Meet Jake Horvath

After reading this passage, I want to reach into antiquity through the pages of the Bible, grab the disciples by the shoulders, and shake them, asking, “What were you thinking?” These men had been alongside Jesus and witnessed some fantastic miracles. Up to this point they had watched Jesus cure Peter’s mother and many others who were sick, heal a paralyzed man, restore a man’s disfigured hand, cast demons out of a man and into pigs, heal a bleeding woman, restore a dead girl to life, and personally empower the disciples to cast out demons and heal the sick in His name.

So now, after yet another miracle in which Jesus fed 5,000 people by multiplying the fish and loaves, the disciples became terrified and then amazed when they saw Jesus walking on water. Instead of viewing what they had witnessed as life-altering heavenly miracles, they saw only nifty parlor tricks. They just didn’t “get it.” The disciples lacked insight because they saw only their current experience rather than fully focusing on how the Lord was investing in others and serving their needs.

I can relate. I, too, have a belief in the miraculous works of Jesus Christ, but often I don’t fully grasp the ways He desires to help me, heal me, and take full reign over my heart. Like the disciples, I’ll focus on the tempest I’m experiencing and not on the work Jesus wants to do within my heart. In addition to flooding my heart, He also wants me to participate actively in His purposeful works so that others may be blessed (Ephesians 2:10).

I need to ask myself regularly if I’m getting in the game and sincerely involved in tending to the lives of others, or am I merely a spectator on the sideline?

Jesus certainly could have calmed the storm from the mountaintop where He was praying. Instead, He chose to be personally involved and to actively reach out to serve the disciples in their distress, once again demonstrating His divinity and relentless love.