John 6:16-24

00:00:00:45 – 00:00:28:10
Clint Loveall
Hey guys. Thanks for coming back and joining us on a Wednesday as we continue through Gospel of John in the sixth chapter. We are in the 16th verse. Yesterday we talked about, the fourth of seven signs that John gives us in the gospel. Seven kind of miraculous happenings. He refers to them as signs. And scholars have said that they come in the Gospel of John in a group of seven.

00:00:28:15 – 00:00:49:46
Clint Loveall
Today we move right on to the next one, and we see the fifth of these seven signs. A familiar story, I think, but a very condensed version of it John doesn’t give us. It’s interesting. Sometimes John gives us lots of details, and then other times John just gives us the bare bones of the story. And I think that’s what we see here.

00:00:49:51 – 00:01:10:48
Clint Loveall
Let me read a few verses and we’ll come back, though and have some talk. Have some conversation about it as we talk it through. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. Now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.

00:01:10:53 – 00:01:34:51
Clint Loveall
When they rode out about 3 or 4 miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, it is I do not be afraid. Then they wanted to take him in the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going. So John is is probably the least known version of this story.

00:01:34:51 – 00:02:03:58
Clint Loveall
In other stories it’s more drawn out. We have Peter getting out of the boat, sinking, walking on water with Jesus. Here John just gives us just the barest version of the story. They’re about 3 or 4 miles out. The wind is blowing. It’s dark. Plenty of reason to be afraid. And then to add to that, with no fanfare, no explanation, no introduction, it just says Jesus came walking out to them.

00:02:04:03 – 00:02:30:58
Clint Loveall
And remember that occasionally we’ve said through this study, you get the sense, as you read John, that John knows he’s writing to people who already know some of the Jesus stories. And I think that’s the way to make sense of this. Michael, he he doesn’t need he doesn’t feel the need to fill in all the details because he knows they already know that story and that they’ll go, oh, yeah, I’ve heard this story.

00:02:31:03 – 00:02:52:44
Clint Loveall
And so he just says, yeah, it was dark. It was windy. They rode. Jesus walked out on the water, got in the boat with him, but then immediately they reached land. It’s not even clear that Jesus ever gets in the boat. It’s a it’s an interesting way to tell the story, and I think it only makes sense if you assume that John assumed that the people who would read it already knew something of it.

00:02:52:46 – 00:03:16:55
Michael Gewecke
I think that the inclusion of the details we have in this shortened version of the story do matter. I think it’s worth paying attention to them because they’re here on purpose, because of. And to your point, Clint, the details that have not been included, I think there are much more thorough accounts of the story. And one of these details, I think that’s fascinating is that the they are headed off.

00:03:16:55 – 00:03:36:05
Michael Gewecke
It’s dark. Right. And then when they are now quite a ways away from shore, I mean, 3 or 4 miles, that’s when they see Jesus. No, this no details here about that idea that he might be a ghost or some kind of that that comes in the book of Mark. But no, here they just see him and they’re terrified.

00:03:36:05 – 00:04:00:57
Michael Gewecke
And notice what gets the highlight. Get gets the emphasis of this story. It’s like this entire story were 16 to verse 21 here, these five verses is all building to what Jesus has to say. And here in this Bible we have in red leathers, it is I do not be afraid. And Clint, that is an incredible reverberation of meeting.

00:04:00:57 – 00:04:27:37
Michael Gewecke
It is. I am the one. It does a call back to what God tells Moses at the burning bush. It is a historic proclamation for the people of Israel as to who their God is, and hear Jesus appropriates these language in a moment which he’s clearly, overpowering, controlling nature itself. And then, yeah, that that really interesting detail that’s suddenly the boat reaches land in the direction that they’re going.

00:04:27:40 – 00:04:49:22
Michael Gewecke
It it is not a story that John is trying to in any way tease out scientific detail. There’s no attempt to really even hold some of these story connective ligaments together. In other words, how Jesus gets from the mountain where he withdrew when the crowd was trying to make him king or would make him king to now, the moment that he’s walking in the water.

00:04:49:22 – 00:04:58:24
Michael Gewecke
John doesn’t care about that. The point of this story is entirely rather than what Jesus has to say about himself and who he claims to be in that statement.

00:04:58:33 – 00:05:22:46
Clint Loveall
It’s an interesting decision for the translators here to make this phrase. It is I we haven’t seen one yet. We’ll probably see one early next week. But there, as just as there are seven signs in the Gospel of John, there are seven statements that Jesus makes where he prefaces that with I am. And when we get there, we’ll talk through the significance of I am.

00:05:22:51 – 00:05:49:42
Clint Loveall
But that’s what he says here. This literally says I am, do not be afraid, which is a little rougher sentence in English, but with the significance of those words, I am in this gospel. I really think it’s unfortunate that they didn’t leave that in here. The roughness of the sentence, I think, would be worth what John is trying to capture.

00:05:49:57 – 00:06:24:33
Clint Loveall
I am the the name of God and here when you put those things together, I am so you do not fear. You do not be afraid because of me. You have no fear. And I know that’s a lot to read into a few words in one sentence of one passage, but I think there is a deep takeaway here of a kind of theological lesson that John is providing.

00:06:24:37 – 00:06:50:20
Clint Loveall
I am meaning God, Christ, and because of God and Christ, you have no reason for fear. Put fear away. I am. Do not be afraid and I think that, you know, if you if you’re looking for a kind of devotional lesson in this text, I think that’s one that jumps out well.

00:06:50:20 – 00:07:30:13
Michael Gewecke
And Clint, another detail I think is worth noting is the connections with this story that we have in the previous story. And I have it up here, verse 15, which we had yesterday. Notice that Jesus withdraws when they, being the crowd in this case, want to take Jesus by force and make him their king. Notice how John, gives us details in verse 21 here they now, being the disciples in the boat, want to take him into the boat in both cases, you have people wanting to make Jesus do something, and in both cases, Jesus is going to be independent of that kind of coercion.

00:07:30:18 – 00:07:53:43
Michael Gewecke
Jesus in the Gospel of John, we’ve said this so many times now, but it remains true. Jesus is always all knowing. And in stories like this, he’s also all powerful. There’s really no question of him being sneaky or slipping through the cracks or, you know, needing to rely upon some kind of wit or rhetoric. Now, Jesus is always in control.

00:07:53:43 – 00:08:14:13
Michael Gewecke
And here, when the disciples want to make him do something, their boat just suddenly appears. The shore. And this whole episode is over. And by the way, it also shortens this story. There’s no that, you know, in between version here. John is just going to keep the narrative going and then move on to the next section of the story.

00:08:14:13 – 00:08:20:40
Michael Gewecke
And I do think that this story is bookended in some meaningful ways. And I think all of that constructed that way on purpose.

00:08:20:45 – 00:08:50:28
Clint Loveall
I also think that putting these stories together serves an interesting purpose. If we think about what the disciples are learning from Jesus throughout this story, or maybe what the reader is learning as we look in on the disciples experience in the first part of chapter six, The Feeding of the 5000, we have abundance. The disciples learn that with Jesus there is enough that they need not fear scarcity that Jesus provides.

00:08:50:32 – 00:09:20:33
Clint Loveall
And now they learn in the dark, against the wind, with the waves. Right? A sort of terrifying environment that Jesus is with them and calls them to have no fear. And so it’s interesting to think of the two lessons that these two stories represent for the disciples who are continuing to grow. Slowly but consistently in their understanding of who Jesus is.

00:09:20:47 – 00:09:43:41
Clint Loveall
And then what we get next, I would say, is a kind of transition moment. John does this where he just he gives us some details so that he can get to the next part of the story. And I don’t know that there’s a great deal theologically in here. This is sort of geographical, if anything. But let me let me read a few verses here, and then we’ll stop at where we’re going to pick up tomorrow.

00:09:43:46 – 00:10:05:17
Clint Loveall
The next day, the crowd had stayed on the other side of the sea, saw that there had only been one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberius came near the place where they had eaten the bread, after the Lord gave thanks.

00:10:05:22 – 00:10:34:46
Clint Loveall
So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, looking for Jesus. Of all the Gospels have this interaction between Jesus and the crowds. Whereas Jesus notoriety grows as word about him spreads, he is hounded by people, bringing him those who need healed, wanting something from him, wanting to listen to him preach.

00:10:35:00 – 00:10:56:21
Clint Loveall
And John gives us that. Now he, John wants to tell us another story about Jesus and the crowds, and Jesus and the disciples have moved. So John needs to get the crowds over there. So he tells us how that happens. I again, Michael, I don’t know. I don’t know that this is a deep story. I think it sets up the next story.

00:10:56:25 – 00:11:18:57
Michael Gewecke
Agreed. I do think there’s a very Johannine kind of emphasis, though, in this story, because notice the crowds can’t keep up with Jesus. The crowds are looking for him to sort of be the center foundational person, you know, set up camp Jesus, we’d love for you to feed us bread every day. That would be a great scenario. And here they’re left wanting more and they’re left seeking him out.

00:11:18:57 – 00:11:40:32
Michael Gewecke
And it’s not just that the crowds are gathering in a region. The crowds are literally getting in the boats, pushing off, looking to hunt Jesus down, to find him at the next place that he’s gone. There’s a kind of active seeking out here, and I think that that could be both right in the positive, in the sense that people have seen amazing things, they’ve seen the signs, they’ve been compelled by it.

00:11:40:37 – 00:12:02:11
Michael Gewecke
They’re going in looking for that. I think in the gospel, John, you also have critiques that can be embedded in stories like that, where the crowd, just as they wanted to make Jesus king and Jesus withdraws or he he escapes off to the mountain. Now you have people. They’ve been frustrated in their effort to make Jesus king. They haven’t got what they want yet.

00:12:02:20 – 00:12:21:01
Michael Gewecke
So they’re going to go seek him out. They would like to resolve that themselves. And I think it’s fascinating that the disciples are learning a lesson. By the way, remember that they were trying to feed the crowd during daylight. Then it’s at night in a stormy sea. Once again, we’ve talked about how light and darkness and John have this significance.

00:12:21:01 – 00:12:46:22
Michael Gewecke
Now in the darkness, the disciples are learning this lesson about who Jesus is. He’s the I am, and now you know the crowd. Seeing that Jesus is gone, something miraculous has happened. They’re going to go seek Jesus out. Some of them, no doubt, looking through eyes of faith, some of them no doubt looking to find Jesus because they like the disciples, they like that crowd had been the very day before.

00:12:46:30 – 00:13:05:45
Michael Gewecke
Would like Jesus to do something for them. They would like for Jesus to comply to whatever their will or desire is. Now I, I will grant you, I think there’s some reading into the text there, but but reading John as a book that contains both the narrative of what happened, but also the idea of the symbolism of what that means.

00:13:06:00 – 00:13:10:14
Michael Gewecke
I think that’s a fair kind of transition in the narrative here.

00:13:10:19 – 00:13:39:20
Clint Loveall
I may be I may be wrong on this one. I think you probably know a little bit more about the the context of John than I do. But whereas Luke, for instance, and certainly Mark. Used the crowd’s interest in Jesus as a way of kind of celebrating Jesus. Right, that the crowds are following him. They want healing. Jesus is doing miracles.

00:13:39:25 – 00:14:22:26
Clint Loveall
The crowds in John, there’s almost a little bit of tension between Jesus and the crowds was we’ll begin to see that tomorrow. But it’s never I don’t I don’t know if it’s ever occurred to me that John presents the relationship between Jesus and crowds. I think, slightly differently than in the other gospels. Now, again, that’s me trying to spin my brain, thinking that right here there may be nothing to that, but it seems to me that there may be some truth to the idea that the crowds in John function slightly differently.

00:14:22:26 – 00:14:37:55
Clint Loveall
They want to force Jesus to do something. Jesus is going to kind of chastise them tomorrow for having the wrong motivation. There’s he’s a little harsher with the crowds, I think, in John, than in some of the other tellings of similar stories.

00:14:38:04 – 00:14:58:53
Michael Gewecke
So think of like Luke, you know, there’s some early conflict in Luke, no doubt, but it’s generally not attributed to crowds. It’s generally attributed to Pharisees or teachers of law that the stuff in Luke where the crowd really gets involved is generally later in the book, especially during the Passion Week when it comes to the end and Jesus’s in Jerusalem.

00:14:58:53 – 00:15:16:57
Michael Gewecke
And now the crowds are turning against Jesus. Generally. I think that that’s a very fair statement that Jesus and the other gospels is portrayed as someone who is drawing the crowds because they are sick, because they’re being risked, their lives are being restored. They’re given new opportunity.

00:15:17:02 – 00:15:21:32
Clint Loveall
Hosanna! Here is he who comes in the name of the King. The crowds are shouting that out.

00:15:21:46 – 00:15:47:47
Michael Gewecke
But but here we’re we’re just John chapter six. And the crowds are already the crowds are trying to manipulate Jesus towards there. And I do think there’s a unique element in that, because I think that John is in some ways, and maybe this is one of the reasons I have such affection for the book. I think John is all at once wholeheartedly and earnestly trying to show us the power, splendor, beauty of Jesus Christ.

00:15:47:47 – 00:16:13:46
Michael Gewecke
This is the Son of God being presented to you. And simultaneously, there’s a kind of cynicism of humanity, a kind of thoroughgoing honesty that says, you know what? When you put Jesus with his wonderful splendor in front of a crowd, don’t expect there to be a huge percentage of those people who will understand, because at the end of the day, our human brokenness does get in the way.

00:16:13:46 – 00:16:37:10
Michael Gewecke
And I think stories like this listen, friends. Well, we’ve spent a lot of time on the small in their development, and that’s most definitely overblown and should be taken with a grain of salt. But I just think it’s worth noting here that the way that John tells the story has spiritual teaching embedded in it, and I think it’s fair to find some of that in a text like this.

00:16:37:15 – 00:16:52:37
Clint Loveall
Yeah, we have to keep an eye on that moving forward and see if anything comes of it. But, John, it does seem to me I think you’re right, Michael. John, none of the none of the gospels are wildly optimistic about.

00:16:52:49 – 00:16:53:22
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, right.

00:16:53:22 – 00:17:06:52
Clint Loveall
For human nature. But but John is skeptical of people in a way that I think does flavor this gospel slightly differently.

00:17:06:57 – 00:17:20:56
Michael Gewecke
We’ve got a lot more to go, a lot more of those encounters to have. Certainly. Hope you liked this video. If you found a part of this story in John’s telling of it compelling, and certainly subscribe so you can stick with us on this study and other studies like it. Other than that, friends, we will see you tomorrow.

00:17:20:56 – 00:17:21:48
Clint Loveall
Thanks for being with us.