The Lord had just performed a great miracle before the disciples and thousands others, multiplying loaves and fishes. Enthralled with what the mira­cle afforded them, the crowds were clamouring to make Christ a national king (John 6:15). A crown without a cross was not what Christ had come for. In fact, the applause of the people notwithstanding, Christ knew the rejection He would face, culminating in His crucifixion. John the Bap­tist had just been beheaded (Mark 6:27-31), and the death of the herald of Christ would no doubt have made vivid to Christ’s mind the death He would die at Jerusalem. In line with this, the very next day after His great miracle, “many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66). Christ would put it to the crowds very bluntly:

Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth...John 6:26, 27

In fact, even one of the twelve, Judas, was “a devil” (vv. 70-71).

To the disciples, however, it must have seemed peculiar at the time, but Jesus “constrained” them to get into a ship, that is to say, without Him (Matt. 14:22). He indicated to them that they needed to go ahead of Him.¹​ He would join them later again after spending time alone with His Father (John 6:15; Matt. 14:23). No doubt, this would have gone against their wishes; however, Christ had His design in the difficulty that they were about to enter.

When God’s people are in difficulty, you could say that they are simply between deliverances. Paul writes to the Corinthians that God “delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us” (2 Cor. 1:10). Between deliverances God tests and stretches the faith of His people, in order that they would rely exclusively on His Word. That’s exactly what Christ was doing in our account just now.

Purposeful Constraint⤒🔗

We read in John 6:16: “And when the even was now come...” The most wonderful and memorable days come to an end, and the darkness follows the light. With the darkness of this particular night, there arose a violent storm, the wind and waves tossing the boat (Matt. 14:24). Mark describes them graphically as “toiling in rowing” (Mark 7:48). Since Christ only came to them “at the fourth watch of the night” (or about 3 am; Matt. 14:25) they must have been straining at the oars for six to nine hours, only covering the distance of 25 to 30 furlongs (about 3.3 to 3.8 miles; John 6:19). What a night of agony, uncertainty, fear ... confusion! Why would Christ, who knows enough to multiply loaves, send them into a vicious storm on the sea! Just hours ago, these same disciples were generously and serenely distributing loaves and fish to awe-struck multitudes. Now, like drunken men (Ps. 107:26-27) they were about to be swallowed by cruel death itself.

We will see more of what Christ was teaching His disciples below, but at this point, it is worth taking this initial lesson. It is this: that though we often see the difficulty we are in, we don’t see the difficulty we could have been in, if we were left wholly to our own devices. There is no doubt that not one of the disciples would have resisted the crowds crowning Christ as an earthly king on the shore of the sea of Galilee. Most probably, they would have been at the head of the furor to do so. As uncomfortable as this storm was, it was better for them than the seduction they would have fallen for, if they had not been constrained to go into this ship. Often, in trials, God’s people don’t think of what fall or fault they might have been capable of, if God had not hemmed them in and put them straining at the oars of life. We should learn from this that it is fitting at least to humbly acknowledge that none of us will ever know what sins affliction keeps us from doing.

Omniscient Care←⤒🔗

During another storm on this same sea, at least the disciples had had Christ on board, although then He had been asleep (Mark 4:38). This time, however, Christ had chosen not to be with them in the sea, but was with them in spirit. Though the disciples did not see Christ in the tempest on the lake, the gospel writer Mark tells us that Christ saw them. We read: “And he saw them toiling in rowing” (6:48). He was not with them physically, but they were not out of His sight spiritually. This was more than just a natural sight that Mark refers to. Through the darkness of the night, the distance, and the dreadful tempest, no other human would have been able to see the ship. Yet Christ did so supernaturally, just as He had once seen Nathanael under the fig tree (John 1:48).

He must have told them after the fact. “While you were there rowing exhaustedly, being thrown upward one moment and downward the next, thinking that the next wave would make your grave, I saw you. No wave ever came between you and my care for you.” That would have profound significance for them after Christ ascended into heaven. Then, as far as His flesh was concerned, He would be absent from them. They would have been able to think back to that time on the sea, when He had not been with them bodily, and yet had seen them.

What a comfort this should be to believers. Though the eyes of their faith may dim to the point that they lose sight of Him, they can know that He doesn’t lose sight of them. Job lamented:

I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him; He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him: But He knoweth the way that I takeJob 23:8-9

When Zion complained that the Lord had forgotten and forsaken her, the Lord reassured her: “Thy walls are continually before me” (Isa. 49:16). In other words: “I never take my eye off you. You are safe in my hands.”

Magnificent Revelation←⤒🔗

Matthew writes it so splendidly: “And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea” (Matt. 14:25). Everything about Christ’s coming to the aid of His disciples was majestic – the timing, the manner, the direction. There was nothing hurried, harried, or hazardous about Christ’s coming to His panic-stricken disciples. The picture the text paints is that He wills to be with His disciples. If waves have to make way or turn into pavement for Him, they will.

In the Old Testament we are told that God “treadeth upon the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8). His “way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters” (Ps. 77:19). Here in the New Testament, we see Him do it as He makes His way to His forlorn and frightened disciples. Their fears reached an all-time pitch when they actually perceived the form of someone making his way over the sea. Years later, as they penned the memory, they recalled their hysterical shrieks as they mistook Christ for a ghost or a phantom (Matt. 14:26; Mark 6:49-50; John 6:19). They felt utterly doomed! Wouldn’t we as well, especially if you consider their exhaustion after hours of terror-filled toil?

William Cowper has verbalized the lesson well:

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Christ’s words across the waters were filled with tender magnificence and magnificent tenderness: “Be of good cheer; it is I, be not afraid” (Matt. 14:27).

Christ’s word contains three parts, two commands with a truth in between. First, He encouraged them. That’s what “be of good cheer” literally means in the original: Take courage. Their courage had failed them and Christ gave them reason to take fresh courage.

Secondly, He revealed Himself. “It is I,” He said. That’s the reason they should take fresh courage. In the Old Testament, God gave His name to Moses as “I AM THAT I AM” (Ex. 3:14). What Christ said here is a short form for exactly that. He means: “I am the faithful, covenant‑keeping, immutable God, who saves His people in distress. Amid everything that is topsy-turvy, I give stability and solidity.” This self-revelation of Christ is the calm within their storm, and the foundation for the next thing Christ says.

Thirdly, He removed fear. He said: “Be not afraid.” The first part of Christ’s word was a positive command. This last part is a negative command. It is as if He brings in the courage and casts out the fear. He hems out the fear and hems in the courage. This is how tenderly and magnificently Christ brings the faith of His assaulted people into exercise again.

Amazing God←⤒🔗

Although we are not told that their fears disappeared, we may well conclude that they did. At least, their fear of perishing left them, and a great awe for the Lord took its place (Matt. 14:33). In Mark we read, “they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure and wondered” (Mark 6:51).

Christ’s word especially gave rise to a remarkable request in the case of Peter. “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water” (Matt. 14:28). Some have faulted Peter for this request; however, Christ did not. “Come,” Christ said, and “when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water” (v. 29). By faith, Peter walked on the water, benefitting from the solidity Christ miraculously gave to the water. Peter’s faith, however, was less solid than the water on which he walked. When he eyed the wind, fear suppressed faith and he began to sink.

Yet his faith was not entirely gone. He cried to his Solid Rock: “Lord, save me” (v. 30). Now there was no waiting, for “immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him” (v. 31). He didn’t rebuke Peter for having no faith; instead He identified the problem as “little faith” and “doubt” (v. 31).

The wind had fulfilled its divine purpose. Like the wind separates grain from chaff on the threshing floors of the East, this storm had winnowed the faith of the disciples. Mark indeed adds that they had not understood what the miracle of the loaves had intended to teach them, namely, that Christ was divine (Mark 6:52). There was still so much “hardness of heart,” even in the eleven in whom God’s grace had begun its good work. Even if we have begun to see it, God uses storms in our life to bring Christ to His people in all His magnificence. That’s how this miracle ends: “They worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God” (Matt. 14:33). No longer necessary, “the wind ceased” (v. 32). John points out another miracle: “And immediately, the ship was at the land whither they went” (John 6:21). It had taken nine hours to go three miles. With Christ on the boat, the next three miles took a few seconds. Time and distance are nothing with the Saviour close at hand.

Questions←⤒🔗

1. What does it mean that the Christian is “between deliverances”? What attitude and actions should this truth foster for a believer when in difficulty?
    
2. How can we be more mindful of all that God is keeping us from when He deems it necessary for us to have trials and storms? What begets humility and thankfulness even when in difficult circumstances?
    
3. Prove from the passage that no wave ever came between Christ and His disciples.
    
4. Why did Christ walk on the sea, and not just calm the storm for a distance?
    
5. Was Peter wrong to ask to walk on the waves?
    
6. What does it look like to have the storms of life, so to speak, move from the centre of our eyes to the corner of our eyes?