Matthew
14:22-33
When
Matthew shares his account of Jesus’ walking on the water, there are really two
miracles going on.
The
first is what the disciples saw Jesus do when he had sent them ahead of him in
a boat, leaving him alone for awhile because he needed time to pray.
“And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the
sea. But when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear.” [Matthew 14:25-26]
Matthew, who knew his Old Testament
very well — that was the only scripture that he and the other disciples, not to
mention Jesus, knew — also knew, like a great artist, how to show his message,
not just how to spell it out. He knew
the words of Psalm 77:
“When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they
were afraid;
the very deep trembled.
The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered;
your arrows flashed on every
side.
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lit up the
world;
the earth trembled and shook.
Your way was through the sea,
your path, through the mighty
waters;
yet your footprints were
unseen.” [Psalm 77:16-19]
Here, then, is Jesus,
God in the flesh, approaching the disciples in the midst of a storm and
his way was through the sea,
his path, through the
mighty waters;
yet his footprints were
unseen.
As if that were not enough, there’s another declaration that
unfortunately doesn’t come across as strongly in English as it does in the
Greek that Matthew wrote in.
“But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said,
‘Take heart, it is I;” [Matthew
14:27]
and that “it is I” is the same phrase that God
himself uses when Moses asks him his name at the burning bush, “I AM”.
This is one of those moments, like the Transfiguration, when the
deep, divine center of Jesus’ being breaks out into view. At the end of this whole episode,
“those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly,
you are the Son of God.’” [Matthew
14:33]
In no way would I downplay this
mystery. In no way would I reduce this
to a magic trick. We are hearing of one
of the ways that the disciples came to recognize that they were face-to-face
with the Lord of heaven and earth. Yet
for God to walk upon the water, the same God whose Spirit in the beginning
moved across the face of the deep, is not beyond him. We are dealing with the omnipotent ruler of
all time and space. That in itself is
frightening and awe-inspiring, but to rule nature in all ways is part of the
essential being of the Almighty.
The second
miracle is a different matter. It’s
where, when Jesus announces himself and at the same time announces the eternal
and holy One within him,
“Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command
me to come to you on the water.’ He
said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the
boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.” [Matthew 14:28-29]
Peter is entirely
human. In some ways, with his bluster
and bragging, but also with his loyalty and the way that he just sort of pushes
the envelope all the time, even when he has no idea what he’s doing, he seems
like one of the most clearly human of all the disciples. Yet for all his faults, he genuinely wants to
be like Jesus. So on the one hand, he
knows that human beings do not just, on their own, go for a stroll on the
waves. But on the other hand, he sees
the divine power of God that can do anything at all, and he says, “Command me.”
Human beings can do the impossible,
but not on our own. Human beings can do
the impossible when God makes it happen.
The thing is, however, that if you are going to attempt the impossible,
you had better be very sure it is God’s voice, and not your own, that you are
obeying. Peter did not have an easy
walk. I am sure that the first step was
the hardest, climbing out of the boat. I
can picture the others either trying to hold him back, or grabbing a rope to
throw him as he starts overboard. Yet he
went. As he went on, though, it didn’t
mean that the storm subsided.
“But when he noticed the strong wind, he became
frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” [Matthew 14:30]
If you are going to
be like Jesus, and if you’re going to follow him, you may be walking on water,
but there will still be wind and waves.
Even on land, if you’re going to follow him, the way to do it, as he
clearly said, is to take up your cross.
Madeleine L’Engle was a great
essayist and writer of children’s books.
One of her best, A Wrinkle in Time,
is going to be released as a movie later this year. She was very much aware of the excitement and
possibility that God calls his people to experience, in her case as a
writer. But she also knew that to
experience the miracles that God works out requires a faith that is ready to
follow Jesus into the storms of life and not to hide from them. She wrote of some of her own experiences:
“In the literary
world today, Christianity has pretty well replaced sex as the present pet
taboo, not only because Christianity is so often distorted by Christians as
well as non-Christians, but because it is too wild and free for the timid.
How many of us really
want life, life more abundant, life which does not promise any fringe benefits
or early retirement plans? Life which
does not promise the absence of pain, oriole which is not vulnerable and open
to hurt? The number of people who
attempt to withdraw from life through the abuse of alcohol, tranquilizers,
barbiturates is statistically shocking.
How many of us dare
to open ourselves to that truth which would make us free? Free to talk to Roman Catholics or
charismatics or Jews, as Jesus was free to talk to tax collectors or publicans
or Samaritans. Free to feast at the
Lord’s table with those whose understanding of the Body and Blood may be a
little different from ours. Free to
listen to angels. Free to run across the
lake when called.”[1]
I am not going to presume to tell you what impossible task the Lord
may put in front of you. It could be
anything. It could be a one-time
challenge, or it could be a lifetime’s work.
It might be something very public, or it might be some private matter no
one but you and he will ever know about.
What I will say is this: if you are already out of the boat, keep going,
and if you need a hand, call him. He’s
right there, and if it’s his work, he will not let you sink. If you’re thinking about stepping out of the
boat, make sure that it’s his voice and not your own that you hear, but if it
is Jesus, then go and watch the impossible happen.
[1] Madeleine L’Engle, Walking
on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (Colorado Springs: Shaw Books, 2001)
48-49.
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