The One Who Walks on Water

“Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from the land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake” (Matthew 14:22-25).

There’s a reason why Jesus made the disciples get into the boat to go on ahead of him to the other side without him. There’s a reason why Jesus waited until it was considerably later and until the disciples were being buffeted and tossed around by the wind and the waves. Some of these men had spent their entire lifetime on the lake and knew exactly what to do in such situations. This wasn’t their first storm on the water.

But THESE men were scared for their lives. 

It was when THESE men had done everything they knew to do, and still they were failing against the storm that Jesus began walking out to them. Of course Jesus was going to rescue them. But this miracle wasn’t only to show them that Jesus can save them from the storms of life. It wasn’t even about how the winds and the waves obeyed his commands. 

Jesus walked on the water to show them that Jesus is one who walks on top of the very thing that was trying to swallow them up. 

Storms in life may come. And, we know that when the disciples were facing persecution and death they would indeed suffer and die. They were not rescued from death. But the lesson the disciples learned when Jesus walked on the water to them was that even death could not swallow them up. Jesus conquered death. 

The Apostle Paul would later confess, “No, in all the things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39). 

Do you know him? Do you know the One who walks on water?