John 6:17-18 - Exposition

And darkness had already come on , £ and Jesus had not yet come to them . This thrilling touch in John's narrative makes it more than evident that the beloved disciple was on board. He had been expecting the Master to make his appearance in some form. He had looked long and eagerly to that point on the mountainside whither he knew that Jesus had retired. The dreary and disappointed expectation, the long and weary waiting, left an indelible impression. Their natural course towards Capernaum would have been almost parallel with the shore of the lake; but it was dark and tempestuous, they could not steer. And the sea was being roused from its slumber by reason of a high wind which was blowing. If the wind came from the north, it would drift them out into the darkness and the middle of the lake, which is there, at its widest, about five miles broad, i . e . forty stadia, or furlongs. The statement of the next verse comes then into undesigned coincidence with Mark 6:47 , which shows that they were "in the midst of the sea," i . e . halfway from shore to shore. This would exactly correspond with the following statement.