...Jesus always come to you...

“16 When evening came, Jesus' disciples went down to the lake, 17 where 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. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But He said to them, “It is I;  don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading”  John 6: 16 - 21.

This is one of the most wonderful stories in John’s Gospel, but we will never completely appreciate this story unless we look behind the meaning of the Greek to find that it really describes not some extraordinary miracle, but a simple incident in which John found, in a way he never forgot, what Jesus was like.

We need to reconstruct the story.    After the feeding of the 5,000 and the crowd’s attempt to make Him king, Jesus slipped away, “away to the hills alone.”   The day wore on.  

It came to the time which the Jews described as ‘the second evening’,  the time between the twilight and the dark.   Jesus had still not arrived.   Don’t forget how Mark tells the story:  Jesus sent them on ahead (Mark 6:45),  while he persuaded the crowds to go home.   Clearly it was his intention to walk round the head of the lake while they rowed across to rejoin them in Capernaum (John 6:19).

So the disciples set sail.   The wind got up, as it can in the narrow, land-locked lake of Galilee, and the waters were chopped up by the wind.   It was Passover time, and that was also the time of the full moon (John 6:4). Up on the hillside, Jesus had prayed and communed with God, and as He began to continue on His way, the silver moon made the scene almost like daylight, and down on the lake below Jesus could see the boat and the rowers toiling at the oars, making heavy weather of it. So He came down.

We must remember two (2) facts.   At the north end of the lake there were no more than four (4) miles across, and John tells us that the disciples had rowed between three and four miles, that is to say, they were very nearly at their journey’s end.   It is natural to suppose that in the wind they hugged the shore of the lake, seeking what shelter they might find.   That is the first fact — but there is the second fact.  They saw Jesus walking on the sea.   The Greek here is vitally important and gives us a whole new meaning: It says, epi tēēs thalassēs, which is precisely the phrase used in John 21:1: “Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee, and It happened exactly this way.”  What these last words mean is that, “it has never been questioned” that Jesus was walking on the seashore.   That is what the phrase means in our passage, too.

Jesus was walking epi tēēs thalassēs, by the seashore. The toiling disciples looked up and suddenly saw him.   It was all so unexpected, they had been bent so long over their oars, that they were alarmed because they thought it was a spirit they were seeing.   Then across the waters came that well-loved voice – “It is I; don’t be afraid.”   Jesus left the seashore and walked across the water to them, and they wanted Him to come on board. Remember the breadth of the lake was four miles and they had rowed about that distance. So Jesus walks out to them and climbs on board, and shortly thereafter, the boat grounded on the shore, and they were there.

Here is just the kind of story that a fisherman like John would have loved and remembered. Every time he thought of it, he would feel that night again – the grey silver of the full moonlight, the rough oar against his hand, the flapping sail, the shriek of the wind, the sound of the surging water, the astonishingly unexpected appearance of Jesus, the sound of His voice across the waves, then Jesus climbing into the boat, and then the crunch of the boat as it reached the Galilean side. So, as John remembered, John saw wonders which are still there for us:

(1.) He saw that Jesus watches.  Up on the hill, Jesus had been watching them.   He had not

forgotten. He was not too busy with God, His Father in heaven, to think of them.  John

suddenly realized that all the time they had pulled at the oars, Jesus’ loving gaze was on

them.  When we are up against it, Jesus watches.   He does not make things easy for us.  

He lets us fight our own battles.   Like a parent watching a son or daughter put up a

splendid effort in some athletic contest, He is proud of us; or, like a parent watching a

son or daughter let the side down, He is sad. Life is always lived with the loving eye of

Jesus upon us. Jesus is ALWAYS watching you.    You are never out of sight of the Lord.

(2) John saw that Jesus comes. Down from the hillside Jesus came to 

     enable the disciples to make their last pulls that would reach safety.   

     He does not watch us with serene detachment; when strength is failing, 

     Jesus comes with strength for the last effort which leads to victory.

     Jesus doesn’t JUST watch — no, He COMES to our aid.   He loves us 

     too much to be a spectator alone. He is a participant, and leader, a 

     teacher, a lover, our Savior.

(3) John saw that Jesus helps. He watches, He comes and He helps. It is 

      the wonder of the Christian life that there is nothing that we are left to do 

      alone.   

     In Africa, when I lived there, a teacher in a little rural country school told     

     this story to her children, and she must have told it well.    As usual there 

     was a dust storm of scorching heat and wind.    When school finished,    

     the teacher was walking the children home (Kusindakiza). Sometimes 

     she had to practically to drag them through the piercing burning wind and 

     dust.    When they were all very nearly exhausted with the struggle, she 

     overheard a little boy say, half to himself:   “Sisi tunahitaji Jesus sasa 

     na mileli.   (We need Jesus now and forever.)”    We could always be 

     needing Jesus now and forever.

(4) John saw that Jesus brings us to “a port in a storm.”   It seemed to 

     John, as he remembered it, that, as soon as Jesus arrived, the keel of  

     the boat soon pulled up on the shoreline – and they were there.    As the 

     psalmist put it: ‘Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he    

     brought them to their desired haven’ (Psalm 107:30).   Somehow in 

     the presence of Jesus the longest journey is shorter and the hardest 

     battle easier. One of the loveliest things in the Fourth Gospel is that 

     John, the old fisherman turned evangelist, found all the wealth of Christ 

     in the memory of a fisherman’s story.

     When can you remember when Jesus brought you safely to the shoreline 

     when you were going through a storm?

Today, in your prayer, consider that GOD ALWAYS COME TO YOU! Pray in thanksgiving for that fact!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.