When the people saw Him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, He is the Prophet we have been expecting!
John 6:14
The segment of Jesus walking on the water is the meat in sandwich between the verse above and this one.
Then they were eager to let Him in the boat, and immediately they arrived at their destination!
John 6:21
Well isn’t this interesting? John tells us their destination at the beginning of the section – they were going across the sea to Capernaum. He tells us specifically they rowed 3 to 4 miles off the shore and then encountered Jesus walking on the water. Cliff after reading the Bible Gems wrote to me ”I did [a] search on the length/width of the sea of Galilee . . . the actual length/width of the sea was around 8 to 13 miles according to Wikipedia and they immediately arrived at their destination? Can’t wait until you share about the speedy boat [trip] to Capernaum.”
Yes Cliff has seen it. A little hidden miracle. There was still around 10 miles of the journey remaining, but with Jesus in the boat it was a quick trip. By speed boat? No, by Jesus power. The very presence of the Lord does remarkable things. Notice John is the only one of the gospel writers who makes it clear just how far they were from the shore. He wanted us to see clearly that another miracle happened on the return journey. Could it be that John is telling us that with Jesus “in our boat”, our life journey will be smoother? Isn’t that what he is on about in talking about faith and how we get it?
Notice his opening to the long insertion. John appears to still be making his point about the journey. The public who were with Him (Jesus) at “the feeding” suddenly realised that Jesus wasn’t with them and yet He hadn’t got into the boat with the disciples. So where did he go and how did he get there? The disciples had taken the only boat. Some boats came to where the 5000 had been fed. So they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for Him. They found Him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” Implicit in the question is how did you get here, and from John’s point of view, how did you do it so quick?
Remember John had opened the section with the words
“Surely, He is the Prophet we have been expecting!” .
The Messianic figure who is coming, a prophet like Moses only more so. Oh yes that is indeed who you are dealing with, no one but that One could be doing all these miraculous signs. Notice how many times John uses the term “miracle” or ‘miraculous signs”. The other gospel writers don’t use it, only John. He uses it frequently. In this section he uses it four times – 6:2, 6:14, 6:26 and 6:30. Note that he has used it four more times before chapter 6. Keep watching for it. John is using the miracles to show who this Jesus really is. Of course in keeping with his theme.
Deut 18:15, 18
Note also that John does not call the feeding of the 5000 a miracle as such but prefaces each story, the feeding of the 5000 and the journey to the other side with little introductions that tell us about miracles. The second one includes two miracles – Jesus and Peter walking on the water and the fast boat trip. By John’s use of the term in 6:14 he shows us that he is using the miracle stories to tell us who Jesus is – the Son of God and the Christ.
Treat each day as your last. One day you’ll be right.
Anon
I’ve missed over 9,000 shots in my career… lost over 300 games… 26 times I’ve been trusted to make the game-winning shot, and missed. I’ve tried and failed over and over again. That’s why I succeed.
Michael Jordan