We are at Mark 6:45, which says, "Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray." When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake. They had made good time. However, now the disciples weren't getting anywhere because they were rowing against a strong wind. I would have thought Jesus would have known that was going to happen before he sent them out. He could see them from the land yet did nothing until "the fourth hour of the night."
The fourth hour of the night is a phrase for the three hour period just before dawn, about 3-6am. These guys must have been rowing in the boat all night, about nine to twelve hours, getting nowhere fast. It seems a little ridiculous to me. The lake is 8 miles wide and 13 miles long. Why didn't they just go back to the shore and wait out the wind, when they first saw that it was futile to go on? And these are supposed to be men experienced with boats. Does the author of Mark actually know anything about this area?
So, what does Jesus do? He walks right out onto the lake and is about to walk past them when the disciples yell with fright because they think he is a ghost. Not only that, they must have been utterly exhausted and the mind plays tricks on you when you are tired. He told them not to be afraid and identified himself. He got in the boat and the wind died down. The text says they were amazed "for they had not understood about the loaves (aka miraclulous feeding) and their hearts were hardened." Harsh.
Reading this story makes me think it actually could have happened, but not the way we are meant to think it did. Let's try looking at it this way: Suppose Jesus did send the disciples across the lake and they got to the middle fairly quickly but a strong wind came up. By that time, it was evening and getting dark, but it was still light enough for Jesus to make them out on the water, especially if he was on high ground. Let's suppose that he also saw that they gave up trying to fight the wind and decided to head back. Then night fell. Remember, this is the first century, no electricity, no flashlights, no matches. Have you ever been in a remote place after dark? What about when there is cloud cover and no moon? What about on the water at night with no light at all? How far can you see? Yeah. Same here.
I don't know if this boat had sails. It definitely had oars, and must have been big enough to hold twelve people. I don't even know how sail boats work. How much can you do in pitch black, in a high wind, on any boat? It's my guess that you would hunker down and ride it out, hoping for the best, bailing water as fast as you can, if need be. Maybe they rowed in the direction the wind was pushing them, just hoping to reach land quickly, not knowing for certain exactly what spot they would end up at. We aren't even told exactly where they began. What was Jesus doing in the dark and the wind? Any normal human being would have found shelter and had a snooze, if possible. He surely wasn't standing on the hillside watching the disciples struggle with the boat for nine hours.
The hours between 3-6am are when the sky begins to lighten and visibility improves as dawn approaches. Jesus heads for the shore. By the time he gets there, he can see the boat rocking on the waves, anchored just off shore, with the crew of exhausted men limp and dozing. The wind has died down but they hardly notice. The tide is low, so Jesus walks out to the boat. There is a light morning mist hovering on the water. Someone is startled awake, sees Jesus appear to be gliding above the water, and yells. Everyone wakes up. Jesus looks ghostly in the early morning light. He laughs and says, "Relax, it's just me." He gets in the boat and they all realize the wind has died down, so they easily cross over and landed at Gennesaret, which is not where they had been heading the first time, but maybe it was the closest place, and they were probably hungry.
It could have happened that way.
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