He Saw Them Straining

After the five thousand had eaten, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him. Mark's word is strong. He made them. Then he dismissed the crowd and went up on a mountainside to pray. The boat was out on the lake. He was alone on the land.

Then comes a detail that is easy to skim. Jesus saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. He saw. From the hillside, in the dark, across the water, he was watching his friends struggle. And he did not come immediately. Mark says it was about the fourth watch of the night, the hours before dawn, when he went out to them. They had been rowing since evening.

The one idea of this passage is that being seen by Jesus and being rescued by Jesus are not always the same moment, but they are the same love. He was not indifferent for those hours. He was praying, and he was watching, and when he came he came in a way that showed them who he was. Walking on the sea was not a shortcut. It was a revelation. The Old Testament speaks of God alone treading the waves. Jesus came to them the way only God could come.

Mark even says he was about to pass by them, a phrase the Old Testament uses when God shows his glory to Moses and to Elijah. The disciples saw none of that. They saw a ghost and screamed. He climbed into the boat, the wind stopped, and they were completely amazed, because, Mark says, they had not understood about the loaves. The bread should have taught them who was with them. It had not.

Here is the turn toward life. You may be in the long middle of the night right now. The prayer went up hours ago. The wind is still against you. Nothing has changed except your arms getting tired. The passage does not promise that the rescue comes at the first cry. It promises that the one who fed five thousand with five loaves has not lost sight of your boat, that he is praying, and that when he comes it will be as the Lord of the sea, not merely as a helpful friend. Until then, keep rowing. And when he speaks, believe that it is him.