Walk on Water

"15So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. (He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side – Mark 6:45.) 16Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, 17and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. (The boat was in the middle of the lake, and He was alone on land. He saw they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them – Mark 6:46.) 19Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. 20But He said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." (Peter answered Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus 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, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” – Matthew 14:28-31) 21So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately (the wind stopped and) the boat was at the land to which they were going." - John 16:15-21

[Note: Integrating the Gospel accounts of the same events can sometimes cause questions about the Bible’s accuracy to arise, since there can appear to be conflicts between the accounts. For example, in the accounts of the events above it initially appears three different destinations are referenced - Capernaum, Beth-Saida and Gennesaret. However, once we dig deeper we learn that Beth-Saida and Capernaum are basically side by side towns in the district (or area) of Gennersaret. Therefore, this is much like asking three people where they went and one saying Lacey, another saying Olympia, and a third saying Thurston County or even Hawk’s Prairie or the South Sound. While people from elsewhere may wonder “well which is it?”, locals immediately know there is no conflict, since all are valid ways to reference our location.]

Some of the Seahawks were in town yesterday helping out the Little League baseball teams. It was a bit of a break for the players, who are already in mini training camps preparing for next season. As unpleasant as training camp is for a lot of players, they know going into a season unprepared means almost certain defeat, and Jesus knows that as unpleasant as faith-stretching, spiritual tests can be, being unprepared for the battles ahead is far worse. To help His first followers get ready for the upcoming church season when He would no longer be physically present with them, Jesus put His disciples through rigorous faith tests, including this ‘pop quiz’ on the Sea of Galilee. He had just fed thousands with fives loaves and a couple of fish, and He had previously calmed a storm on the same lake when He was on board with His followers. Now in the boat alone in the middle of the violent windstorm would they trust Jesus was still watching over them, and how would they handle Jesus coming to them in a strange new way?

Jesus still uses surprising figurative and even literal storms to develop our faith, and He still comes to us in unexpected ways that can frighten us. Whether your storm is financial, medical, marital, parental, moral or even just an extra-innings rainy-season blues battle, Jesus has good, faith-developing purposes for our trials, and the reality that we are going through them does not necessarily mean that we have been disobedient. Jesus’ first followers were doing exactly what He told them to do when the storm hit. We want to regularly ask God to reveal our sins to us so that we can turn from them and grow with Him, but we don’t have to cry “What have I done?” in the midst of every trial. Tests and punishment are not the same thing, and there is no condemnation for anyone in Christ. God is watching over you as you struggle against the winds of your storm, and when the time is best, He will end this test.

So, who or what are we relying on as we go through life’s storms? Our strength, our resources, our wisdom? If it is really tough, maybe our friends and their strength? Friends certainly help, but God wants us to learn to trust in and rely on Him even when doing so requires us to go against all of our instincts and sensory understanding of an experience. People give Peter a hard time for doubting and sinking, but I think we need to applaud him for fixing His eyes on Jesus, getting out of the boat and taking at least a few steps of serious, circumstance-defying faith. Of course, he went on to look down and go down, which is what happens when we take our eyes off of Christ. When Jesus comes to us in surprising ways and calls us to come to Him in the midst of our storms, even when it goes against our understanding, I pray that we will be prepared to trust Him enough to leave the safety of the vessels we have known and walk by faith into the future He has prepared for us.