Mark 6:49-52 (NIV) But when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

This in the story of when the disciples went ahead on the lake to Bethesda at Jesus’ direction and ran into a storm. In the middle of the night, Jesus came to them, walking on the storm-tossed water. They were obviously very frightened by the whole thing and must have had their minds completely blown by what they had just witnessed. The passage of scripture above says that they were amazed, but it was because they had not understood about the loaves. They just didn’t get it. But what had they not understood about the loaves?

Many times when God does a miracle, no one understands it because of the very nature of it being a miracle, which can be described as something that is not otherwise possible. There is no natural explanation for it. But when someone does experience a miracle (I have), many times they don’t think about it outside of the facts of what happened. For example, let’s look at the miracle of the loaves of bread. There were approximately 10,000 people (5,000 men, not counting women and children) who were listening to Jesus teach in a remote area. When Jesus wanted the disciples to feed them, they thought He had lost it. Jesus was told that all that was available was five loaves and two fish that a young boy had with him. Jesus took the loaves and the fish, gave thanks to God and began to distribute pieces of bread and fish to the disciples, who in turn distributed them to all the people. They picked up twelve basketfuls of bead and fish afterwards. What a great miracle! That was the lesson that the disciples learned that day. They learned that Jesus can multiply bread and fish. But what was the lesson that they missed? They missed the spiritual lesson. They missed the fact that all natural forces are subject to His sovereignty. They did not remember nor did they consider the power that Jesus demonstrated by feeding 10,000 people with very little and that by having done that, He also had power to walk on the water and to save them from the storm.

That’s why they were amazed. Had they understood about His divine nature and the power that accompanied that divine nature, they would have still been amazed but not amazed because of unbelief. Even though I know what Jesus can do and have learned that nothing is impossible with God, it still amazes me every time He does what is impossible for anyone else to do. But I am not amazed because I am surprised that He can do it, but simply because of the sheer magnitude of the power and sovereignty that He displays on behalf of His people. The good thing about understanding the spiritual side of what Jesus does is that it increases your faith and allows you to pray for things that are humanly impossible, but totally possible with Him. It allows you to not lose hope in any situation because you know that He is God and that everything, including situations and circumstances, physical things and spiritual things, all of nature and all of creation is subject to Him. The disciples didn’t get it then, but they got it later on. I pray that we all get it now, so that we can have the faith to believe for impossible things that will bring a lot of glory to His name!