Why Does Jesus Walk on Water?

I used to think Jesus walking on the water was just a cool miracle, but I also wondered why he’d do something like that as it seemed a little strange. No one was around to see it, it didn’t seem to benefit other people like most of his miracles did.

I wondered if there was more to this that I just wasn’t getting.

Turns out there was! A whole lot more.

This just might be one of the most powerful miracles Jesus performed while on earth, and one of the strongest declarations by him of his God nature.

We read about it in 3 of the 4 gospels (Matthew 14:22–33; Mark 6:45–52; John 6:16–21) and in every one, it follows right after another crazy miracle, feeding the 5000. That alone is a big one. Jesus feeding people in ‘the wilderness’ just like God himself during the Exodus with Moses. Something that wouldn’t be lost on the Jewish audience he was speaking to.

But now he sends his disciples off ahead of him, and they encounter a storm just like we so often do in life. They were headed in the right direction, obeying Jesus’ direction and yet something comes against them, chaos, wind, things we’ve seen countless times in the Old Testament.

Then along comes Jesus, literally ‘walking on the sea’ as it if were dry ground. Funny thing is we’ve heard this song before in the Old Testament. Seriously.

Although the O.T. was written in Hebrew, it was translated into Greek (much like we translate into English today) because Greek was the common language around Jesus’ time on Earth. In Job 9:8 we read that God “alone stretches out the heavens and treads (περιπατῶν - peripatown is the Greek word here) upon the sea as upon dry ground.”

That exact verb (περιπατέω) is the same word used in all 3 gospels to describe what Jesus is doing, treading on the sea. This deliberate echoing of Job tells us the writers saw Jesus here, acting in a way that was only described as something God himself could and would do in the O.T.

In other words, Jesus is acting like God.
Jesus is being God.
Jesus is God.

Stick with me, because water is significant. It’s a common depiction of chaos in the O.T. yet is no match for Jesus, just as it was no match for God the creator in Genesis 1 when he spoke order into chaos, and when his Spirit hovered over the sea just as Jesus walked over the sea.

There’s other verses that talk about God and water.

• Psalm 77:19 “Your way was through the sea … your footprints were unseen.”

• Isaiah 43:16 — Yahweh “makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters.”

• Habakkuk 3:15 — “You trampled the sea with your horses.”

Jesus walking on water is his way of continuing the revelation he started earlier, when he fed the 5000. He began a series of events whereby he was choosing to show himself as God, not through words, but through deeds and actions.

The Old Testament shows us the sea isn’t just water, it represents chaos, disorder and untamable forces only God can subdue. Genesis for example begins by telling us that God was hovering over the deep, separating the waters above and below and creating boundaries for the water to exist within. Psalms talks about God trampling the waves, and Isaiah tells us God makes a path through the waters.

Every Jew reading this knows that only God has authority over the deep.

So when Jesus walks on water, this isn’t a cool trick. No-one else in the O.T. walks on water but God. But then it gets better.

Mark 6:48 adds something we don’t read in the other 2 accounts of this miracle. It says Jesus “intended to pass by them”

We’ve heard that before, right?

• Exodus 33:19–34:7 — God makes his glory “pass by” Moses.

• 1 Kings 19:11 — God tells Elijah to stand on the mountain because “the Lord is about to pass by.”

This isn’t about Jesus being cool and simply strolling past them to the other side. It’s a third power play where he’s connecting himself to God and showing himself as God to the disciples and the larger audience reading this story layer. Just like God showed himself to Moses and Elijah (who both joined Jesus on the mount of transfiguration interestingly enough), Jesus is now doing the same thing to the disciples.

But wait, there’s more.

The disciples are terrified, not knowing what they’re looking at and thinking as most of us would, that this had to be a ghost or something crazy, because who goes around walking on water?

And here’s the fourth zinger in 24 hours. Notice what Jesus says. “It is I; do not be afraid”. If you’re like me, you read that and think cool, Jesus lets them know it’s him and all is ok. But it’s not. The storm is still whipping.

Here comes that original language again because it’s all about the details. Jesus didn’t say ‘It is I’. What he actually said is a Greek phrase ‘ego eimi’ (ἐγώ εἰμι) which is literally ‘I Am’.

Yep. Ego eimi is the EXACT Greek phrase God used in the burning bush when he told Moses his name was ‘I am’. Even more powerfully, the full phrase Jesus spoke (I am, do not be afraid) is matched word for word in the Greek text repeatedly by God (Yahweh) in the O.T.

So pausing for a second here, we have Jesus in the middle of a chaotic sea, calming that chaos (sound like Genesis 1 by any chance?), doing what only God can do (treading on water) and calling himself the same name God uses (I am).

Starts to make a lot more sense why, as Jesus gets into the boat the disciples are stunned. He demonstrates total command over the wind and the water, showed them he’s God and then told then he’s God. This is his moment of uniqueness. Unlike the holy, divine God of the O.T. who could only let his presence pass by because of his superiority, Jesus shows his humanity and divine nature by not only showing his awesomeness, but then stepping into the boat with them and saving them, not from afar, but by being in the storm with them.

Just like he did with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Walking in the fire with them to protect and encourage them during their storm.

We read the disciples worship Jesus, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Matt 14:33). They finally got it. It’s the first time we read of them worshipping him as divine, whereas up to this point they’ve only seen him as human.

Then John adds a nugget left out by Matthew and Mark; As soon as Jesus steps into the boat “immediately” they reach their destination, another echo of the Exodus where God brought his people through the Red Sea safely, from one side to the other.

So, within one 24 hour period:

1. Jesus multiplies bread in the wilderness, like God.

2. Jesus treads on the sea, like God.

3. Jesus commands the wind by sheer presence, like God.

4. Jesus reveals His glory by “passing by,” like God.

5. Jesus declares the divine name, “I AM,” like God.

6. Jesus rescues His people in the midst of danger, like God.

7. Jesus delivers them safely to the other side, like God.

8. And the disciples respond the only way you can: they worship Him, like God.

It’s not just a miracle.
It’s a revelation.