Chapter 31 — Christ's Miraculous Mastery of Nature
The Incarnate Christ and His Critics (Komoszewski & Bowman, 2024)
---
There's a moment in the Gospels I find myself returning to often. The disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee at night. A storm rises. The boat starts filling with water. These are fishermen, men who've worked this lake their whole lives, and they're terrified.
Jesus is asleep.
They wake him: "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" (Mark 4:38). He gets up and speaks to the wind and the waves: "Peace! Be still!" And the wind died down, and there was a great calm.
The disciples' response wasn't relief. It was fear, a new and deeper fear: "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41).
That question is the heart of chapter 31.
Not All Miracles Are Equal
Jesus performed healings in a way that set him apart from the prophets, healing directly, on his own authority, without invoking God's name. But the nature miracles go even further.
Healing a sick person, while miraculous, could conceivably be understood as an extraordinary gift or power. Commanding the elements, wind, sea, waves, is a different category entirely.
In the Old Testament, who controls the sea? YHWH. "The sea is his, for he made it" (Ps. 95:5). The imagery of God calming the storm runs through Psalms and Job: "He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed" (Ps. 107:29). "He stirs up the sea with his power" (Job 26:12). This is language about YHWH's sovereign dominion over creation, including its most powerful and unpredictable forces.
When Jesus stands in a boat and tells the sea to be quiet, and it obeys, that's the language of the Psalms. The disciples' terrified question, "Who then is this?", is the right question. The Old Testament's answer: only YHWH does this.
Walking on Water
The same theme runs through Jesus walking on the water (Mark 6:45-52; Matt. 14:22-33; John 6:16-21). Jesus comes to the disciples in a storm, walking across the surface of the sea. In the Old Testament, walking on the sea is another distinctively divine action: "He alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea" (Job 9:8). God treads on the waters; humans don't.
When Jesus approaches the terrified disciples, his self-identification is striking: "Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid." The phrase "it is I" in Greek is egō eimi, "I am." We've seen this phrase before. Here, with the disciples terrified on a stormy sea, Jesus' words echo God's self-identification to Israel in their moments of greatest fear.
Matthew adds that Peter steps out of the boat and walks toward Jesus, and when he focuses on the waves instead of Jesus, he starts to sink. Jesus rescues him with the words "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" The disciples' response: they "worshiped him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God'" (Matt. 14:33). Mastery over water reveals identity, and the appropriate response is worship.
Multiplying Loaves and Fishes
Another category of nature miracle is Jesus feeding the five thousand, and later four thousand, by multiplying bread and fish for enormous crowds. This has strong Old Testament resonance: it echoes God feeding Israel with manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16) and Elisha multiplying bread (2 Kings 4:42-44). But there are key differences.
Elisha fed one hundred men with twenty loaves, and "they ate and had some left over" (2 Kings 4:44), and the text notes this happened because "the LORD" had said it would. Elisha is a mediator; YHWH is the source.
Jesus feeds thousands with far less, five loaves and two fish, and does it on his own authority, in his own name, as the source of the bread. Afterward he declares: "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35). He doesn't say "God provided this bread through me." He says: I am the bread.
The manna in the wilderness was provided by YHWH for Israel. Jesus presents himself as the fulfillment behind the manna: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven" (John 6:51).
The Transfiguration
Perhaps the most overwhelming of all the moments that reveal Jesus' divine nature is the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-9; Luke 9:28-36). On a high mountain, Jesus' appearance changes: his face shines like the sun, his clothes become radiant white. Moses and Elijah appear beside him. A cloud overshadows them, and from the cloud a voice says: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."
The disciples fall on their faces in terror. What they've glimpsed is the divine glory the incarnation normally veils, the uncreated radiance that belongs to the eternal Son. For a moment, the human form becomes translucent, and what shines through is God.
What It All Points to
The nature miracles aren't random demonstrations of power. They're revelations. In each one, Jesus does something the Old Testament attributes to YHWH, calming seas, walking on water, creating bread, and the consistent response of those who witness it is terrified awe or worship.
John summarizes his purpose in writing the Gospel this way: "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31). The miracles are signs, not proofs meant to browbeat you into belief, but invitations to see who's really standing in front of you.
The one who made the sea can still it. The one who made life can restore it, and the bread he multiplied was only ever a sign pointing to himself.
That's who was in the boat, walking on the water, feeding the crowds. And that's who is with us now.
---