Detractors have long voiced the opinion the, “Synoptic gospels” of Matthew, Mark and Luke do not claim that Jesus is God nor does Jesus himself say he is God. They say only in the gospel of John does Jesus say he is God and act like God. Are we then to believe Jesus is God on the testimony of one man? This attempt to obscure the gospel message of a divine Christ is more of Satan’s lies. It’s true the writers of the Synoptic gospels do not come out and say Jesus is God. Jesus does not go around beating his chest declaring, “I am God”. Nevertheless, in each gospel Jesus does declare he is God, but in a Jewish way and in the context that any Jew living in the first century would immediately recognize based on Old Testament descriptions of God (Yahweh). In the Old Testament God was portrayed as the creator of the universe and the God who could still the wind and calm the raging sea. God could and did part the Red Sea.
Let’s look at three miracles of Jesus from the gospels that effectively told the Jews that Jesus was declaring himself to be the God of the Old Testament. The first miracle was when Jesus and his disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was sleeping and there arose a great storm of wind and high waves that threatened to swamp the boat. The disciples were afraid and awakened Jesus. Jesus rebuked the wind and it ceased. Jesus calmed the sea with a word. To the Jewish mind this immediately told the disciples that Jesus was claiming to be the divine God of the Old Testament who stilled the wind and calmed the sea. This account is in all three of the Synoptic gospels.
The second miracle that confirmed to the Jews that Jesus was claiming to be God was the account of Jesus walking on the waters of the Sea of Galilee in the midst of a bad storm. The disciples saw Jesus walking on the water coming toward them. As Jesus came near the boat he told his disciples, “take heart, I AM; do not be afraid.” As Jesus stepped into the boat the wind immediately stilled. Not only does the wind obey Jesus a second time like in the Old Testament, Jesus openly declared he was God in the flesh. All Jews know from the story of Moses that God spoke from the burning bush on Mount Sanai and declared his name to be, “I AM”. The Jews immediately understood Jesus was saying he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This story is in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John.