Reading the Gospels Together The Multiplication of the Bread and Walking on Water – Part 6 The story of the walking on water is also essentially the same as Mark’s story – only this time when Jesus and his disciples reach their destiny following the boat crossing they run into the same crowd that had been present at the feeding. This is a significant difference in John’s story and from here on he will depart from what we find in Mark and the other synoptic writers. John pictures the departure in the boat more as an attempt to get away from the crowd who has just been fed than the others do. John had told his readers that when Jesus had fed the 5000 they sought to make Jesus their king by force. This is really a way of saying they wanted him to be the Messiah of their choosing. Jesus is the Messiah but he is not the Messiah at the beck and call of those he has come to serve. Jesus will not submit to the demands of others. The crowd is persistent in their attempt to make Jesus the Messiah they want. They pursue Jesus to his destiny at Capernaum and the scene of the aftermath of the feeding of the 5000 resumes. Jesus confronts them with the reality that they have come to him not because they have correctly interpreted the sign of the multiplication of the loaves but because they want to have their bellies full.