Jesus Caught …


Sunday, August 22nd, 2004
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton
Matt 14:22-33

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid." 28 Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." 29 He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

Be kind. Be gentle. Be truthful. Be patient. Be understanding. Be forgiving. Be aware of God’s grace and presence – and leading.

As I understand it, following Christ – being a Christian - doesn’t mean simply accepting that his teachings and his example were honorable and lofty, worthy of attention and good for society. It doesn’t mean agreeing in theory. It means giving yourself to Christ. I can’t say this simply enough or often enough. Becoming a Christ-follower means, in Jesus’ own words,

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

It means leaving behind what you think is best for your life, and learning – and doing - what is best for others, and for the Kingdom of God.

It means taking Christ at his word when he said the things he said about himself. Most notably, to his critics:

‘He who has seen me has seen the Father.’

What was so unsettling about that? Most of us bear some resemblance to our parents – sometimes more to one than the other, but doesn’t it seem odd that people would get upset about Jesus telling them that he looked like his father?

It was, of course, because he wasn’t speaking about Joseph, but about God.

The great mystery – and the great challenge – of the Christian faith is that we are called to be like Christ. That we even have the ability to contemplate that as a possibility is in itself an act of the Holy Spirit, but that we have the actual potential is nothing less than the amazing and free gift of God.

We find in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry example after example of miracles that Christ performed.

If we are called to be like Christ – to be his presence here on earth, are we called to step out into the turbulent waters of the world and follow him there? What sort of miracles might we be capable of ourselves?

Should we really take our cue from Peter, who proved himself to be, more often than not, a little less than brave, a little less than truthful, a little more than convenience-minded.

Let’s look at the story. Jesus has just finished feeding over 5,000 men, plus women and children, with 5 loaves and 2 fish. That’s a pretty convincing miracle, however you interpret the events. As soon as they were done eating, Jesus tells the disciples to get into the boat and head on across the Sea of Galilee, and dismisses the crowds. Can you imagine having been a witness and even a participant in the feeding of the 5,000 and then being dismissed? I would hope that I’d at least make an attempt to stay around Jesus, maybe just to say ‘thanks; I was hungry, now I’m not’, or something like that. Jesus ends up by himself and spends some serious time in prayer up on the mountain. Evening comes, and with it, a storm breaks out on the sea. Jesus walks out toward the boat. His disciples are in the boat, and not only are they terrified by the waves and the wind, they now have to deal with the specter of someone or something coming at them across the water. Matthew says they thought it was a ghost.

But Jesus called out to them and told them it was him – and to not be afraid.

How many times have we been guilty of mistaking someone walking into our lives for a ghost – or a ghoul of some kind, only to find that they turn out to be Jesus walking toward us? How often are we so wrapped up in expecting to see Jesus’ movement in our lives through a particular set of circumstances – a particular group of people – a particular place, even, only to be hit up beside the head by the reality that Jesus is going to move where HE wants to move and not where we expect him to move? That was the biggest obstacle Jesus’ very existence presented to the religious leaders of the day. He did not come in the expected fashion, in the standard religiously accepted format.

Peter calls out a challenge. There is an element of faith in the call, but before you get to the faith part you have to get through the doubt part:

"Lord, if it is you …”

The biggest two-letter word in the English language: IF.

Paul Tillich, a German theologian wrote that doubt is an element of faith, not the opposite of it. The opposite of faith is certainty. That makes sense. Faith lives with doubt, and doubt informs faith. The conversation goes something like this: faith says ‘I believe the sun will rise tomorrow.’ Doubt says ‘Maybe. Tomorrow hasn’t come yet. We could be hit by a meteor tonight and the world could be destroyed.’ Faith says ‘True, it could happen, but if it doesn’t, I still believe the sun will rise tomorrow.’ Certainty leaves no room for disagreement, no room to breathe, as it were. Certainty doesn’t require faith. It only requires blind unquestioning obedience.

Peter was willing to accept for the moment that it was Christ walking towards them where no one should be walking. But he was also willing to test that hypothesis. He asks Jesus to command him to walk on water as well. It’s a neat idea. Test the hypothesis and get a really cool experience out of the test to boot. How many of us can say that we have actually, literally, walked on water? (Hold that thought)

Jesus meets Peter’s challenge. He says one word: “Come.” So Peter’s bluff is called, and he steps out of the boat onto the water.

A few weeks ago I got to go tubing for the first time in my life. First of all, I loved it. I had a blast. A few times during the ride the way the tube was hitting the water and the way the water was hitting me, it really DID seem like the water would have been able to support my weight, had I stepped off the tube – going the same speed I was going. The illusion disappeared as soon as we slowed down and stopped. Peter stepped out of a boat that was not going anywhere near 25 miles per hour.

It must have been an incredible feeling. I can imagine Peter not taking his eyes off Jesus as he took those first steps. Jesus would have been the only thing he was seeing at that point. But he was intent on one thing: doing what Jesus was doing.

With all his faults and shortcomings, with all his volatility, Peter was still the only one who took the chance to step out of the boat. For however brief a moment, he was duplicating Christ.

Then life sets in. The wind and the waves got to him. How often do we let that happen to us? How often do we catch a vision for where it is God wants us to go, what it is Christ wants us to do, and we start out in that direction, and begin second-guessing ourselves, giving heed to our doubts and fears, forgetting that what we are doing is not from us, but from God? If the first miracle in the story is that Jesus walked on water, then the second is surely that Peter did too.

We can do wonderful and incredible things, when we have our eyes set on Jesus, and don’t become distracted by the pettiness, the superficiality, the spitefulness that is the standard operating procedure for the world in which we live.

The story continues: Peter becomes afraid, and turns away from Jesus and begins to focus on his own circumstances: He’s standing on water. The waves are splashing up on HIM. HE can feel the wind trying to blow HIM over. In other words, he begins to focus not on Christ but on himself. And he begins to sink. That self-indulgent streak got to him. He lost sight of why he was doing what he was doing – he wanted to be doing what Jesus was doing, and then began to view it from the point of view of what he was doing instead.

In order to walk on water, we must overcome at least two things: our fears, and our selfishness. We must be willing to forget who WE are in order to focus on who CHRIST is.

To Peter’s credit, he knew who to call on when he DID start to sink:

"Lord, save me!"

And here is the third miracle of the story. “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

In those two sentences, we have a vivid portrayal of the act of Salvation. It is from this passage that we get the first words to the hymn Love Lifted Me –

I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,
But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me now safe am I!
Love lifted me, Love lifted me,
When nothing else could help, love lifted me …”

So what does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

This is going to be something that we will each need to work out and understand for ourselves individually. What miracles are you capable of following Christ into? What doubts and fears, what sins assail you, hold you back, stunt your growth? What are we as a congregation capable of doing for the Kingdom? Can we present an example of the Kingdom that will stun and amaze the rest of the Northern Neck, and Virginia, and the world? Can we truly live out the values of the Kingdom in that way? I believe, with Christ’s help, we can. Do you?

When Jesus caught us by the hand and pulled us up out of the water, he was saying that he believed in US as much as we believe in him.

Let’s pray.