Christian Quest
Study 14
Jesus Walks on the Sea After Feeding Thousands

Reading:
Matthew 14:31-21 (Feeding) and 22-36 (Walks on Sea)
Mark 6:32-44 (Feeding) and 45-56 (Walks on Sea)
Luke 9:12-17 (Feeding)
John 6:1-13 (Feeding) and 14-21 (Walks on Sea)

In the last study we read of Herod executing John the Baptizer in prison. The Synoptics do not give much detail about it except that it was carried out after Herod's step daughter danced for the guests at his birthday party. We might be left with the impression that Herod did not wish to have John executed if it were not for the additional information gleaned from the first-century Jewish historian, Flavious Josephus, who had access to more inside political information than the Gospel writers. According to Josephus, the primary reason for Herod removing John was political, although the dance of the daughter of his unlawful wife, Herodias, may have triggered the execution. The light Josephus sheds on the matter gives us a greater appreciation for the danger that Jesus faced thereafter, in that Herod imagined that Jesus was John come back to life and feared he was perhaps organizing a revolt. Josephus writes:

"Herod (Antipus) had had [John the Baptist] executed, although he was a good man, who urged the Jews to practice virtue, both in righteousness towards one another and in piety towards God, and so to come to be baptized. . . Very many people flocked together when they heard this message and Herod feared that the regard in which the man was held could lead his people to rebellion. For his advice was generally followed in everything. He thought it was therefore better for him to take the initiative and clear him out of the way before he was in a position to incite a popular rebellion, than to wait for unrest and be unable to restore the situation in which he would be involved. On the grounds of this suspicion Herod had John put in chains and brought to the fortress of Machaerus and executed there."
(Antiquities of the Jews 18,116-119)

Herod had a fortress in Tiberius, which is in view of the place where it is believed Jesus preached to crowds who thronged around him on the slopes by the sea, where he spoke to them from Peter's boat, where he gave the Sermon on the Mount, and where he fed a crowd of 5000 men plus women and children. Word of Jesus' popularity reached the ears of Herod, and his paranoia that Jesus was John risen from the dead made him want to see Jesus. No doubt Jesus faced the same danger as what had happened to John. In any case, from that time on, Jesus and his disciples were more elusive, are recorded more often as seeking solitude, departing quickly from one place and moving to another.

After one such occasion when Jesus and the disciples were seeking some privacy, a great crowd of thousands from the cities and towns in the area saw their boat and followed it from the shore arriving at the destination where they were headed before the boat arrived. In seeing this, Jesus took compassion on the crowd and healed their sick. Afterward, like a good host, he fed the crowd from five loaves and two fishes. Then he sent his disciples quickly to their boat to cross ahead of him once again to the heathen Decapolis, where he had expelled the demons from the Gerasene man. Jesus himself withdrew to the hills and prayed until the middle of the night. Then as the boat was in the middle of the lake, the waters became stormy. Jesus walked out on the water to the boat. In this, two of his famous miracles are recounted. The feeding of the thousands is recorded in all four of the Gospels. The miracle of walking on water is told in Matthew, Mark and John. Only Luke does not include this event.

Synopsis

Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:32-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:1-13
Jesus seeks solitude with his disciples after hearing about John the Baptist being executed. But a multitude from the cities found him and flocked to him. He went ashore and healed their sick. Then he fed the thousands of men, women and children before he sent his apostles away that evening, and himself sought private refuge for a while before he joined them.

Matthew 14:22-36; Mark 6:45-56; John 6:14-21
Later that night, after the crowd had left, he had spent some time alone on the mountain praying and then went to catch up to the apostles, whom he had sent in haste to cross the Sea of Galilee. A wind rose and the waters were becoming treacherous. Jesus walked out upon the water, which frightened the men in the boat. Only Matthew tells about Peter jumping into the water to meet Jesus. After seeing this, the apostles exclaimed for the first time in the record: "You are surely the Son of God!"
They arrived once again in Hellenist community across the lake from Tiberius. The people here had sent him away after his first visit to their region, when he had expelled the demons from the man at Gennesaret and caused their herd of swine to plunge into the sea. They now recognized him and greeted him with enthusiasm. They began bringing their sick to him to be healed. He spent some time in the area, going about in the cities and rural areas, healing the sick. Perhaps when it seemed safe, he and his disciples returned to Caperneum.

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