This is not the first time that the disciples get into a boat in the Gospel of Matthew. It’s a pretty common experience in many of the gospels. Traveling by boat from one shore to another is a pretty effective means of travel in those days. However, this time it’s a little different. Jesus compels the disciples to get into the boat, but Jesus does not go with them. After hearing about the death of John the Baptist, after the feeding of the 5000-10,000 gathered people, Jesus decides that he needs to be alone and so he sends the disciples out onto the boat while he goes up on the mountain. There are plenty of aspects of this story that we could focus on from this text. Jesus needing time away. Jesus grieving the death of a friend. Jesus being a Moses figure, going up to the mountain to communicate with God. But today I want to stay with the story of the disciples. And that’s because there’s a slow transition happening between last week’s text up through the transfiguration. Jesus is trying to show the disciples that they will need to start taking the lead. But that does not mean that God’s not there (see next section for this Matthew trajectory).