(John Sanders)

Speed Boat Record

I apologize because I’m not sure how much of a devotional this is. It’s pretty quick this morning.  I wanted to share this because, as you might recall, I spoke a couple of weeks ago about those “Wooo!” moments in the Bible.  Well, I was reading in the book of John and I found one of those moments.  It’s not something that someone points out too much in this particular chapter but it made me chuckle when I thought about it.  It also made me remember how awesome our God is.

The world record speed boat title

Let me start out by telling you a story of speed… on the water …

According to Google, on October 8, 1978, Ken Warby in a wooden jet-powered hydroplane, set the fastest speedboat record when he ran that boat at 317.59 mph.  Wow!  Pretty fast.

Would you believe Jesus ran a boat faster?  Let’s go to the gospel of John chapter 6 starting at verse 15, but first you may recall that Jesus had fed the 5000 in a remote, grassy area near Bethsaida.  Let’s pick up the story at verse 15…

(CSB)

¹⁵Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. 

¹⁶When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 

¹⁷got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. Darkness had already set in, but Jesus had not yet come to them. 

¹⁸A high wind arose, and the sea began to churn. 

¹⁹After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid. 

²⁰But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 

Let’s pause just a moment and think about this.  After they had rowed three or four miles.  It’s generally thought that the distance from Bethsaida to Capernaum was six ~ish miles, so they were still at least two miles from their destination.

²¹Then they were willing to take him on board, and at once the boat was at the shore where they were heading.

At once.  Not even the blink of an eye, they travelled at least two miles.  Now, let’s just say it was the blink of an eye.  Science says that the blink of an eye is around twenty five hundreths of a second.  Hmmm… I needed a math person but since Amy is gone on a trip, I had to ask the computer…

The computer says they traveled 28,800 miles per hour.  Mr. Ken Warby…I’m afraid Jesus wins the speedboat contest.  But really, was there ever a doubt?