18 Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. 19 So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.
Comments:
On the way to Capernaum a storm arose. So here the disciple were, sent out into the sea by Jesus just when things were getting good (they had crowds in the thousands), 3 or 4 miles in the middle of nowhere with no Jesus with them, and now a storm. Just what they needed, right? Well it must have been just what they needed, because Jesus was behind the whole thing and surely He didn't make a mistake. But why did they need a storm, they were doing exactly what Jesus had told them to do? We are going to see that the purpose of the storm is to take them from the condition that they were before the boat trip to the condition that they were after the boat trip.
We saw last week an example of their condition before the trip; their faith was weak. When presented with the seemingly imposable task of feeding the multitude, they turned to the physical; they turned to their own skill and wisdom.
As they rowed across the sea they were still in this weakened condition when the storm hit. Mark's account tells us that the disciples actually, initially tried to fight against the storm with their own power, "straining at the oars". So, even seeing Christ's miracle did not cause them to grow spiritually, what it did was give them a baseline to refer to. Their actual growth will come tomorrow……stay tuned.
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