Six Miracles
Let us open our Scriptures to a powerful section of Mark 6, beginning with v.45. Between vv.45 to 52 we see four powerful miracles, even six when we include the Gospels of Matthew and John. Let’s begin with the introduction in vv. 45, 46:
Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while, He Himself, was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray.
Reading these verses, one can feel a sense of urgency, a pressing issue to deal with. Why did Jesus immediately direct His disciples into the boat to send them away to the other side? He sends them away but He Himself stays. Something was happening. What was it? To find out the answer, we need to go to the Gospel of John which tells us that by this time Yeshua had reached a high point in His ministry. After being miraculously fed, note the peoples’ reaction in John 6:15.
So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. The people were trying to make Yeshua the King of Israel by force. The Greek word for force, harpazo, means to grab or seize, with the purpose of controlling. They saw His powers and understood who He was, but the timing was wrong. Yeshua would be King, but not then. He first came to die for the sins of the people.
Even before it happened, John tells us that He perceived that they were intending to anoint Him King. Mark then tells us that He made His disciples get into a boat and go ahead of Him.
Unstoppable Determination
Looking at these two verses we can see the first miracle. If so many people, between 10 to 15,000 individuals, were coming to Him to make Him King by force, the question is, how in the world could one stop such a crowd? Yeshua could not hide from the eyes of so many people, could He? Did He now repeat what He had done in other instances when He seemed to have simply disappeared from the scene? Many times in the Gospels, He did just that when they tried to kill Him before His appointed time on the tav (cross). We see him just vanish from their sight. John 8:59 is perhaps the most powerful example.
Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
What we read is that they took up stones to lapidate Yeshua. Since it was not the time of His death nor the method that Psalm 22:16 points to when they shall pierce my hands and my feet, Yeshua just hid by walking through the midst of them. He did it even though there were so many eyes on Him. He just appeared to fade away. The same thing must have happened in Mark 6, for there is no other way to avoid such a crowd who came by force to make Him King. This then would be our first miracle done.
Afterwards, He left to pray on the mountain. It is the second time He went alone to pray, surely praying for these people who desired to have salvation from oppression. He surely prayed for their spiritual salvation as well.
Miracles are for Us
Let us sum up the other 5 miracles.
- The second miracle took place in Mark 6:48 when He was praying on the mountain. Yeshua felt and saw how His disciples were struggling in the storm. The distance and darkness were not obstacles at all, for our Lord is omnipresent and always watching out for His own.
- The third miracle, in Mark 6:48, is very powerful. He came to their rescue by walking on the water. Gravity was no obstacle to the Lord. Like Paul says, nothing can separate us from the love of Yeshua (Romans 8:35).
- We see the fourth miracle in Mark 6:51. As soon as He got into the boat, the storm subsided and the wind stopped, without a word or command. It was just through a thought. That’s how powerful our Savior is.
- The fifth miracle takes place in John 6:21. We are told that the moment He got into the boat, it was already on the shore. Time and space are not stumbling blocks for our Creator.
- We see the sixth miracle in Matthew 1:28-29. Peter also walked on water.
How wonderful to know that we are already co-heirs with the Messiah. We can do some of His greatest miracles in order that we too may carry out the will of God. These six miracles were only for us, the believers. No one else outside the circle of faith even saw them. Others can read about them and try to find all kinds of logic to explain them away, but in the end, they are just for us.