It is I; Don't be Afraid

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

IT IS I; DON’T BE AFRAID

John 6:14-21

14 After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. 16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, "It is I; don't be afraid."  21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

NIV

There are two truths we need to see in this portion of this gospel. One is how the people wanted to make Jesus king, which would mean a revolt against the current king. This is what is meant when it says by force. Here we are talking about thousands of people, the ones who had just been fed and heard his teaching. How easy it is to want to make something or someone an idol because of material things. We might even be able to see how we want to take material blessings by force, which is gain as much as we can by our own strength, by our power and might, force our way to the top. That does not appear to be based much on humility, but rather on pride. They wanted, it would be their doing, their effort, their revolt that would make him king. Then they would have everything, a king who would feed them, care for them, provide everything for them, and be able to heal them when they got sick. Life would be wonderful with Jesus as king. That is the life we have now because Jesus is the King of Kings, but he is not the King of kings by our force, but by his humility, humbling himself to the will of the Father. So we stand humbled before our King. The second truth has to do with this event on the Sea of Galilee. We have been on this sea and that day it was calm, but the day we stood in it along the shoreline the winds were blowing and the sea was rough. We can image how rough it could be when the winds come blowing off the mountainsides. The disciples were in a rather small boat, a fishing type boat, and it was being tossed about in the waves. They were not unaccustomed to these waters, Peter, James, and John being fisherman by trade, certainly have been in rough waters before. However, they had never seen a person waking on those waters and this put them into a terrifying state. This is something supernatural and fear of what they did not understand would have been reasonable. Here is where Jesus makes it all better. He speaks to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” Here is where Matthew includes the part about Peter getting out of the boat and walking for a moment before seeing what he is really doing and then Jesus lifts him up. John does not include that because it is not part of the point John is making about the divine nature of Jesus. However, we can see how this applies to our lives. Although we are not being tossed about on the Sea of Galilee, we do get tossed about by circumstances in our lives. Sometimes life can get a little rough, and maybe even stormy. There are times when everything seems to be blowing against us, no matter how hard we row, the wind and waves push us back and we make no headway at all. Sometimes life can even get scary, not knowing what is going to happen to us, what does the future hold for us. Then the health issue strikes and some of us are subject to various conditions which affect our quality of life. Old age alone bears down on us and we do not know what disease will come upon us. Life is simply uncertain at its best. Even being a believer, such as the disciples, does not make us immune from the storms of life. However, as the disciples were fearful when seeing someone walking toward them, we might be fearful of the unknown as well. But here is what we can take comfort in. Here is want gives us assurance all is going to be well. “It is I; don’t be afraid.” Jesus has come to save the day, to calm the storm, to take us immediately to the other side. It is not even a matter of us being calm and having to continue rowing. As soon as Jesus was in the boat then immediately they reached the other side. Jesus is the answer to all matters of life and he will bring us to the other side. Of course, this can apply to our death and resurrection, being carried to the other side, from earth to heaven. But it also applies to our daily life. Through those times of struggle, or temptation and times of stress or anxiety, when Jesus is there, he takes us immediately to the other side. We just need to hear, not with ears, but with our heart, our spirit, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”