I had tons of questions that I wanted to ask Jesus. He had just had a huge run-in with the Pharisees and we were all feeling rather shocked and unsettled. We planned to cross the lake of Galilee and have a quiet lunch on the other side so that we could regroup and take a rest from the maelstrom that seemed to follow Jesus wherever he went.
As we got out of our boats on the far side, Jesus was spotted. A lady from the town knew him as the performer of miracles that she had seen in Jerusalem. She must have been the town busybody because before we knew it, the whole town was talking about him and pointing at our group. Being fairly fit young men, we quickly made our way up the hill on the far side of the town. I didn’t notice that hordes of people had begun to follow us. When we reached a pleasant spot we sat down on the blankets we had brought with us and settled down for a chat and nap. Jesus had told the Pharisees that the scriptures pointed to him. I was dying to get to the bottom of this, which scriptures and what details identified him as the son of God? I was ready to believe but wanted to understand more.
No sooner had we sat down than a hubbub and din of voices reached us. Thousands of people were climbing the hill to get to Jesus, my opportunity to talk with him was disappearing rapidly.
I noticed one man telling others to get out of his way, he seemed to be the town’s mayor and wanted to get to Jesus first. The busybody had also arrived, she came right up to Jesus and began asking him to do all sorts of things for her and her family. A group of her friends and the important folks from town had him surrounded.
Among the slower climbers were people with limbs missing and young children. All eager to have Jesus heal them. I couldn’t believe his popularity in this remote part of Galilee.
In the end, Jesus had to take charge to get the crowd to calm and quieten. People were getting hurt in the stampede to reach him. He told everyone to sit down.
Then, he took five small loaves of bread and a couple of fish, that a friendly young boy had had the good sense to bring from home, and Jesus blessed them. He began handing out the food.
The pushy mayor, his cronies and the busybodies were fed first of course as they were closest to Jesus, but the food kept on going. The slow walkers, that had been forced to make way for the mayor, were fed. Those with disabilities had enough to eat and even those that were only just arriving were included. Some stragglers had no idea of the miracle that was being performed before their eyes, they arrived late, ate their fill and must have thought someone ahead of them had provided all the food. It was incredible, no one went hungry that day.
When the crowd realised what was happening, that the food wasn’t running out and everyone was satisfied, they became agitated again. This time, they wanted to make Jesus King. It seems they wanted to march off with him there and then to crown him. Regrettably, this sentiment drove Jesus away; he had to escape further up the hill away from all the clamour.
We were left there without our teacher and the crowd wasn’t much interested in us. So, everybody started to drift back down to the town, including us, Jesus’ closest friends.
We arrived back at our boat and sat down on the small beach to wait for him. It became dark and cold and we weren’t all that keen on spending the night sleeping on the sand, so we decided to take the boat and head back to Capernaum, we knew Jesus would turn up at some point, he had a habit of going off on his own.
As we neared the middle of the lake a massive storm came up out of nowhere. Being tired and cold, this was the last thing we needed. A few of my friends (I won’t say who!) had eaten more than their fair share of fish and bread earlier, so they were feeling rather queasy as the boat was tossed on the waves.
Suddenly, out of the darkness, we could discern an odd dark shadow. We were all a little spooked, especially as it seemed to be drawing closer. As the shape neared, we realised it was Jesus walking on the water! He had so many tricks up his sleeve, whatever would he think of next? We were astonished, just who was this man? I felt so grateful though that he had reserved this special miracle for us, his friends. All the questions I had earlier, about who he was, were answered. Surely he is the son of God and has been sent by him. I’m still itching to ask him a ton of questions though.
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