August 9,
2020 Sermon Matthew 14:22-33
It is the end of the day. First, Jesus dismisses the disciples, sending
them off across the Sea of Galilee by boat.
Then, he dismisses the crowds.
These were the crowds who came to Jesus in the wilderness for healing,
triggering Jesus’ compassion, crowned with the miracle of the loaves and
fish-the feeding of the five thousand plus.
Jesus had withdrawn when he received news of his cousin’s sudden
execution by order of King Herod. He
withdrew on the news of the fate of John, who we know as the Baptist. Finally, Jesus is alone and able to up onto
the mountain to pray.
He is in prayerful communion with
God overnight, coming back in the early hours of the following morning. As he comes back to the edge of the Sea of
Galilee, the disciples are still out there on the water, fighting the wind as
they are trying to get across. As the
week began, watching the scenes of wind and surf, of damage and flooding
associated with Tropical Storm Isaias, for me, it added a level of realism in
considering what the disciples had to face.
Matthew is so nonchalant about what
happens next. “Early in the morning, he
(Jesus) was walking on the water toward them.”
So it seems that Jesus sent the disciples on ahead without a time frame
to come back and get him. Consider, the
perimeter of the Sea of Galilee is about 33 miles all around, so figure 15
miles or so for Jesus to walk around to catch up to them. That may sound like a lot, but not if they
walked everywhere. Its only 22 miles
from Jerusalem down to Jericho on the Jordan River. Maybe this is more helpful, the distance
around the Sea of Galilee is about the same as the distance from the church to
the Empire State Building in NYC. So,
half a day’s travel and Jesus could have circled the lake to catch them up.
But he didn’t. He took a stroll across the water.
And their reaction was an honest to
goodness human reaction. “OMG it’s a
ghost!!” Which tells me that although
Matthew was very casual about mentioning Jesus’ preferred route, walking across
the lake was not the usual thing.
Imagine if Jesus made a habit of
this? There is at least one time
recorded in the Gospel where the crowds had Jesus pinned up against the shores
of the Sea of Galilee so he took a boat out a few paces to talk to them. What if he’d just taken a half dozen steps
back and spoke from on top of the water?
Actually, I can understand why he did not do that. No one would have heard a word he said.
It
is probably a good thing that Jesus did not baptize people himself, but left his
disciples to do it. Not that it wouldn’t
have been an extremely efficient system.
Imagine Jesus invites groups of people by the hundred to come walking
out onto the Sea of Galilee. Get them
out on the water, Jesus says the word, and instant immersion.
But unlike your pastor, Jesus does
not go with the humor in the situation, but he immediately identifies himself
to the disciples, telling them to take heart.
Then it is Peter who tells Jesus to command him to come to him on the
water. And Jesus told him to come. Which he did.
But I hope you know the story. Peter
looked around, saw the wind and the ‘reality’ of the situation, his faith in
Jesus slipped and he began to sink. Its
not like an old cartoon where gravity suddenly drops him into the water, but it
seemslike he slowly began to sink, as his faith began to sink. Until Jesus came and got him.
And Jesus utters that line, in the
King James, it is “Oh ye of little faith…” which, in its entirety, concludes
with “Why did you doubt?”
When they got to the boat, the wind
dropped and the disciples worshipped, “You are truly the Son of God.”
It
does not happen very often where the events of real life illustrate verses of
Scripture so completely. They did so on
Tuesday. In the late morning, to look
outside was to see the power of nature in all her glory. The wind and the rain and the potential for
massive destruction in the form of Tropical Storm Isaias, we haven’t seen that
much power since Superstorm Sandy. Then,
a couple of hours later, the breeze was fresh but pleasant, the sky was blue,
and the temperature was lovely for an afternoon in August (at any rate).
Remember, the disciples had just
come away from the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. This followed a time when Jesus healed
everyone who came following him out into the wilderness. It was an ongoing display of the power of
God. But it was this moment, out in the
middle of the Sea of Galilee, where God’s power took on a whole new level of
impressiveness, that they recognized Jesus as “Son of God”.
In
this moment, Jesus truly upped the game of what God can accomplish. It may have been just what the disciples
needed.
Over the last number of weeks, a
thread running through the chapters we have shared in worship is that Jesus was
preparing his disciples to go out there and do what he did. They were charged with preaching and
teaching, they were gifted with healing and curing, they became force
multipliers to the work that Jesus was doing, work among people in need. Remember, the harvest is plenty, but the
workers are few, this was Jesus’ observation of the people who came to him.
So maybe that is why Jesus took a
stroll out there to meet them. Maybe
this was why the disciples were suddenly impressed enough to call Jesus the
“Son of God”. Maybe the healing, maybe
even the loaves and the fishes, that felt like stuff they’d already done-the
feeling of “been there, done that”. If
following Jesus was like a karate school, they’d advanced past the white
belt. Maybe they had the blue belt of
healing, the yellow belt of preaching, but there was still the black belt of
being the master of physical forces and the calmer of the storms and a few more
bits of creative power that they could not touch.
Maybe “Why did you doubt?” was not a
criticism. Maybe it was an object
lesson? Maybe it was necessary to
introduce a little doubt into the equation.
What do I mean? Well, humans have
an incredible capacity for self-righteousness.
The disciples have been, by faith, imbued with the power of Jesus. Maybe this was a moment to remind them of
where that power truly comes from. Maybe
in this moment, when the power of God was once again levels above what the
disciples were capable of in the Lord, it was time to remind them from whence
this power came?
Maybe Jesus telling Peter “Why did
you doubt?” is a reminder of where the power truly lies. That when we doubt what we can do, we have to
fall back to the sure and certain knowledge that there is nothing that God
cannot do. Maybe it’s a reminder that we
are the disciples, the followers, of Christ, and we are the apostles, the
servants, of Christ, but we are NOT Christ.
That job is taken and we reap the rewards of what Jesus has done for us.
That job is taken because it is
Jesus who died for us, rose for us, ascended into heaven for us, and prays for
us. That job is taken and He will be
there to embrace us as His own at the end of time. Remember that the Bible is very clear on the
warning that there is nothing we can do to earn our way into heaven. The way to heaven is by the grace of God, the
free gift of salvation.
Maybe Jesus asked, “Why do you
doubt?” for another reason. Remember the
arc of the story through this chapter.
It begins with Jesus finding out that John the Baptist has been executed
and his head paraded around like some kind of trophy. So he pulled back into the wilderness to get
with God, to regroup, and get his mind, body, and soul back together. Then the crowds followed him and he was led
by compassion to heal them, and then feed them.
And then, when conditions were right, he pulled back, went up into the
mountains to pray alone, sending the disciples out, by boat, to be met
later.
Could this be at the root of Peter’s
doubt? Maybe because he was tired. Maybe because he was burned out. Peter probably knew John. Peter’s brother Andrew was a disciple of John
before he moved over to follow Jesus.
Jesus has been doing the heavy lifting, the healing and the food making,
but Peter was there with the eleven when they were backed into a corner when
Jesus demanded that the disciples feed the five thousand. And who knows, maybe Jesus is into recycling
and composting and had the disciples carrying the twelve baskets of leftovers
with them there in the boat.
Maybe the doubt is coming from
burnout. Not enough time spent in a time
of personal meditation and prayer with the Almighty. Jesus sent them on ahead so that He could
recharge in the company of God. Now he
was back, mightier than they had EVER seen him.
Maybe the takeaway is for Peter and the eleven to find the time…no, they
will never find the time, to make the time to get closer to God. Because that is where their strength comes
from. Maybe if Peter and the other
disciples had been with Jesus during his time on the mountain in prayer, they
all could have walked across the lake.
Jesus is standing right there, on
the water. Peter asked Jesus to command
him to come out. Peter knew this was
Jesus power they needed. And he grabbed
onto that power with both hands. Until
it slipped away from him. And Jesus
calls him out on that, to teach him how many lessons in one sentence?
Tropical Storm Isaias was a powerful
reminder of just what power is to be found in something we so blithely call a
‘weather event’. Maybe Peter needed the
reminder not to take the power of Jesus for granted. Maybe Peter needed the reminder of where the
power of faith finds its origin. Maybe
Peter needed the reminder that because Jesus needed to ‘get with God’ to refill
his soul, how much more did Jesus’ all too human followers need to do the same
thing? Maybe Peter just needed the
reminder of how absolutely incredible the power of God really is.
Maybe the entire band of disciples
needed to be reminded that the supernatural is the power of Jesus, not the
power of a ghost.
And when I talk about Peter, I am
talking about all of us. Ever driven
past the Perth Amboy marina, maybe after church or something? Imagine Jesus strolling over from Staten Island? Maybe in the midst of this pandemic, we
needed to be blown away by the power of Jesus to overcome everything.
Jesus walked on water. Blew the disciples minds. Let our challenge be this week to let that
miracle blow our own minds. It’s all too
easy to dismiss these verses back to the ‘precious’ stories we heard in Sunday
School. Take this story to heart
instead. Try and picture it, Jesus doing
the impossible. Because that is what
Jesus does.
Maybe this is the moment to ask our
Lord and Savior fill us once again with the sure and certain knowledge that in
Him, all things are possible.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment