Don't Be Afraid

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

DON’T BE AFRAID

John 6:16-21

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 is some division among our scholars as to exactly where they were supposed to go on their boating excursion. According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus had told them to go to Bethsaida. The question is, where they started off from. What John tells us is that the after Jesus was in Jerusalem and when he healed the lame man on the Sabbath, he crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. We cannot be certain as to where that exactly was, but if he told them to go to Bethsaida, it would have been a coastal excursion. Mathew tells us they landed in Gennesaret which is on the opposite side of the sea then Bethsaida. It is supposed the wind was against them and that is the only direction they could go. Although all this is interesting and we could get caught up in all the suppositions as to the how and why they landed where they did and as to their exact point of origin, the point is about the words of Jesus. Because we live in this world, there are times when we might experience a storm in our lives. As much as we believe in Jesus and that we know we are children of God and live in His kingdom, we are still subject to circumstances of our physical life. Someone very dear to us dies and we feel grief, but it is inevitable we all will die at some time in our lives. It is interesting how we can live each day without being so depressed because we are going to die. Of course, we believers do not even fear death because we know it is the beginning of our eternal life with Jesus. Yet, they are other situations which might cause some stress in our lives. Some physical infirmity or serious illness could cause us an amount of fear. Again it would seem all that kind of fear is about whether we are going to get better or worse. If we get better we find there was nothing to fear. If we get worse, what we could fear is whether we are going to live or die. If we die, we have nothing to fear, but if we live we have other things we could fear. Some fear or are concerned heavily about money matters. Who knows what fears lurk within others, but what we need to understand is that if we find fear creeping into our hearts, we need to hear the words, of Jesus. “It is I; don’t be afraid.” So then let us not have any fear of life or death for Jesus has assured us, it is him and we have no reason to be afraid.