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The crowds had misunderstood the identity and purpose of Jesus, attempting to make an earthly king of the one who satisfied their earthly hunger. Jesus withdrew from this confusion to a mountaintop alone.
It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
The disciples set out for Capernaum by sea without Jesus, though apparently hoping or expecting that he would catch up. Yet he remained on the mountain and did not come to them until it was almost morning. Did Jesus not realize that there was a storm? Was he so involved in something else that he was too preoccupied to be with his disciples in an hour of their need?
The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.
Jesus certainly know the weather conditions facing the disciples in their little boat. He knew they were far from shore and frustrated. Yet he did not come at once. The wind swept the waters like it did in the formless chaos that preceded creation in the book of Genesis (see Genesis 1:2). It was almost as though Jesus himself was allowing them to be undone, almost uncreated, but so that he himself could recreate and establish them by the power of his presence and that of his word.
they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat,
and they began to be afraid.
The sight of Jesus amidst the chaos did not immediately provide comfort. It first brought about holy fear, such as we know is the beginning of wisdom. We read that they only began to be afraid when Jesus appeared because this fear was of a different kind and magnitude from that which they felt before. We might have expected the presence of Jesus to immediately provide comfort as though he had obviously clearly come to limit and restrain the storm as one would an opponent or an unruly child. But the sense of the text seems to indicate that to the disciples eyes Jesus was more a part of the storm than the antithesis of it. If he was walking on the water then perhaps he hadn't come to calm the storm, but to finish what it had begun. Jesus seemed to them to be more like a ghost, one that could not be counted on for help.
But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.”
The disciples were invited to recognize Jesus, to take their recognition of him to a deeper level. This was something that could not have happened on dry land and in good weather. They had to encounter their own limits and the limits of their understanding of Jesus himself in order to receive the deeper revelation of who he was. He himself he allowed this situation in order to reveal himself in this way. On land he was a mere miracle worker. When they faced the storm he seemed absent. One he first came to them he did not appear at all tame or safe. He seemed like one more potential danger. But it was then, precisely and intentionally then, that he spoke.
When either men or devils try to terrify us, let us hear Christ saying, It is I, be not afraid, i. e. I am ever near you, God unchangeable, immoveable; let not any false fears destroy your faith in Me. Observe too our Lord did not come when the danger was beginning, but when it was ending. He suffers us to remain in the midst of dangers and tribulations, that we may be proved thereby, and flee for succour to Him Who is able to give us deliverance when we least expect it. When man’s understanding can no longer help him, then the Divine deliverance comes. If we are willing also to receive Christ into the ship, i.e. to live in our hearts, we shall find ourselves immediately in the place, where we wish to be, i.e. heaven.- Theophylact
Without feeling the storm deeply they could not have recognized the one who had power over the storm, the one whom the wind and the waves obeyed. Certainly we would prefer to have this full recognition of Jesus from the comfort of dry land. But it is often only in our desperation that we are willing to recognize him as he truly is. This means, alas, Jesus will sometimes allow us to face storms in our lives. But it also means, and in this we can rejoice, that he himself has a plan to draw us closer to himself even in and through those storms. Would the disciples have traded this experience at sea for the mere comfort of dry land without the consolation of hearing Jesus say, "It is I", and coming to by degrees to realize that he himself was the great I AM?
They wanted to take him into the boat,
but the boat immediately arrived at the shore
to which they were heading.
The disciples desired what seems to be the natural human tendency after a theophany of God. They desired to contain it, to attempt to control it so that they could always avail themselves of it as they desired. But God himself is necessarily elusive, lest we misunderstand what we have seen. He remains as uncontrollable as a storm. But this is not to say that the theophany has no meaning. His words remain with us, "It is I. Do not be afraid". The next storm need not be the same as the last. We can learn to look for him, to expect him, not on our timing, but when he himself wills. We may even finally learn to trust that all of this is planned perfectly for our growth, for our good.
The early Church was able to operate so powerfully because they had internalized the truth of the identity of Jesus himself, learned during the difficult lessons of storms. Now when they faced storms of their own, challenges and disputes, they put first things first precisely because they knew who Jesus was and therefore what they themselves were supposed to be about. Doing so meant that they were able to address the issues without neglecting what mattered most. To that end they let the Spirit lead them rather than trying to merely arbitrate on human terms. Because they did so they too quickly came to the haven they desired.
They presented these men to the Apostles
who prayed and laid hands on them.
The word of God continued to spread
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