Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
they see Jesus—"about the fourth watch of the night" (Matthew 14:25; Mark 6:48), or between three and six in the morning.
walking on the sea—What Job (Job 9:8) celebrates as the distinguishing prerogative of GOD, "WHO ALONE spreadeth out the heavens, and TREADETH UPON THE WAVES OF THE SEA"—What AGUR challenges as GOD'S unapproachable prerogative, to "GATHER THE WIND IN HIS FISTS, and BIND THE WATERS IN A GARMENT" (Proverbs 30:4) —lo! this is here done in flesh, by "THE SON OF MAN."
drawing nigh to the ship—yet as though He "would have passed by them," Mark 6:48 (compare Luke 24:28; Genesis 18:3, Genesis 18:5; Genesis 32:24-26).
they were afraid—"cried out for fear" (Matthew 14:26), "supposing it had been a spirit" (Mark 6:49). He would appear to them at first like a dark moving speck upon the waters; then as a human figure, but—in the dark tempestuous sky, and not dreaming that it could be their Lord—they take it for a spirit. (How often thus we miscall our chiefest mercies—not only thinking them distant when they are near, but thinking the best the worst!)
sea arose, etc.—and they were "now in the midst of it" (Matthew 14:24). Mark adds the graphic and touching particular, "He saw them toiling in rowing" (Mark 6:48), putting forth all their strength to buffet the waves and bear on against a head wind, but to little effect. He saw this from His mountain-top, and through the darkness of the night, for His heart was all with them; yet would He not go to their relief till His own time came.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing John 6:19:
Matthew 14:28
Mark 6:48
John 6:14-15
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