Living between verses 47 and 48!

45 Immediately after this Jesus instructed his disciples to get back into the boat and strike out across the lake to Bethsaida, where he would join them later. He himself would stay and tell the crowds good-bye and get them started home. 46 Afterwards he went up into the hills to pray. 47 During the night, as the disciples in their boat were out in the middle of the lake, and he 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 he walked out to them on the water. He started past them, 49 but when they saw something walking along beside them, they screamed in terror, thinking it was a ghost, 50 for they all saw him. But he spoke to them at once. “It’s all right,” he said. “It is I! Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat and the wind stopped! They just sat there, unable to take it in! 52 For they still didn’t realize who he was, even after the miracle the evening before! For they didn’t want to believe! 

Food for thought!

This is a revealing gospel. Jesus made his disciples get into the boat that was bound for a storm! Think about it: it was Jesus that sent them into it. Why would he do this to his beloved disciples? Why does Jesus send us into storms and problems and difficulties? Well, I think the answer is at the end of the same gospel: “The disciples just sat there, unable to take it in! **For they still didn’t realize who he was, even after the miracle the evening before! For they didn’t want to believe!**”

Note that Jesus sent the disciples out into the storm alone. Even as he was ascending the mountainside to pray, he could feel and hear the gale’s force. Jesus was not ignorant of the storm. He was aware that a torrent was coming. But he didn’t turn around. The disciples were left to face the storm . . . alone. The greatest storm that night was not in the sky; it was in the disciples’ hearts. The greatest fear was not from seeing the storm-driven waves; it came from seeing the back of their leader as he left them for prayer.

Surely Jesus will help us, they might have thought. Surely he will come down the mountain. But he didn’t. Their arms began to ache from rowing. Still no sign of Jesus. Three hours. Four hours. The winds raged. The boat bounced. Still no Jesus. Midnight comes. Their eyes searched for God— in vain. And the Master is nowhere to be found. “Where is he?” cried one. “Has he forgotten us?” yelled another. “He feeds thousands of strangers and yet leaves us to die?” muttered a third. Does all of this sound similar? Do you sometimes feel like the disciples?

Jesus came. He finally came; he always comes. But between verse 47 — being buffeted by waves — and verse 48 — when Jesus appeared— a thousand questions are asked. Questions you have probably asked too. Perhaps you know the feeling of being suspended between verses 47 and 48. Maybe you’re right now between verses 47 and 48, struggling with a crisis, a problem, a difficulty. You know that Jesus knows what you are going through. You know that he’s aware of your storm. But as hard as you look to find him, you can’t see him. Maybe your heart, like the disciples’ hearts, has been hardened by unmet expectations. They just sat there, unable to take it in! For they still didn’t realize who he was, even after the miracle the evening before! For they didn’t want to believe!