Our recent passages (Mark 6:14-29) were a flashback to the beheading of John the Baptist.  That grisly saga started when Herod heard that Jesus had sent out His disciples two by two to different towns to announce the need for repentance (Mark 6:12-13) ... just as John had done!  Perhaps the disciples thought they might be next for execution.

The disciples had come to that day, exhausted.  After being sent away in pairs on mission (Mark 6:7-13), they needed to debrief with Jesus and exchange accounts of their experiences with the others (Mark 6:30).  Jesus took them away from the crowds by sailing to a remote beach on the other side of Lake Galilee (Mark 6:31).  Anticipating a 'day off' with Jesus, they got another day's work as thousands followed on foot!  Jesus taught the crowds, satisfying their hungry souls (Mark 6:32-34).  As the afternoon drew on, the disciples may well have been thinking about their own stomachs or perhap

The 5000 families had been fed, the disciples were refreshed, but Jesus had another appointment.  He needed time with His Father, and that needed to be alone.  Jesus had not come to wow the crowd but to please His Father ... and so the pressing priority was to pray.  There was no protracted celebration of the miraculous feast; instead, the disciples were dispatched across the lake in a boat - immediately!  They also had an appointment - with alone-ness – and after that, with Jesus.

Exhausted people don't always make good decisions. After the disciples had served a miraculous picnic of bread and fish to five thousand families (Mark 6:39-44), Jesus told them to go back to Gennesaret by boat while He stayed up a mountain to pray (Mark 6:45-46).  It was a windy night on the Sea of Galilee.  The sail came down and they were soon rowing hard against the westerly gusts (Mark 6:48).  They were very tired and saw a shape coming towards them in the darkness.  As it drew closer, they saw it was the figure of a man, walking on water, in the middle of the night.