Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 14th chapter:
Immediately [Jesus] made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And 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 and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
I read a book a few years ago called, “If you want to walk on water, you got to get out of the boat,” and honestly, you know, the book in retrospect wasn't all that great. And I think the reason for that is because people tend to take this text and make it some kind of analogy for life. Like, if you have enough faith, or if you trust Jesus enough, then you can really do anything, right? And that's not what it's saying. That's not what it's saying at all. Well, let's look at it.
This picks up right after last week's reading of Jesus feeding the 5000. You recall Jesus that headed off into the desolate place to get some time alone to pray after the death of his cousin and he doesn't get it. Instead, He heals the sick and the lame and he feeds these five thousand men and all their children and their wives and it's quite the miracle.
Well, now we pick up here with this verse. Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. Jesus has places to go and so he's sending his Apostles ahead and after he had dismissed the crowds, and we don't know exactly what that might mean, whether that's that he pronounces a blessing, whether that he greets everybody, you know handshakes, hugs, who knows he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Finally, Jesus gets that time that he has been so desperately seeking. He went up there to pray, and again, we've talked about this before, but this should give us great comfort that our Jesus prays and, often when he prays, he prays for you. He certainly prays for strength to complete his mission. He prays for the comfort that he needs as well in this life, for indeed, Jesus is man, being also God, but he also often prayed for you and my guess is that you were in his mind this night.
When the evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way off from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. You have to remember Matthew was in the boat. Matthew, the writer of this gospel, was in the boat traveling across that sea. You can only imagine the fear that Matthew had to have; Jews weren't exactly fond of water then, They believed that if a soul dies on the water then, well, there might be no hope for them. That's why in many of the passages of the New Testament, we see that the sea even shall give up her dead. That's a great comfort but it still doesn't mean that they really liked it all that much.
So they're in the middle of this see this giant lake and their boat is being battered about by the wind and the wind and the waves. It's terrifying. It's terrifying when all those things would come up against you, especially when Jesus tells them to go on ahead. Imagine that for a moment, they think to themselves, why would Jesus send us out? Did he know that this would happen to us? Does he want us all to die?
Well, in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said it is a ghost. I think the better translation there isn't really ghost. In Greek, the word is phantasm, some kind of spirit, right? You have to remember, it's not like people back then thought like people do today that, when you die, you wander around the earth like some disembodied spirit if you've got business left to complete. Our belief today in ghosts is really unfounded. There's really no idea behind that aside from demons masquerading as people. Instead, they had a very clear understanding of spirits, the good angels, the evil ones. That's why we even called the Holy Spirit “the Holy Spirit,” as in, he is the preeminent Holy Spirit. So, they thought that Jesus here was some kind of spirit, because who else would be on the sea in the middle of the night? The moon shining down, the stars shining down, the wind whipping around. The only thing that could be there would be some kind of spirit. They had never seen anybody walk on water before, why would they be expected to think that it was Jesus? Makes sense, doesn't it?
In their terror of being battered about by the wind and the waves, now they have the terror of some kind of spirit who probably is there to do them some kind of evil. But Jesus immediately spoke to them. He didn’t take his time. He didn't wait till he got closer. He immediately spoke to them and it's as if he were a long way off, and yet still speaking, like they could be hearing someone's voice in their ear as if they're right next to them. “Take heart. It is I. Be not afraid.” It's not, again, really what the Greek says. Jesus here says, “Take heart. I am. Fear not.”
Jesus here is reminding us that he is God, taking the name of God from the Old Testament, I am. In ascribing it to himself, Jesus Is God. It's not to say hey, I can do what I want. It’s I know what I did in sending you across the sea. I know what I'm doing in this moment. Don't Be Afraid.
Now Peter, always the impetuous one, speaks up and says Lord if it's you command me to come out of the boat. And I don't think it's a, Alright, if it really is you? I don't think that's the sense that's going on here. I think Peter is actually saying Lord, you are God and if it be your will let me come to where you are. Certainly seems like a righteous request, doesn't it? After all who wouldn't want to be where God is. But that's not exactly what Jesus has in mind.
Jesus doesn't say Ok, come to where I am. Find me and there I'll be. Instead, Jesus is coming to where the apostles are. Jesus comes to where the disciples are struggling in the boat. Jesus comes to them and Peter, in a seemingly righteous request, wants to be next to Jesus, God himself, while all this is going on, but notice what happens. Jesus says to him come. Now Jesus lets it happen.
But Peter getting out of the boat walking on the waves approaches where Jesus is and begins to sink. It doesn't say he sank, it doesn't say that. He's floundering there in the water and it says he begins to sink. And as you can see the water rising up against his toes, against his ankles, against his knees, he calls out, rightly, to Jesus, Lord save me. That's the right request. That's the right demand. Not let me come to where you are. Lord, save me.
Peter, in this moment realizes exactly who it is that Jesus is. He is the great I Am. And he knows that there is only one who is able to save in such events, and that is God himself. And Jesus, never leaving one of his own to struggle, again immediately reaches out, just as he immediately calls out. He reaches out to Peter and takes him by the hand, saying, oh you of little faith. Why did you doubt?
I don't think it's why did you doubt that you could walk on the water? I think it is, why did you doubt that I am God? Why did you doubt I am?
You know, I think often we look at this and we say the miracle here is Jesus is walking on the water. And that's true. That is a miracle in and of itself. It is a sign that Jesus is God because that's what miracles do. Miracles point to him as God. They are signposts for us. They are signs that he is the Messiah. It’s one of the reasons why we don't look for miracles today. You often seen people praying, God if you would just show yourself to me in this, then I'll truly believe in you. How often does God assent to such a request? Perhaps not all that often. All the miracles you need have been done.
And this is a miracle. It is truly a miracle that Jesus is able to walk on the water. I used to think we could try to figure it out. Well, maybe Jesus is is making some kind of stone come up from the bottom and he's walking on those or causing ice to form under him or or maybe he's hardening the water under his feet and he can walk on it, and the great reality is it's not for us to figure this out. It is to say that Jesus is I am. Jesus Is God and he can do whatever he pleases, not just because he has the power to do this, but because creation itself recognizes him from his speaking.
The water knows the God who created it and in so doing bows to his will. Whatever it is that Jesus is able to do, the water says this is God and it will happen. That's a miracle. That even creation looks at Jesus and says, you are my God, creation got it before the disciples did, which I think is just hilarious. We struggle, we feebly struggle, we look to Jesus and we say, I hope you truly are the son of God. And creation bows before him, recognizing him for who he is, for it remembers who called it out of nothingness.
Then Jesus gets in the boat with Peter. You know, I think it's interesting it never says that Jesus dragged Peter up out of the water. But I wonder if maybe Jesus is dragging Peter along so he doesn't sink anymore and finally pushing him up into the boat, Jesus climbs in. And when he does the wind ceases, because the wind is no longer going to try to push that boat around because God is in the boat. The wind recognizes its God.
And all those who were in the boat, all the disciples, bow down worshiping Jesus and saying truly you are the son of God. Would that they remember that in all circumstances. Still they do forget; they go back and forth on their confession.
Paul today talked about, not only what we believe in our hearts, that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, but also we then confess with what comes out of our mouths. And they are confessing rightly this day. But there will come a time, especially as he approaches his crucifixion, when doubt will seize them and they will run away. And that's sad, because they forget that he's the son of God when creation remembers.
You see this book I read, “If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat,” has nothing to do with a right invitation of Jesus to do the miraculous around us. If you do this strong things that we think we would otherwise be incapable of or to put our trust in God so completely that we just dive headlong into whatever it is that we have in front of us, that's missing the point. The point of this passage is to point us to Jesus. It is to show that he is the God of all creation so that, even when all things are coming against us, when we're dealing with the virus still, when we're dealing with the hurricane that battered the East Coast, when we're dealing with scorching heat or bitter cold, when we're dealing with all the things that nature would throw at us, not to mention all the stuff that the world, in its sinful self, is doing to us, creation still knows its God.
And when Jesus then commands creation to care for us in our deaths until he returns, so it will. And when Jesus commands creation to remake itself, to reform itself into that which he had originally created, a world without sin, a world without death, a world without grief, so it shall so that we ultimately can confess with the disciples, Truly. You are the Son of God. You're not some phantasm out there, you’re not some spirit who can't really do any good for us, you’re not something that we put our trust in that that really just lets us down, you are the Son of God whom the wind and the waves obey and whom the wind and the waves still know.
He is the one who commanded them into existence. He is the one who laid the foundations of the earth. He is the one who does all things for your good, that you may believe in your heart that he is risen from the dead and you may confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is God, that Jesus is the great I Am.
It is hard for us to remember that and, like the apostles, we will often falter. We will often forget that God is God and we are not we will look to our own devices to save ourselves. We will look to things into which we place our hope. And yet we will always be let down, because, ultimately, death comes for us all in our sin.
Our life here is short. Our life is just a blink in the existence of time. And that should make us feel very small. It should make us realize exactly what it is that we confessed at the beginning of the service, that we are sinners, we are grievous sinners, that there is no good in us, and, if left to our own devices, we would only find hell, that we deserve God's present, right now judgment, not just that which is to come in hell, but that God should strike us with lightning over and over and over and over again right now. That's what we deserve. And that's what the apostles deserved. And yet they record for us this miracle, that we may be able to look to Jesus, who comes knowing that creation will bend to his will. And he looks at you. And he speaks to you from his word. “Take heart. I am. Fear not.” You don't have to fear the things of this world, Jesus has them all under his control. And certainly he shall keep us safe, if not in this life, then in the life to come, the life without end, the life living in his glory, when we were all able to confess together with every tongue over the face of the entire planet, over all of space and time, truly you, Jesus, are the son of God. In Jesus’ name, amen,
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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