredible event, told briefly by John. Fortunately, we get some additional information from two of the other Gospel writers. John says that when it got dark, the disciples got into a boat and set off for Capernaum, but he skips an important detail.

Mark and Matthew both say that Jesus “made” His disciples get into the boat. The Greek word for made used here is anankazö, which means compelled, or even forced. Clearly, the disciples got into the boat at Jesus’ insistence.

Matthew and Mark add another detail to the scene; Jesus went up the mountain to pray. As He goes off to pray, the disciples make their way to the boat. John gives us a little detail we don’t want to miss. It’s evening and it’s dark. Darkness can change one’s perspective.

In the dark, they get into the boat and begin rowing. This was familiar ground for at least four of the disciples who were fisherman from Capernaum. Matthew records that when John the Baptist was imprisoned, Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum. He was walking beside the Sea of Galilee and saw two fishermen who He invited to follow Him; Peter and Andrew. Shortly after, He invites two more, the sons of Zebedee; James and John. At the least, these four disciples knew these waters, but this night was different.

The Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberius) is the lowest fresh water lake in the world, almost 680 feet below sea level. It is about 13 miles long, and 8 miles wide. From the north, the mountains form a wind tunnel into the Sea of Galilee. When the warm temperatures off the water rise and meet the cold air from the sharply rising hills these north winds can create extremely rough seas. That’s a good physical explanation for the rough seas, but it’s just as likely that Jesus raised the wind and stirred the waters from His vantage point on the mountain overlooking the Sea.

The disciples could have walked around the Sea and avoided the rough waters, but Jesus ordered them into the boat. Can we learn something from this?

James 1:2 says that we should consider it pure joy when we face trials or tests. Are you serious James? Trials are tough and hard. Why should we think of them as joy? He then us gives the answer: the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Trials and tests help to mature you. They perfect your faith.

So, the disciples are all in the boat rowing for all they are worth, but making little headway. They are facing a real trial. They need to go about seven or eight miles. John measures their progress in terms of distance; they were about half way to their destination: Capernaum. Mark and Matthew both measure their progress in time; it was about the fourth watch when Jesus decided to walk out to them. The fourth watch, a Roman standard for measuring time, would be around three o’clock in the morning. These guys had been rowing for at least five hours. Mark says that Jesus saw the disciples “straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.”

How amazing. Jesus sees this boat out about three to four miles from shore. I’m not sure I could do that with the best binoculars I own. Then again, Jesus created the eagle with its incredible eye sight. A miracle within a miracle.

He went out to them, walking on the water. Mark says He was about to walk right past them. When they saw Him walking on the water, their first thought was that He was a ghost. Isn’t it funny, in our fear what our first thoughts are? We can even start seeing ghosts.

Immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” To understand the significance of Jesus’ words, we need to go back in time.

Around 280 to 250 BC, three centuries before Christ, seventy Greek and Hebrew scholars translated the Hebrew Old Testament to Greek. Septuagint means seventy. I mention this because the words that Jesus spoke, recorded literally in transliterated Greek were, “But He says to them, I am, not fear ye.”

Jesus was giving another of His ‘I AM’ deity claims. There are many recorded in the New Testament: I am the Light, I am the Door, I am the Way, I am the Truth, and others. Next week we will consider another one of the I AM’s, I am the Bread of Life. Here, He simply says, I am; Ego eimi.

The Septuagint records the same Hebrew to Greek phrase when Moses is standing at the burning bush and God is giving him his assignment to lead the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt.

In Exodus 3:13-14, Moses, the reluctant one, questions God.

13Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

14God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

God answers Moses, “You tell them that I AM (ego eimi) sent you.”

Jesus declares, “I AM,” climbs into the boat, probably dragging the soaking wet Peter in with Him, and IMMEDIATELY the boat reaches the shore. Don’t miss it; they just went three or four miles in an instant. This is a transporter Captain Kirk would envy. Zero to four miles in one second.

So that’s our study this week; a boat ride in the rough seas and God walking on water. Good story, but life changing? Yet, that’s what God wants; for His word to change our lives, for each of us to know Him more.

The problem is that we hear or read a story a few times and it becomes familiar and ordinary. In so doing, we morph the heavenly into the temporal. We minimize it; shrink it down for easy digesting, and in the midst, we lose the divine spark.

In these seven verses there are at least three incommunicable attributes of God. Incommunicable denotes attributes that are unique to God only: His omniscience, His omnipotence, and His omnipresence. Omni simply means all. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present.

God’s attributes are the qualities or characteristics that belong to Him. They are not parts of God that can be separated, they are altogether interconnected. They are present in the entire Godhead; possessed by all three persons of the Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Imagine a God who can feed thousands with no more than what can fit in a small boy’s hands. Imagine a God that can, in one moment, cause the waves to roar, and in the next, bring complete calm. Imagine a God who can see you from four miles away and know exactly what you need. Imagine a God that loves you so much, He is willing to die for you. Have these glimpses lost their luster? Have they become so familiar that you almost skip over them.

We sing the songs, and we read the words, but do we allow them to change our hearts?Don’t let the familiar rob you of the majestic. We worship and serve a mighty and a splendid God. If you don’t know this God personally, you can. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Invite Him into your life. You don’t have to clean yourself up or perform any acts of service. You simply need to accept His free gift. He loves you so much, He’ll walk on water to save you.