The Lord Who Passes By
Jesus "passing by" on the sea in Mark 6:48 echoes Old Testament divine encounters, revealing his sovereignty. The disciples' failure to recognize him highlights a deeper spiritual blindness.
Divine Proximity, Perceptual Limitation, and the Marcan Epiphany
“And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them...”
Mark 6:48
Theophany and Perceptual Limitation
The narrative of Jesus walking on the sea in Mark 6:45–52 contains one of the most enigmatic statements in the second Gospel: “he intended to pass by them” (θέλων παρελθεῖν αὐτούς, thelōn parelthein autous). Taken merely as a description of physical movement, the phrase is difficult. It can sound as though Jesus intended to bypass the disciples while they struggled against the wind. Read against Israel’s Scriptures, however, the language can be understood as a theophanic allusion whose significance becomes clearer within the wider narrative.
The scriptural background begins with Moses at Sinai. In Exodus 33, Moses asks to see the glory of YHWH. God responds, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD’” (Exod 33:19). Moses is placed in the cleft of the rock and covered by the divine hand as YHWH passes by. The following chapter narrates the fulfillment: “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed” His name (Exod 34:6). The Septuagint employs the verb parerchomai, specifically parēlthen, the same verbal family that appears in Mark 6:48.
The Sinai account simultaneously establishes proximity and limitation. Moses genuinely encounters YHWH, yet the terms of the encounter remain under divine control. He is sheltered in the rock, covered by God's hand, and permitted only a restricted vision, for “my face shall not be seen” (Exod 33:23). Divine presence is real, but human perception does not master the revelation.
A related pattern appears in Elijah’s encounter at Horeb. Elijah is commanded to “stand on the mount before the LORD,” after which the narrative declares, “behold, the LORD passed by” (1 Kgs 19:11). The Septuagint again uses parēlthen. The text explicitly states that YHWH was not in the wind, earthquake, or fire, and Elijah responds when the subsequent quiet sound is heard (1 Kgs 19:11–13).
In both narratives, the language of “passing by” accompanies divine self-disclosure. YHWH draws near, yet His presence is not reduced to ordinary human perception. Against this scriptural background, Mark’s otherwise puzzling statement that Jesus “intended to pass by them” takes on a distinctly theophanic resonance.
Jesus on the Sea
The verbal correspondence is reinforced by the setting of Mark’s narrative. Jesus does not merely approach the disciples across difficult terrain. He comes to them walking upon the sea.
Israel’s Scriptures repeatedly associate sovereignty over the waters with YHWH. Job declares that God “alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8). Psalm 77 likewise describes the divine passage through the waters: “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen” (Ps 77:19). The sea, often representing forces beyond human control, lies completely within the sovereignty of Israel’s God.
Mark places Jesus within precisely this symbolic world. The disciples struggle against the wind, but Jesus approaches them by walking across the very waters that resist their progress. The action therefore carries significance beyond the display of miraculous power. Jesus performs an act that Israel’s Scriptures characteristically associate with the sovereign mastery of YHWH.
The disciples do not understand what they are witnessing. When they see Jesus walking on the sea, they suppose that He is a phantasma, a ghost or apparition, and cry out in fear (Mark 6:49). Their problem is not that Jesus is invisible. They see Him clearly enough to become terrified. Their failure lies in interpreting what they see.
At this point Jesus addresses them: “Take courage; it is I; do not be afraid” (Mark 6:50). The Greek expression ἐγώ εἰμι (egō eimi) can function ordinarily as the self-identification “it is I,” and the phrase by itself should not be treated as a direct quotation of Exodus 3:14. Within this particular scene, however, its force is heightened by the surrounding scriptural imagery. Jesus walks upon the sea, approaches in a manner resonant with the divine “passing by,” and responds to human fear with the declaration egō eimi.
No single element must carry the entire Christological argument. Their convergence is what gives the episode its force. The sea, the passing-by language, the self-identification, and the command not to fear together present Jesus within a scriptural pattern associated with divine manifestation.
The Loaves and the Failure to Understand
Mark does not leave the disciples’ reaction unexplained. After Jesus enters the boat and the wind ceases, the evangelist writes that they were utterly astonished, “for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened” (Mark 6:51–52).
This retrospective comment connects the sea episode directly with the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6:35–44. Whatever the disciples should have perceived in the multiplication of the loaves, their failure to understand that event leaves them unprepared for what follows on the sea.
The feeding itself belongs naturally within Israel’s scriptural memory of wilderness provision. A multitude is gathered in a “desolate place” (Mark 6:35), bread is provided abundantly, and the people eat until satisfied. Such features invite comparison with God’s provision for Israel in the wilderness. Yet Mark’s immediate emphasis falls not upon constructing an explicit manna typology but upon the disciples’ failure to grasp the significance of what has occurred.
The sea narrative intensifies that failure. They have witnessed extraordinary provision and now see Jesus walking upon waters that Scripture places beneath divine sovereignty. Nevertheless, recognition does not follow automatically from sight.
The obstacle is described as hardness of heart.
Seeing Without Perceiving
Rather than importing an external framework to explain this hardness, Mark’s own Gospel supplies the interpretive vocabulary. The problem of seeing without understanding recurs throughout the narrative and becomes explicit again in Mark 8.
After another feeding miracle, Jesus asks His disciples:
“Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?” Mark 8:17–18
The verbal and conceptual correspondence with Mark 6:52 is striking. Hardness of heart produces a condition in which the disciples can witness Jesus’ actions without comprehending their significance. Physical sight and theological perception are not identical.
This makes Mark 6 more than a story about miraculous rescue. The disciples are physically close to Jesus. They see Him. They hear Him. They experience the cessation of the wind. Yet proximity does not guarantee recognition.
The episode therefore develops a recurring Marcan tension between revelation and perception. Jesus is increasingly disclosed through actions whose scriptural associations point beyond ordinary categories, while those nearest to Him repeatedly struggle to understand what those actions reveal.
The pattern also turns the narrative toward the reader. Mark has supplied what the frightened disciples lack in the moment: the scriptural and narrative context necessary to interpret the scene. The reader is therefore invited to perceive what the disciples cannot yet fully comprehend.
The Marcan Epiphany
The expression “he intended to pass by them” can now be read within the convergence of these elements. Exodus and 1 Kings provide precedents in which YHWH “passes by” human witnesses in moments of divine self-disclosure. Job and the Psalms associate mastery of the sea with Israel’s God. Mark depicts Jesus walking upon those waters, approaching the disciples with the passing-by language, identifying Himself with egō eimi, and commanding them not to fear.
The cumulative pattern is difficult to reduce to an incidental description of movement.
At the same time, the narrative does not require every element to function as a direct quotation or one-to-one correspondence. Mark never pauses to explain that Jesus is reenacting Exodus 33 or 1 Kings 19. The argument rests instead upon the convergence of scriptural language, divine prerogatives, narrative setting, and the evangelist’s explicit concern with the disciples’ inability to understand.
Within a canonical reading, the episode consequently carries substantial divine-identity significance. Jesus is portrayed performing what Israel’s Scriptures attribute to YHWH, while the language surrounding His approach recalls scriptural scenes of divine manifestation. The evangelist does not introduce another divine actor competing with Israel’s God. Rather, the identity of Jesus is disclosed through the scriptural grammar by which Israel had learned to speak of YHWH’s presence and sovereign action.
The mystery of the scene lies partly in the disparity between what is revealed and what is perceived. The disciples encounter the revelation but cannot yet interpret it.
Conclusion
Mark 6:45–52 presents divine proximity without immediate human recognition. Jesus comes to the struggling disciples upon the sea, and Mark describes His approach with language that recalls scriptural scenes in which YHWH passes before human witnesses. The waters beneath His feet further evoke texts in which Israel’s God exercises sovereign mastery over the sea.
Yet Mark directs attention not only to what Jesus does, but to the disciples’ inability to understand what they encounter. They see Him, hear Him, and experience His authority over the wind, but recognition does not follow. The evangelist locates the problem in their hardened hearts, developing a tension that will surface again when Jesus asks whether they have eyes without seeing and ears without hearing.
The episode therefore turns on the disparity between revelation and perception. Jesus is not absent or concealed from the disciples. He is drawing near. What remains hidden is the significance of the One standing before them.
Mark leaves that tension with the reader. The disciples saw the figure upon the waters and struggled to understand. The question now passes beyond the boat: Do we merely see the signs, or do we have the eyes to see and the heart to understand the Lord who passes by?