JESUS EMULATED GOD AT CREATION WHEN HE WALKED ON WATER

I have come to accept the fact that I am a neophyte when it comes to understanding even some of the more popular Biblical stories. You know, things that we commonly read over with acceptance and never think to question the intended meaning.

For instance, everyone knows of the story of Jesus walking on water when he approached his disciples as they struggled in a boat against the churning waves of a storm. But why did he go out to them when he could have just calmed the storm from the shore? Is there deeper meaning to Jesus traversing the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee?

In reading the recent work of Dr. Nicholas Schaser, professor of New Testament and Jewish studies, I find that there was in fact a reason for Jesus taking the walking-on-water route.

Schaser readily agrees that at first glance, it is not clear why Jesus felt the need to traverse the stormy waters. Not long before this night, he had calmed the raging sea with no more than a word (see Mk 4:35-41) -- why not do the same again? 

"In this case, the Gospel highlights Jesus’ choice to walk on the waves as a deliberate recollection of what God did at creation," the professor explains. "Mark’s Gospel states that Jesus “went (ἔρχομαι; ἔρχεται) to them, walking upon the sea (περιπατῶν ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης; peripaton epì tes thálassa)” (6:48)." In other words, he wanted to demonstrate his God-given authority for the benefit of his closest followers.

It is explained further that each of the Greek

terms in parenthesis above also appears when God questioned Job as to what he knew about the cosmos. The Lord alluded to divine activity at creation, asking, “Have you went upon (ἦλθες… ἐπὶ) the springs of the sea (θαλάσσης; thalásses) or walked (περιεπάτησας; periepátesas) in the recesses of the deep?” (Job 38:16 LXX). 

The narrative earlier in Job affirms that God had traversed the oceans before humans were created, saying of God, “You alone stretched out the heavens and trampled on the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8).

Every description of Jesus’ life in the Gospels has theological meaning that is related to the story of the God and people portrayed in Israel’s Scriptures. 

"Jesus decides to walk on water because this is what God did at the creation of the world," Schaser emphasizes. "The disciples, of course, do not make the connection -- to the contrary, they’re terrified because they think they’ve seen a ghost (Mk 6:49)."

However, the attuned Bible reader can now know what the disciples missed in the moment; namely, that the Lord had conferred the authority over creation to Jesus the Son of God.

Just thought that, like me, some of my readers would like to know why Jesus chose to walk on water instead of simply performing his miracle from the shore. Certainly an enlightened way of looking at it, to my way of thinking.