“WALKING ON
WATER”
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A sermon preached Matthew
14:22-33, Revelation 21:1-4 |
During the fourth watch
of the night Jesus went out to them,
walking on the lake. Mt 14:25
Mark Twain tells how on a visit to the Holy Land
he was staying by the
It was a moonlit night,
so he decided to take his wife on a romantic boat ride on the lake.
He asked a man in a rowing boat how much he would charge
to take them out on the water.
The man saw Twain's white suit, white shoes and white hat
and supposed he was a rich Texan.
So he said the cost would be twenty-five dollars.
Twain walked away as he said, "Now I know why Jesus walked."
David Leininger,
Stay in the Boat!
Do you believe in miracles?
Do you believe that Jesus actually, literally, walked on the water?
There are at least four ways to
understand this story –
and if we were to take a vote,
I’d be surprised if all four approaches
were represented in this congregation –
I wonder which one you would go for?
·
Literal fact - Jesus actually walked on the
water –
this was a miracle which defied the laws of nature.
·
Natural explanation - Jesus seemed to walk on water -
but really was wading through shallow water or
standing on a piece of drift wood or stepping on stones
·
An invented story - which never happened at all -
a piece of pious imagination
·
A true story from somewhere else -
originally about an appearance of the Risen Christ
but transposed to the period before the crucifixion
Well you pays your money and takes
your choice….
The Bible of course is full of all
kinds of stories -
·
Some
straightforward true stories of what actually happened
·
Some
make believe stories which did not actually happen
but which have an important truth or moral to them -
stories eg like the Prodigal Son or Good Samaritan -
they were stories “made up” by Jesus -
but they still contain profound truths
about what sort of person God is.
·
Some
stories we may disagree about
which category to put them in -
this is one of them.
The point, the moral of this story
is the same
whether it actually happened or whether
in terms of documentary historical events it is fiction.
So don’t lets worry too much if we
disagree
whether this is a piece of true history -
Lets make sure we all agree on what the story means –
what is the underlying theological truth in this story?
To get at that you need to understand
how the people of
For them all the evil and chaos
and horrible things in the world
were supremely symbolized by one thing - the sea.
The sea was on the whole a
frightening place for the Jews -
it was the remains of the chaos from before creation -
it reminded them of all the
horrible & frightening things in life,
it symbolized all the things that threatened
to overwhelm and threaten and destroy people.
And so, when the Bible says that
God parted the
and that Jesus walked on the waves and stilled the storm
it is saying much more than that
God can do clever tricks -
It is saying that whatever the
fear and the evil in your life,
God in the end can conquer it.
That Jesus has power to conquer
even the waves of the ocean
and all that they stand for.
It speaks to those surrounded by a
sea of troubles
Ê Drowning in sorrow and loss
Ê Overwhelmed by the waves of
persecution and hatred
Ê Sinking into despair
Ê Clinging to the wreckage of a
sinful and broken life….
Well here is the Gospel – Jesus
walks on the waves -
In Christ the powers of death and evil,
sin and sorrow, meet their match
This weekend we remember
Looking again at the footage of the devastation,
it is like creation coming full circle -
the human race in its sinfulness undoing the act of creation.
Genesis speaks of order coming out of chaos, life out of nothing
It is the like the victorious return of the primeval waters.
And not just 60 years ago –
·
Today
we think about
please give to our retiring collection today
·
We
think about continuing Nuclear proliferation
·
We
think of all the abuses of power
by governments and terrorists
in
It is as though God in creation
damned up the forces of evil,
but that time and again human sin threatens to smash the dam
and let chaos back in.
But the eyes of faith see what
other eyes miss –
the Son of Man walking on the
waters,
saying that ultimately our God is
·
the
God of Noah and the Rainbow,
·
the
God of Moses and the
·
of
Jonah and the whale,
·
of
Jesus stilling the storm –
the God who defeats even the chaotic power of the stormiest sea….
The Roman Catholic poet, Francis Thompson,
used to sleep rough by the
with no food, and no home.
But as he did so, he came to see
what so many missed –
that even in the darkest point of life,
God’s power and victory were there –
if only people could see them
in the midst of their trials and tribulations.
Just look, he said, and –
even at your saddest moment you will see,
amidst the sorrows of
glimpses of heaven -
angels, and Jacob’s ladder and Christ walking on the water -
But
when so sad thou cans’t not sadder
Cry:
- and upon thy so sore loss
Shall
shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder
Pitched
between Heaven and Charing Cross.
Yea,
in the night, my soul, my daughter,
Cry;
- clinging heaven by the hems;
And
lo, Christ walking the water
Not
of Gennesareth but
[The
A message of hope for all who
mourn and sorrow and despair
So, how do we respond?
You remember how after Jesus has
walked on the waves,
Peter decides that he too will walk on the water.
I’m going to do it too Lord, he
says – and he jumps out onto the water –
Peter shows huge faith –
this is not like an astronaut
leaving the Space Shuttle for a space walk –
there is no mechanical arm or umbilical cord –
he is out on his own and gravity
normally works on the
And whilst Peter trusts in Jesus
he’s OK
Then he panics and looks at the
waters,
and looks away from Jesus and
immediately begins to sink.
& if we do but trust in Christ
& hold out our hand,
we will be safe.
You know the old story about a house catching fire.
Fire forces a young boy to flee to the roof.
The father stands on the ground
below with outstretched arms, calling to his son,
"Jump! I'll catch you."
He knows the boy has to jump to save his life.
All the boy can see, however, is flame, smoke, and blackness.
As can be imagined, he is afraid to leave the roof.
His father keeps yelling: "Jump! I will catch you."
But the boy protests, "Daddy, I can't see you."
The father replies,
"But I can see you and that's all that matters."
Still God comes to us through hell
and high water
Still he comes walking over every
evil and fear -
not only on Galilee but on the
and on every river in every land
WE HAVE BUT TO PUT OUR FAITH IN
HIM.
So never mind what precisely
happened that night on
but remember and rejoice in what the story tells us
·
about
the power of Jesus everywhere.
·
about
his power over the primeval forces
of chaos and destruction themselves.
SO LET US TRUST IN GOD’S POWER
+ ECHO THE WORDS OF REV 21 –
John’s Vision of the coming
Kingdom –
how he spoke of the day when
He will wipe every tear from their
eyes.
And then recall that wonderful
verse –
a verse which sums up our
Christian hope
in the face of all the evil of
this world:
”Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth,
for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away,
and there was no longer any sea.”