Your Boat Is Tossing? Jesus Is Walking on the Water Toward You

Introduction

This Sunday at Elim, Pastor Cathy continues the series "Beholding Jesus" in the Gospel of Mark. She reminds us right away: Mark is a bit like a detective who leaves clues, hints, so you can finally see who Jesus is. And the miracle in Mark 6:45-52, Jesus walking on the water, is not first of all a show of power in the style of an action movie. It is a revelation. Jesus reveals himself as God. He meets you in your chaos by his presence alone. And just before, in the feeding of the crowd, he is already pointing ahead to the Lord's Supper and the banquet of the Kingdom. You will see this morning that Jesus wants to feed you with his very self.

Message outline

1. Why behold Jesus?

• The series is called "Beholding Jesus" for a simple reason: if you don't know someone, you can't love them. Seeking to know who Jesus is means learning to love him and to align your life with his.
• Mark works through clues. He doesn't hand you the conclusion up front; he moves you scene by scene, letting you piece it together. This is a gospel for attentive readers.
• The underlying question this Sunday: who is Jesus? A great prophet? A moral teacher? A philosopher? Or God, glorious and divine? Your answer changes everything.

2. Mark 6:45-52: the scene

• After feeding the crowd, Jesus sends his disciples ahead of him in the boat toward Bethsaida. He dismisses the crowd and goes up a hillside to pray.
• Night falls. The boat is in the middle of the lake. Jesus is alone on land. He sees his disciples straining at the oars, because the wind is against them.
• Toward the end of the night (the fourth watch, between three and six in the morning), Jesus comes toward them, walking on the sea. And here's the key phrase: "he meant to pass by them."
• The disciples think he is a ghost and cry out. Jesus speaks to them: "Cheer up! It is I. Don't be afraid." He climbs into the boat, the wind dies down, and they are utterly amazed, because they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

3. "He meant to pass by them": the signature of God

• This word "pass by" is not a neutral word. In the Old Testament, it is used at key moments when God reveals himself. It is not God passing by chance; it is an extraordinary manifestation.
• Job 9:8-11: "who alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea... who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south... Behold, he goes by me, and I don't see him. He passes on also, but I don't perceive him." Walking on the sea is an action reserved for God alone. And the verb "pass" is the very word of divine self-revelation.
• Exodus 33:21-23: Moses asks to see God's glory. The LORD answers: "You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live... Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back." Again: "my glory passes by." The same verb.
• Mark is not writing at random. When he says that Jesus "meant to pass by them," he is winking back at the Old Testament: this is a theophany. Jesus is revealing himself as God.

4. "It is I. Don't be afraid."

• Jesus doesn't simply say "it's Jesus." He says "it is I", in the Greek, the phrase echoes the "I AM" by which God names himself to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3).
• In other words: I am eternal, I am divine, I am God. Many people in the world think of Jesus as a great prophet, a good teacher, a moral figure, a philosopher. But who is Jesus? Jesus is God. Jesus is glorious. He is divine.
• This is the identity you need to hold onto. It changes everything you expect from him, everything you ask of him, everything you entrust to him.

5. The compassion of the divine God

• On the hillside, Jesus sees his disciples straining at the oars. They are not in mortal danger like in the storm of Mark 4. They are exhausted. They have served five thousand men all day, they are coming back from a mission trip, they haven't had any rest. And now the wind is against them.
• Jesus sees that detail. He sees their struggle. And he decides to come to them. He doesn't just watch them row from a distance; he comes to them, walking on the very thing they cannot master.
• The sea, in the Bible, often symbolizes the chaos of life. In your own chaos, in your trials, Jesus is thinking of you. He sees your struggles, he sees every detail, he sees your turmoil. And he says: "I am coming to your rescue." Even in a move, a meal, a job, an illness, a difficult relationship with a coworker or a family member. He sees.

6. Feeding the crowd: a hidden banquet

• Back up to Mark 6:30-44. The disciples return exhausted. Jesus has compassion on the crowd "because they were like sheep without a shepherd." He teaches at length. Evening comes. Five loaves, two fish, five thousand men.
• Verses 39-40: "He commanded them that all should sit down in groups on the green grass. They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties." Four precious clues in two verses.
• The verb "recline" in Greek is not a simple "sit down." It is the verb used for a guest reclining at a banquet, in the Roman style. Mark is painting a picture of festive tables, not a logistical handout.
• The "groups" and "ranks" of hundreds and fifties are not just there to organize the line. They echo the Exodus, where the people are organized by thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens (Exodus 18:21). The people of God are an ordered people. So is the church.
• Then four verbs, in a very recognizable order: Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, said the blessing, broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples. Took (blessed), broke, gave. Do you recognize it? It's the scene of the Last Supper (Mark 14:22).
• On the hillside, right in the middle of feeding the crowd, Jesus is already pointing ahead to the Last Supper and the banquet of the Kingdom. Through this miracle he is telling you: "I am the bread of life. I am going to give my body to satisfy you."

7. The messianic banquet you are invited to

• At the Last Supper, Jesus declares: "I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God" (Mark 14:25). He announces a banquet still to come.
• This banquet is already prepared. The table is set. Jesus is waiting for you there. The good shepherd (Psalm 23) leads you into green pastures, guides you beside quiet waters, restores your soul, walks you through the valley of the shadow of death, and prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies. "Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the LORD's house forever."
• You already taste this banquet every first Sunday of the month at communion. And it will be fully realized in eternity, with Jesus, with your brothers and sisters.

8. "You give them something to eat"

• The second thing Jesus does in the feeding miracle: he involves his disciples. When they come to him and say "send the crowd away," he answers: "You give them something to eat" (Mark 6:37).
• The disciples do the math: two hundred denarii would not be enough. Two hundred days' wages, roughly $20,000, or about two dollars per person, that doesn't make a meal. In other words: "Jesus, you're asking too much, we don't have what it takes, we're too small for this."
• And Jesus still says: you give them something to eat yourselves. When the disciples receive the bread from Jesus' hand and begin to distribute it, it multiplies.
• That's the principle: you receive from the hand of Jesus, then you distribute. And with him, there will always be enough. Your multiplication comes through your distribution.

9. Heidi Baker: when multiplication isn't just a text

• Pastor Cathy closes with a testimony: that of Heidi Baker, an American missionary who went to Mozambique in the middle of a war after receiving a vision of Jesus at sixteen years old, in May 1976.
• She recounts witnessing, on several occasions, the miraculous multiplication of food. In a poor village attacked by the terrorist group Al-Shabab, a young boy distributes bread two by two down the entire line, and there is still some left over. Her motto: "There will always be enough, there will always be enough", something Jesus reportedly told her one day: "I died for them; there will always be enough." With that, she has fed more than a thousand children.
• The passage she quotes is John 14:12: "Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these." God is still today the God who feeds and who multiplies. And he uses distributors.

Key takeaways

• Walking on the sea is something God alone does (Job 9:8). When Jesus walks on the water, he reveals himself as God.
• "He meant to pass by them" and "it is I" are two nods to the Old Testament: the theophany at the burning bush, the glory that passes before Moses. Jesus is God coming to you.
• Jesus sees your struggle in the small, everyday chaos. He doesn't stay on the hillside; he comes to you.
• Feeding the crowd is not just a logistical miracle. Through his four verbs (took, blessed, broke, gave), Jesus points ahead to the Last Supper and the banquet of the Kingdom.
• The principle of multiplication: receive from the hand of Jesus, then distribute. With him, there will always be enough.

Personal application

• Who is Jesus to you today? A great prophet, a philosopher, a good teacher, or God, glorious and divine?
• What sea are you crossing this week? Where are you rowing against the wind, running out of strength, without making progress?
• Are you ready to let Jesus climb into your boat, or do you keep crying out over a ghost, without recognizing his voice saying "it is I, don't be afraid"?
• What "table" is Jesus inviting you to right now (communion, fellowship with other believers, time with him) that you are missing out of distraction or weariness?
• Where is Jesus asking you to "give them something to eat yourself" while you count your five loaves and two fish and conclude "I don't have what it takes"?

Scripture references

• Mark 6:45-52 - Jesus walks on the water
• Mark 6:30-44 - Feeding the crowd
• Job 9:8-11 - "Who alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea"
• Exodus 33:21-23 - The glory of the LORD passing before Moses
• Exodus 3 - "I AM" at the burning bush
• Exodus 18:21 - Rulers of thousands, hundreds, and fifties
• Psalm 23 - The LORD is my shepherd, the table prepared
• Mark 14:22-25 - The Last Supper: took, blessed, broke, gave
• John 14:12 - "He who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also"

Frequently asked questions

Why does the verb "pass by" prove that Jesus is God?

Because Mark isn't inventing this: he is drawing on precise vocabulary from the Greek Old Testament. The same verb is used to describe God's glory being revealed to Moses (Exodus 33:22: "my glory passes by") and God's action of "passing" through creation in Job 9:11. By saying that Jesus "meant to pass by" his disciples as he walked on the sea, Mark layers two images together: the God who, in Job, treads on the waves of the sea, and the God who, in Exodus, passes before Moses. The conclusion is unmistakable: Jesus is God revealing himself.

How do I recognize today that Jesus is "climbing into my boat"?

The boat, in the Gospel, represents your life and often your church. When Jesus climbs in, two things happen: the wind dies down and an unexpected peace settles in. Concretely, you see a prayer answered when you had stopped expecting it, a fellow believer sent at just the right moment, a word of Scripture that lands perfectly, a decision that becomes clear when it had felt tangled. You don't produce these signs, you receive them. The right posture is that of the disciples corrected by his voice: "Cheer up! It is I. Don't be afraid."

What changes when you see the feeding of the crowd as pointing ahead to the Last Supper?

It changes the way you approach communion. It's not a ritual added onto the service, it's the direct continuation of what Jesus did on the hillside: he seats you at the table, he takes the bread, he blesses it, he breaks it, he gives it to you. Every first Sunday of the month, you are one of the five thousand who are satisfied. And this banquet already opens up, as a foretaste, onto the messianic banquet Jesus promised in the Kingdom (Mark 14:25). In other words: communion is not a sad memory, it is a hope you eat.