Jesus walks on stormy water

Who is Jesus? part 66 – John 6:16-21

“Ye cannae change the laws of physics,” said an exasperated Scotty, chief engineer of the USS Enterprise to an expectant Captain Kirk in the original series of Star Trek, a TV show that regularly broke the laws of physics by having teleportation as a reality. This Bible passage not only breaks the laws of physics by having Jesus walk on a stormy sea, but teleports a boat to the shore.

But instead of displaying more of my geek cred (I could talk about Star Trek for a week, non-stop), I’m going to talk about sandwiches.

¹⁵ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain [A] by himself.

¹⁶ When evening came, his [B] disciples went down to [C] the sea, ¹⁷ got into a boat, and started across the sea to [D] Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had [E]not yet come to them. ¹⁸ The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. ¹⁹ When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and [F] they were frightened. ²⁰ But he said to them, “It is I; [‘F] do not be afraid.” ²¹ Then they were glad to [‘E] take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at [‘D] the land to which they were going.

²² On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of [‘C] the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his [‘B] disciples had gone away [‘A] alone. ²³ Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴ So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

John 6:15-24 bold and [brackets] added to reveal the structure

Google searches are great these days. Not content with telling you they have AI available, if you want it, it is forced upon you as the first item in any search. When I looked for evidence of the seven signs that Jesus performed, Google’s AI included this miracle of Jessus walking on the sea. Yet the links it gave were to two different lists neither of which included this miracle among the signs. The other signs have two things in common, they were performed publicly and they mentioned the word sign neither of which are found in this story. Also there are two miracles here, walking on water and the ship reaching land immediately on Jesus being received into the boat.

This story is the filling in a sandwich of bread. Jesus feeds the crowd with bread, then talks to the people on Capernaum about being the bread of life. Jesus walking on water is the filling.

Talking of a sandwich here is not an anachronism. If you believe that John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich invented the sandwich, you are wrong, as he was to claim it was his invention. Jews believe it was Rabbi Hillel in the 1st Century B.C. who said that bitter herbs and lamb be eaten together inside two pieces of unleavened matzah bread, thereby beating Montagu to the invention of the sandwich by over 1800 years. Although this is the first written mention of the sandwich, called korech and eaten at the Passover Seder, it is not believed to be the first time a filling was eaten inside bread which is believed to have been eaten in the Middle Eastern caravanserai before this. The common name in English for this Passover food is “Hillel Sandwich” which is a double anachronism as neither Hillel nor Sandwich invented it.

This is all happening around Passover (6:4) so Jesus, his disciples and those present at the feeding of the 5000 would have known what a sandwich, or korech, was. This looks like one of John’s jokes, there is plenty of humour in this Gospel, using the symbolism of Passover food at an event at Passover to point to the meaning of the filling. I’ll get back to this.

But first the structure. The passage has the form of a chiasmus. Chiasmus, meaning crossing over, is a form used in nearly all Psalms and often in the New Testament. It is a repetition of similar ideas in the reverse sequence. Where there is a central section it is often the main theme.

Here are the points in order with their reflected sequence.

• A-‘A Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. – (the disciples) had gone away alone. The theme is being alone.
• B-‘B The disciples – the disciples.
• C-‘C The sea – the sea.
• D-‘D Capernaum – the land to which they were going.
• E-‘E Jesus had not yet come to them (in the boat) – they were glad to take him (Jesus) into the boat.
• F-‘F They were frightened – “Do not be afraid,”

Is there a middle section here? It matters because if not then the theme of the passage is either being alone, from the A-‘A sections or fear from the F-‘F sections. It is notable that what most people concentrate on here is Jesus walking on the stormy sea is not the theme of the story going by the form of the chiasmus. Teleporting the boat to shore is not the theme either. But there is a central theme …

“It is I,” says Jesus. It might not be obvious but this is one of Jesus’ “I am” sayings in John’s Gospel. it is the same word in Greek, ἐγώ εἰμι, ego eimi. This may be short, but this is the centre, Jesus says, “I am,” “It is I,” linking back to God saying “I Am” to Moses in Exodus 3:14. This is the second time Jesus has used “I am” in this way in this book. The first, in John 4:26 has Jesus saying, “I who speak to you am he,” to the woman at the well in Samaria. That Jesus is saying “I am” here is hidden in the ESV and many other English translations by splitting the words 1 and am, but it has ἐγώ εἰμι in Greek, the same as the other “I am” statements in John’s Gospel. Like the other “I am” statements this points us to the incarnation, God became human and was dwelling among us as Jesus.

Back to the sandwich filling. The Hallel Sandwich is filled with lamb and bitter herbs and as it is eaten at the Passover Seder this will be the Passover lamb. Our Passover lamb is Jesus, as Paul wrote, also linking the unleavened bread and the lamb of a Hallel Sandwich. They loved a good sandwich, these New Testament writers: “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7 NIV),

This post may have been about sandwiches, but the overall arc of this series id looking at John’s Gospel and asking, “Who is Jesus?” Jesus walking on water is revealed as both God in human form walking on earth and also of the sacrificial Lamb of God sacrificed for sin. John draws together two aspects of Jesus here.

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