Mark 6:45–52
45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. 47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
For the next 3 days we are going to talk about the three instances where Mark notes that the disciples didn't understand about the loaves from the feeding of the five thousand, which we talked about in Friday's devotional last week. If you haven't read it yet please do so before continuing with today.
This is one of the craziest scenes in all of the gospels, which boast of many wild encounters.
Jesus goes up on the mountain to pray. This is one of three times in Mark that Jesus goes away by himself to pray and they are all at significant moments in his ministry—when he begins his ministry (1:35), here (6:46), and before his crucifixion (14:35-39). Here the crisis is likely for him to pass on the crowd's desire to make him king. The application here is obvious. When life gets difficult at pivotal moments we need spend time alone in prayer with our Heavenly Father, to discern his will to make the difficult choices.
In Mark's gospel every time the disciples are apart from Jesus they fall into distress. Here they are "making headway painfully". The NIV translates it "straining at the oars". The wind is against them and they aren't going anywhere fast. During the fourth watch of the night (between 3 and 6 am) Jesus comes walking on the water! Despite many attempts to make this a natural occurrence, there is no other way to interpret the Greek describing this event.
The big idea of this event is that Jesus is God. In the OT only God can walk on water (Job 9:8; 38:16; Ps 77:19; Isa 43:16). When Jesus answers them he says, "It is I". In Greek this is egō eimi, which can also be translated "I am". This is the same verbiage of Jesus' statement in John 8:58, "Before Abraham was, I am." This is the Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT) translation of YHWH (LORD in all caps in your Bible), the name God gives to Moses as his personal name. (Ex. 34:5-6) The egō, "I" is unnecessary since it is included in the parsing of he verb eimi. When it is included, it is for emphasis. Jesus here is unequivocally not only saying he is God but proving it.
That Jesus meant to pass by them also alludes to his divinity. Specifically in Job 9, Job is describing how God is so far beyond humanity. "Who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea." (Job 9:8) "Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him." (Job 9:11) The Septuagint translates this verse with the same word Mark uses here. (see also Ex. 33:19, 22; 34:6; 1 Kg. 19:11) That Jesus intends to pass by but ends up getting into the boat with them is a remarkable picture of the incarnation. The glory of God, which could only pass by in the OT because of it's great splendor, now comes near to them.
Finally, the disciples still didn't get it! They still didn't get who Jesus is. They still didn't get that he is the I Am, the bread of life, God in flesh. How is this possible after all they have seen and experienced? Mark attributes this to their hearts being hardened. Note this is in the passive voice. It doesn't say, "They hardened their hearts." It says, "their hearts were hardened." This is most likely a divine passive, meaning God hardened their hearts so they couldn't understand. (see also John 12:40 [quotation of Isa. 6:10]; Rom. 11:7; 2 Cor. 3:14; Ex. 7:3) When God hardens hearts it is often to reveal more of his glory and awesome power as he does with Pharaoh in the Exodus. So here, the disciple's hardened hearts means Jesus will continue to do more signs and wonders displaying his divine nature and unmatched power culminating in the resurrection as Jesus' ultimate vindication.