Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by………..  Mark 6:46

Jesus Christ, walking on water; a miracle to be sure.  A miracle to us who read about it.  A miracle to the disciples who were struggling against the wind and saw him walking on the water.  They thought they were seeing a spirit and were very afraid.  Yet it was not a miracle to Jesus Christ.  It was just another stroll.

Jesus had just experienced quite a few hours.  He had crowds follow him to a remote place.  He had spent some time teaching them, realizing that they would have become physically hungry, as they had also been spiritually hungry to follow him.  Starting with five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed 5000 people with twelve baskets left over.  He dismissed the crowd, told his disciples to go across the lake.  Jesus then went up into the hills to pray to His Heavenly Father.  As they set out in their boat, I am sure that the disciples had thought that Jesus would find another boat to take him across or maybe even have to go around.  So how amazed they were to see, what they thought was an apparition, strolling across the water.

I also think that it is interesting that, according to Mark, Jesus did not plan to come to the disciples.  He was going to pass right by them, seemingly oblivious to the wind that was holding up the disciples, arriving at the other side before them.  Did he plan, like he had in the gospel of John, to have breakfast ready for them when they arrived?  We’ll never know, for the disciples called out to him in fear.  In Matthew’s gospel, Peter asks Jesus to command him to walk on the water as well to come to Jesus.  After saving Peter, Jesus gets into the boat with the disciples, the wind stops and Jesus asks: “Why were you scared?”  Obviously to Jesus, this was no big deal.

So what can we take from this?  First, Jesus was not about bringing attention to himself.  He did not proclaim to the crowd that He was going to do a great work by feeding all of them with such meager provisions.  Indeed, besides the disciples, none of the rest of the crowd was aware of the miracle.  He did not declare to the disciples that I will come to you walking on water.  Jesus did not declare as he approached the boat “Look at me I am walking on water!”.  No, Jesus had planned to just walk by as if he was walking past them on dry land.  These actions were as natural to Jesus as it was to pray to His Father.

And again, Jesus Christ’s actions were not for His benefit, but for ours.  We are the ones who are fed.  We are the ones that are healed.  We are the ones, that should he ever call us to go somewhere, will be right there with us to catch us if we find ourselves in a period of weakness needing His strength to lift us.

What does Jesus Christ ask of us?  Just that we believe.  That we believe and have faith that what is impossible for us is just another walk in the park or more accurately a stroll on the lake to him.  It is natural. So let it be that we will not be afraid to take a stroll with Jesus Christ, wherever he beckons us to go.  That we know He will never leave us and that nothing we encounter will be beyond His power to see us through.