Jesus Walks on Water #3

Jesus walking on water is the account of Jesus coming to his disciples on the Sea of Galilee during a night storm, walking across the surface of the lake. It appears in Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, and John 6:16-21, and in each Gospel it follows immediately after the feeding of the five thousand. Luke does not include it.

The Account

After the feeding, Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him in the boat toward the other side, dismissed the crowd, and went up a mountain alone to pray. By evening the boat was far from land, battered by waves and a strong headwind. In the fourth watch of the night, roughly between three and six in the morning, Jesus came to them walking on the sea (Matthew 14:25). The disciples, thinking he was a ghost, cried out in fear. He answered that they should take heart, that it was he, and not to be afraid (Matthew 14:27; Mark 6:50; John 6:20).

Only Matthew includes the episode with Peter. Peter asked Jesus to command him to come across the water, and Jesus said, “Come.” Peter stepped out and walked, but when he noticed the wind he began to sink and cried out for Jesus to save him. Jesus caught him and asked why he had doubted. When they got into the boat the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him and said he was truly the Son of God (Matthew 14:28-33).

Setting and Context

Mark adds that Jesus saw them straining at the oars and “meant to pass by them,” and that their hearts were hardened because they had not understood about the loaves (Mark 6:48-52). John says they had rowed about three or four miles, and that the boat reached the shore immediately after Jesus came aboard (John 6:19-21). The Sea of Galilee lies among hills, and sudden winds can whip up dangerous waves.

What It Reveals

Old Testament writers describe God alone as one who “Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.” (Job 9:8) and whose “path was through the sea” (Psalm 77:19), and many readers see Jesus taking on divine attributes here. In the Greek, Jesus’s words “It is I” can also be read as “I am,” which some interpreters connect to the divine name in Exodus 3:14, especially in John.

Matthew’s account leans toward discipleship. Peter shows both the reality of trusting Jesus and the way fear makes faith waver. Mark stresses the disciples’ slowness to understand, and John focuses on Jesus’s presence bringing safety. Christians of many traditions have long read the storm as a picture of trials in life and the church, with Christ coming to his people in the midst of them.