John 6:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But, burning with love for Him, they go down into the boat. The evangelist does not indicate the time without purpose. He does so to show their ardent love.

Why, then, does Christ leave them and withdraw? Still more, why does He appear alone, walking on the sea? In the first case, He taught them what it was like to be without Him and wished to increase their love for Him. In the other, He again showed them His power.

Just as they did not hear His teaching only together with the people, so also they did not see His miracles only together with the people. Those who were to receive authority over the whole world had to possess something more than others.

What miracles, you ask, did they see alone? The Transfiguration on the mountain, the present miracle on the sea, and many great miracles after the Resurrection. From these I also infer others.

They were going to Capernaum without certain knowledge, but only hoping to meet Him there, or even during the voyage. John hinted at this when he said that "it was becoming dark, and Jesus had not come to them. A strong wind was blowing, and the sea was rising."

He had a zealous desire, on every occasion and opportunity, to strengthen the mind of the apostles in faith in Him. Since they were to be teachers of the whole world and to shine like certain "lights in the world," according to Paul's word, Phil 2:15, He gave them necessary instruction in everything profitable.

This manifestation of grace was not for them alone, but also for those whom they were to guide toward a true conception of Him.

But why, someone may perhaps ask, immediately after that miracle is it reported that Jesus could walk even upon the sea itself? Let such a one hear a very probable reason.

When He wished to feed the people, Philip and Andrew supposed that He would somehow be unable to accomplish this. One said that even a considerable sum of money would scarcely be enough for them, even for a small amount of food.

The other pointed out that, although five loaves and two little fish had been found with one boy, this discovery meant nothing for such a multitude of people. In all their words, one might say, they expressed the thought that He could do nothing beyond the order proper to our phenomena.

Therefore, in order to free Himself from an idea so little befitting Him, and to make the still feeble mind of the apostles understand that He wondrously accomplishes whatever He wills, He counted it necessary to place the fluid nature of the waters beneath His feet.

He meets no difficulty from the nature of things, and no obstacle comes to Him from the order of necessity. Though water cannot naturally submit to human bodies, to Him, as God, all things were possible.

Therefore, when it had already grown late, and time was weakening the zeal of those seeking Him, the company of the holy apostles went down to the sea and at once sailed away, obeying God and Teacher in all things and immediately.

He returns in the narrative to explain how they arrived, namely, that they crossed the lake, per stagnum. By a brief account, he reveals what happened to them while they were sailing toward the place where, as he had already said, they arrived: "It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them," Jn 6:17.

As may be seen from Jn 6:17, Jesus Christ, having commanded the disciples to set out alone for the western side of the sea, promised to come to them in the boat at some point on the shore.

From this one may conclude that the disciples first had to keep a coastal course toward the northern end of the sea.

But suddenly a northeast wind arose and began driving the boat southwestward into the depths of the sea. In this condition they probably wished to reach as soon as possible the place to which they had been commanded to sail by the Lord.

Nevertheless, they struggled until the fourth watch, but did not reach the shore. At that time, when they were in the midst of the sea (Matthew and Mark), having sailed about twenty-five or thirty stadia (John), they saw Jesus walking on the waters.

Mark adds that He was making His way past them (Mk 6:48). Exhausted by the struggle with the waves and by fear for their lives, they did not believe their eyes.

They took Him for a phantom, and fear seized them still more. But Jesus Christ encouraged them with His voice.

Here follows the account belonging to the Evangelist Matthew alone, concerning the Apostle Peter walking on the waters (Mt 14:28-31).

The Evangelists end the story differently. First of all, John seems to contradict Matthew and Mark.

According to the latter, the disciples received Jesus, and in Matthew also Peter, into the boat, and the wind ceased. John says, “They wanted to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were going” (Jn 6:21).

It might seem that the meaning is this: the disciples only wanted to receive Jesus into the boat, but this proved unnecessary, because the boat reached the shore.

Yet it is not necessary to represent the matter in this way. “They wanted” is contrasted with their previous state, their fear that they were seeing not Jesus, but a phantom.

That fear had now passed, and they wanted to receive Him into the boat, whereas before they wanted to flee from Him.

“Immediately” is contrasted with their previous very prolonged and unsuccessful struggle with the waves. It is not necessary to understand the word as meaning that Christ did not have to sail several stadia with the disciples.

Five or ten stadia still remained to the shore. “Immediately” means only that the sailors, now with Jesus, reached the shore as quickly as before they had long and unsuccessfully striven to reach it.

What the first Evangelists indicated by the words “and the wind ceased,” John expresses with the words, continuing the same thought: “immediately the boat reached the shore.”

Then Matthew and Mark seem to contradict one another. The first says that the disciples worshiped the Lord and confessed Him to be the Son of God after they were convinced of the miracle of Jesus Christ walking on the waters.

The latter says (Mk 6:51-52) that the disciples’ heart was hardened, and that they had not understood the miracle of the loaves, but only wondered and were amazed at the new miracle.

From this, however, it follows only that the disciples, struck by the greatness of the miracle, bowed before the Lord and confessed Him as the Messiah.

At the same time, they wondered that Christ performed such extraordinary and unheard-of deeds. The Apostle Peter, from whose words Mark speaks here, observes such a disposition and reflection in the depth of the disciples’ souls.

He considers it a defect, a hardening of heart. According to him, the miracle of the feeding was so great that after it there should have been no room for any questions.

They should not have questioned the power or possibility for Jesus Christ to perform even such a miracle as walking on the waters.

Since the first three Evangelists say that evening had already come before the feeding (Mt 14:15), a second evening must be understood here. Among the Jews, the first was from three to six o’clock, and the second from sunset until nightfall.

In the time of Christ the Jews divided the night into four watches of three hours each. The fourth watch was from three to six o’clock in the morning.

The whole sea from east to west measured forty stadia. According to John, therefore, the disciples were in the middle of the sea.

But by the expression “in the midst of the sea,” the Evangelists Matthew and Mark only mean that the disciples were far from shore. Consequently, amid the disturbance of the sea, they were in danger.

The apostles entered the boat and set out alone, without Jesus, to the other side of the sea. The Evangelist John says that they went to Capernaum. The Evangelist Mark says that Jesus constrained the apostles to go ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida. The Evangelist Matthew mentions only the other side of the sea.

The question arises: where did the apostles go, and where did the feeding of the people occur? The disciples of John informed Jesus of their teacher's death when He was in Capernaum. Immediately Jesus set out by boat with the returned apostles to a deserted place near a city called Bethsaida, Lk 9:10.

The crowds of people also followed, or ran, after Him there. Since from this deserted place the apostles returned by boat in the direction of Capernaum, or of Bethsaida situated on the same shore, one must conclude that Jesus, on receiving news of His Forerunner's death, withdrew with His apostles to a deserted place near the city called Bethsaida Julias, northeast of the Sea of Galilee.

The apostles then returned alone to the opposite shore, the northwest shore, on which two cities stood not far from each other: maritime Bethsaida and Capernaum. Consequently, the miracle of feeding the people with five loaves and two fish was performed on the deserted northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The nearest city to it was Bethsaida Julias.

It has been suggested that the Lord, traveling by boat with the apostles toward Bethsaida Julias, landed before reaching that city, because He had compassion on the crowds hastening along the shore. If this supposition is correct, then the place of the miraculous feeding of the people is very difficult to determine.

On the other hand, it was easier for Him to dismiss the people when they saw that even His closest followers and disciples had been sent away. Thus, as twilight thickened, He succeeded in gently and gradually persuading the people to leave Him.

When all, except the most enthusiastic, had gone to their homes or caravans, He suddenly left the rest also. He quickly withdrew from them to the summit of the mountain, that He might pray there alone.

He felt that a fearful and solemn turning point was approaching in His life on earth. By communion with His heavenly Father, He wished to strengthen His soul for the difficult work of the next day and the heavy hardships of the many following weeks.

Earlier also He had spent a night in mountain silence, in solitary prayer. But that was before the choosing of the beloved apostles, and before the good signs of the first and joyful period of His ministry.

With wholly different feelings, the divine High Priest ascended the rocky ledges to this majestic mountain altar. In the temple of the night, it seemed to raise Him nearer to the stars of God.

The murder of His beloved Forerunner brought nearer to His consciousness the thought of His own approaching death. The storm that began to howl in the mountains, the wind rushing with a roar through the ravines, the lake raging before Him with foaming waters, and the boat, which He could see in the moonlight breaking here and there through the clouds, tossed by fierce waves, all corresponded strikingly to His present state of soul.

But there, on the deserted summit of the mountain, in that stormy night, He could receive strengthening, peace, and ineffable blessedness. For there He was alone with God.

The Lord's position amid this popular outburst was difficult. If He had sailed or gone to Galilee with the disciples at that time, the people would have followed Him step by step. The agitation could have spread through Galilee and beyond, threatening danger to the work of Christ.

Moreover, the hearts of the disciples, still not free from sensual expectations, might have responded sympathetically to the people's agitation. The Lord first separates the disciples from the people, and therefore urges them to set out at once to the other side.

Then, after calming the people's agitation and dismissing them, according to Matthew and Mark, He withdrew to the mountain for solitary prayer. The disciples set out alone in the boat to the other side, to Capernaum or to the land of Gennesaret, according to Matthew and Mark.

"And Jesus had not come to them." This feature completes the accounts of the first evangelists. It shows that the Lord, having urged the disciples to depart alone, had promised to come to them, and they were waiting for Him, though perhaps they did not suppose that He would join them so wondrously.

Perhaps on the way from the Bethsaida, that is, Julias, wilderness to Bethsaida near Capernaum, Mk 6:45, in the land of Gennesaret, according to Matthew and Mark, they expected to meet the Lord at some point on the seashore. There was also a shore road by which the Lord could have gone after dismissing the people.

But the strong storm carried the boat into the middle of the sea, and the Lord met them otherwise than they expected.

When the disciples were in the middle of the lake, the storm intensified. "The sea arose because a great wind was blowing," as the ancient translation has it. The later translation says, "it was stirred up." The latter is closer to the letter of the original, διηγηρετο, while the former is closer to the thought of the scene.

The boat was beaten and tossed by the waves. Jesus saw the distress of the disciples from the mountain of prayer.

About the "fourth watch," that is, the morning watch, by our reckoning around the fourth hour after midnight, Mk 6:48, 47; Mt 14:23-25, the disciples "saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat, and they were afraid." They "supposed it was a ghost," Mt 14:26.

"It is I; do not be afraid," Jesus says to them. According to St. Matthew, Peter volunteered to go to Jesus on the water, but became frightened and was saved from death by Jesus, Mt 14:28-31.

Then Jesus entered the boat with the disciples, and the wind ceased, Mt 14:32. Or, as St. John says, "and immediately," ευθειος, "the boat was at the land," that is, the boat came to shore.

John writes: ηθελον ουν λαβειν αυτον εις το πλοιον. Chrysostom thinks that although the disciples wanted to receive Him, they did not receive Him into the boat. This opinion does not agree with the narrative of St. Mark, Mk 6:51, and Matthew, Mt 14:31.

Chrysostom was so carried away by it that he even supposed two different events in the evangelists. But there is no need for this if John's words are understood thus: they wished to receive Him. This would only mean that a circumstance known from other accounts is left unstated.

Meanwhile, ἦθελον λαβειν, according to usage in Plato and Xenophon, means that they rejoiced to receive Him.

That it pleased the Lord to remain alone, and that He dismissed the disciples, is also briefly indicated in John's Gospel by the words of verse 15: "He departed to the mountain alone."

From the combined testimony of the evangelists, we understand that the Lord Himself calms the agitated people. By His authoritative word He stops that passionate ferment which wished to make Him king by force.

Then the Lord dismisses the people, and many go along the northern shore into the region of Galilee. We recall that the event occurs in Perea, or more precisely in the region of Ituraea Trachonitis.

But part of the people, as is clear from verses 22-26, remains to wait for the Lord near the mountains of Bethsaida Julias, "where they ate the loaves and were filled." In the morning, seeing that the Lord is not there, the remaining people enter boats and come to Capernaum. This is discussed below in more detail, verses 23 and 24.