Panic on the Lake

Panic on the Lake

What Jesus did next

If our speculations about the insurrectionary atmosphere in the wilderness were right, the disciples, fresh from the amazing experience of the loaves and fish, may well have shared the crowd’s hopes and enthusiasm, and wanted Jesus to declare himself as the new Moses. But Jesus has no such intention, and instead packs the disciples off as quickly as possible in the boat, away from the excited crowd. As for the crowd themselves, Jesus simply ‘dismissed’ them. We cannot know how much is hidden behind that little word, but it may well have been one of the supreme tests of Jesus’ authority to pacify such a large and eager crowd, and to be able to get away from them by himself…