Matthew 14:23 Commentary and Bible Study

‘He departed into a mountain to pray.’ Just as he taught his disciples to pray frequently, so Christ prayed often, not only as an example to us, but because, as a true man, he needed the strength of God to carry out his work. He prayed in the hearing of his disciples and he also prayed alone, bringing matter to his Father which were part of their unique relationship (John 20:17). The uniting of his divine and human nature in one person, did not diminish his divine nature in any way, but nor did it turn his human nature into something superhuman. Christ is recorded as praying prior to preaching in all the synagogues of Galilee (Mark 1:35), before appointing the twelve (Luke 6:12), before asking the disciples whom the people said that he was (Luke 9:18), before the transfiguration (Luke 9:28), before being asked to teach his disciples how to pray (Luke 11:1), in his high priestly prayer (John 17), in Gethsemane (Luke 22:41), and here following the feeding of the five thousand. Following his urgent prayer in Gethsemane, an angel was sent to strengthen him. Christ prayed for himself, and he prayed for his disciples, and for all the elect who would come to faith through the church’s testimony (John 17:20). He was there while the disciples rowed across the sea. They had to row because there was a storm, and a fierce wind was blowing in the wrong direction, and they found themselves toiling against the wind. When we put the record of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark alongside each other, together with references in the Gospel of John chapter 6, we find that they had been rowing, possibly for up to seven hours. The wind was so strong, and in the words of the King James Version ‘contrary to them’, and sea was also very boisterous. They had really only got halfway, and just to try to picture it, this is an alarming situation. They were used to that sea, but now they are having to row, and row so hard just to remain almost in the same position. They are exhausted and it is night and it's dark, yet curiously we read this in Mark 6:48: ‘And he saw them toiling in rowing.’ Where was the Lord? He was in Bethsaida Julias. It was night; it was also stormy. It was quite impossible for him to see the disciples in the middle of the northern end of the lake. Nevertheless, he saw them. He saw them, not in his human nature, but he saw them as God. He was God and man, and he understood their situation perfectly. The narrative seems to imply that he particularly set his eyes upon them, because they were in trouble. They were toiling, making such heavy weather in dangerous conditions, so all the more he saw them.