Mark 6
47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed………..
The word for amazed can mean “beside themselves” as in the reaction of Jesus family that He was “beside himself” and needed to be taken away. It is a kind of insanity. The disciples were temporarily insane, stupefied etc.
Why? They should have understood who Jesus was and they didn’t. They were still technically unbelievers. Rev. Kurt Hering wrote this……………………….
Unbelief simply can’t get past the fear of the here and now of the belly, of the imagination, of the desires of the heart. That was the disciples problem—fear. They were amazed at Jesus as one would be at a magician. Magicians are scary—until you figure out their magic. But the disciples couldn’t figure out the magic like stuff they had seen. They were amazed—and terrified. If this man can do this with bread and fish, if he can do this to wind and wave, what could, what might, what is he here to do to me?
…While Jesus told His disciples to stop being afraid of Him, of God, their fear was indeed the Proverbial beginning of wisdom. While God does not want your fear to be the end of your thinking and understanding of God, He does want us to fear Him as the author and giver of life who has the power to give and take it away before we fear anything else, because what you fear is in reality your God.
