TEXT [Commentary]

4. Jesus walks on water (6:45-52; cf. Matt 14:22-33; John 6:14-21)

45 Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida, while he sent the people home. 46 After telling everyone good-bye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.

47 Late that night, the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land. 48 He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About three o’clock in the morning[*] Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. He intended to go past them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost. 50 They were all terrified when they saw him.

But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here![*]” 51 Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed, 52 for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in.

NOTES

6:45 Bethsaida. This village was located at the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee at the mouth of the Jordan River. In 8:22, it is the setting for the healing of a blind man. In Matt 11:21 (cf. Luke 10:13), it is one of the villages over which Jesus pronounced a woe.

6:46 he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Jesus again sought solitude with God (see 6:31). This is the last mention of Jesus praying until Gethsemane in ch 14.

6:48 they were in serious trouble. The imagery in the Gr. is of “being tormented in [their] rowing.” They were not making progress, and rowing was a struggle. The wind was against them, and it was very late (the “fourth watch,” or “three o’clock in the morning” as the NLT puts it). The fourth watch (phulakē) in Roman reckoning actually indicated a time somewhere between three and six in the morning (BDAG 1067). Thus, they had been rowing in rough water for up to nine hours, assuming they left at dusk.

walking on the water. Here is another miracle showing Jesus’ control over creation. Hurtado (1989:103) notes this as the second sea miracle in Mark (4:35-41; cf. Job 9:8; Ps 77:19, which speak of God possessing such power). Jesus was crossing the lake more easily on foot than the men were by using the oars.

6:50 I am here! It is hard to be certain of the Gr. meaning here, which reads egō eimi and can be rendered as “I am” or “it is I.” The NLT has rendered it as Jesus’ simple declaration of his presence. Some suggest that it echoes the self-identification of God (Isa 43:25; 48:12; 51:12) with a force like that in Exod 3:14. If this is the idea, it is subtly expressed.

6:51 totally amazed. This is the last time in Mark that people react in amazement at what Jesus has done (the paralytic, 2:12; raising of Jairus’s daughter, 5:42). In each case a divine act caused the amazement (forgiving sins, raising from the dead, walking on water, halting the wind).

6:52 didn’t understand . . . Their hearts were too hard to take it in. This remark makes it clear that there was more to these miracles than merely feeding people or calming nature. They pointed to who Jesus was, but even the disciples missed this (at least initially). Matthew 14:33 seems to indicate they did eventually get the point and understood the act pointed to Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. Mark’s comment here fits his thematic pattern of noting how the disciples often failed. Of the evangelists, only Mark ties the disciples’ failure to hardened hearts. When they reacted instinctively to Jesus, rather than with a dependent faith, they reacted in a wrong way; they eventually outgrow this pattern, as Acts shows.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Once again Jesus showed his power over creation and astounded the disciples who were still trying to grasp Jesus’ identity. Jesus’ walk on the water startled them and caught them unprepared, as it would most anyone. The disciples thought he was an apparition or spirit (phantasma [TG5326, ZG5753]). In Jewish thought, such a being might be perceived as a demon, often associated with the sea and chaos (Hurtado 1989:106). Even more mysterious, the text says that Jesus’ initial intent was simply to walk past the boat over to the other side. Only the disciples’ reaction stopped him. Some scholars understand Jesus’ wanting to pass them by as being like God’s “passing by” Moses (Exod 33:17–34:8; Marcus 2000:426). This idea of divine revelation can be affirmed by Jesus’ statement in 6:50—egō eimi (see note). Jesus responded to the disciples’ cry and revealed himself to them. He had placed himself in a position to encourage them if they sought his aid and could understand his power. Two Old Testament figures, Moses and Elijah, are associated with miraculous events concerning water (Exod 14:21-22; 2 Kgs 2:8). However, both of these were partings of the water; Jesus’ act was without precedent.

For a second time, Jesus miraculously calmed the weather and thereby revealed his divine power, but the disciples’ hearts were hardened and they did not yet understand (6:52). Mark indicates that the disciples did not yet appreciate the creative, life-giving, divine power at work in Jesus. They had failed to learn the lesson of the feeding of the multitudes. (Mark will say this again of the disciples in 8:17.) This ending differs from Matthew’s positive conclusion in which the disciples bow before Jesus and declare him to be the Son of God. However, in Matthew’s context, it may be that they recognized Jesus’ messianic authority but still without appreciating fully who they were confessing. In short, Matthew saw the glass of the disciples’ understanding as half full, while Mark saw it as half empty.