by Rev. Dr John Evans
Remember last week – we had all the bread? Bags and bags of it. I suggested that a text for our church be,
‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’
The story of feeding the 5,000 (not counting the women and children) was about how the church responds to “the crowds”, to the sheep without a shepherd. It was about how a small offering, in that instance just five loaves of bread and two fish, could become, like the mustard seed, or the yeast in the flour, food enough to feed a large crowd. Our story dealt with not only the growth and spread of the kingdom of God, but the sort of food that people required – the bread of heaven. In a word, it was miraculous. And yes, it directly addressed us here as we, as the Church of All Nations, endeavour to meet human need around about us.
This week however, the gospel message turns sharply on to us, our faith – and generally how we cope as disciples of Christ, the people called to give others something to eat.
Last week it was feeding the crowds; today it is coping in storms and almost drowning.
By now you will have got a message that there is more to learn from a particular gospel story if one considers its context and the general flow of the gospel narrative. What directly comes before the disciples battling a storm on the Sea of Galilee, is the feeding of the crowd. The two are linked with the word “immediately’. Immediately Jesus sends the disciples off in a boat so he can meet them on the other side. Indeed in the Greek, he “insisted” his disciples depart. He remains on shore and then he dismisses the crowd. At last he has the opportunity to be alone – what he was seeking to do in the first place when he heard of the murder of his kinsman John the Baptist. So he goes up a mountain to pray.
If I were a movie director this is where you would have the long shots, fading in an out, with appropriate music. There are the disciples bobbing up and down in their boat, entering a storm – together, but without Jesus who in their earlier boat trip falls asleep in a similar storm. What is it – the church without the physical Christ present? And here shuffling along the shore are the crowds – fed, but do they really understand? They still possibly look like sheep without a shepherd – but they know there can be more to life – they literally had a foretaste. And then over here is Christ in prayer – praying we know not what – but I think we could guess.
The narrative however, turns to what it means for these disciples when Jesus is not with them. It is highly suggestive of the situation that Matthew’s community would itself be in. For that matter, it captures also the position of the church today being battered and tossed by the sea and the wind around about them. The disciples are afraid.
And early in the morning . . . it sort of has an Easter ring about it. . . early in the morning Jesus comes walking towards them on the sea. At this point our modern scientific minds are lost – such does not happen. Gravity prevails and we would sink. Nor, it should be said, would the hearers of this gospel readily accept this story as well. Water, and particularly storms, represent chaos and confusion. Remember the opening of Genesis with God moving across the face of the deep – the face of disorder and chaos. Only God walks on water – as it is said in Job – “who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8). Precisely in this rather symmetrically constructed story, Jesus does only what God can do – what is more in the face of the terrified questioning of the disciples he speaks with the voice of God: “I am” – remember the name of God given to Moses at the burning bush. Here Jesus says, “Take heart, it is I.” “I am”.
Miraculous, mysterious – certainly very evocative Jesus approaches the disciples in the boat. However, in the gospel of Matthew there is more: Peter. This is the edge to Matthew’s story – it is not just about the broad presence of Christ, nor the Holy Spirit within the life of the church which is struggling then, or even now. It is about whether his disciples actually believe and have faith.
Now we might say Peter is just Peter. There is only one big fisherman; tempestuous, quick to say yes, quick to affirm the divinity of Jesus, but just as likely to deny his leader when the chips are down. And so this could be a further insight into the man – but really in this instance it is about all the people in the boat; including you and I. It is about our faith and understanding of Jesus. Jesus comes toward the boat, for the Church – but what are we doing, you and I, in our own storms and possible swirling difficulties?
So what happens?
First, Peter perhaps strangely asks, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water”. Peter does not say – Lord if it is you – still this storm. He wants Jesus, as it were, to set him a test – Lord if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.
Jesus simply says “come”.
It goes well to begin with – but when he notices the strong wind, he becomes frightened, and begins to sink. He cries out, “Save me”.
Jesus reaches out his hand with the words, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” The word for doubt here is not of scepticism, but why do you waver between two views – more vacillation than lack of trust.
They then get into the boat with the others and the storm passes.
There are several ways we may view this challenge about our faith.
A dangerous interpretation of it is: “If Peter had had enough faith, he could have walked on water” or, “if we have enough faith, we can overcome all our problems in spectacular ways”. Faith, in this view, is reduced to being able to deliver exceptional outcomes in the context of the normal ups and downs of life: the warp and woof of our ordinary days. Days – all subject to the very normal and predictable processes of biology and physics. So when our realities are shattered by disease, accident, aging, financial ruin, whatever, we see that not overcoming these difficulties must mean we lack faith. We lack faith – therefore we cannot do the impossible and walk on water.
This interpretation is dangerous because God is reduced to a fickle manipulator of our life – nothing can really be trusted. However, the story can be seen in another light. That is when we face difficulties and the problems of life – Jesus is there with us. Jesus will always comes towards us – miraculously perhaps come towards us. Our faith affirms this – God is with us. We are not alone. God is not the means of reversing of the natural processes, or rolling back our aging, or our financial problem or whatever. In our story – it is believing that Jesus actually does come to us – if you like does come towards us while we are being tossed around in the boat by the storms of life. Faith is that God is with us in the boat, that God is made real in the community of faith, and together we make our way through the storm battered by the waves.
I think this is helpful. That is the sort of faith we should have. The community is important – you really don’t need to get our of the boat and check Jesus is coming – you just believe he is there. But there is another way we also could think of Peter’s actions – which in a sense builds on this understanding of faith. His request of Jesus for the command to leave the boat, was really an understanding that miracles only happen at the call of God, at the word of Jesus, when God says so. Peter’s problem was not that he did not believe at all in Jesus – he afterwards calls him Lord, but that he wavered, vacillated – so on the one hand but then on the other – whether Jesus’ command could be trusted.
So Peter does not so much ask directly for supernatural powers. In his asking to be commanded to walk, he recognises that whatever Jesus commands, Jesus makes possible. The commands of Jesus, taken seriously, can create miracles; they may open an incredible reservoir of divine resources. Apart from such commands from Christ, not much unusual is actually going to happen. So to Peter’s credit, on this analysis, when the command is spoken, Peter gets out of the boat and begins to walk toward Jesus . . . believing in the command.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic analysis of Peter’s response is worth quoting:
Peter had to leave the ship and risk his life on the sea, in order to learn both his own weakness and the almighty power of his Lord. If Peter had not taken the risk, he would never have learned the meaning of faith . . . The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus. Unless a definite step is demanded, the call vanishes into thin air, and if [people] imagine that they can follow Jesus without taking this step, they are deluding themselves like fanatics.
Faith really is a verb, believing is doing something. Here it is the following of Jesus who calls “Come”. It might be to say some difficult words to a colleague at work or a family member. It might be a sense of call to a new vocation – a new town. Whatever. Unless you do it – respond – do you really know you have faith? Faith is not just some intellectual exercise. Bonhoeffer goes on to say, “Faith is only real where there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience” (The Cost of Discipleship. Macmillan, New York 1960, pp53-60). Had Peter remained in the boat and not taken the first step, his faith would have been worthless.
On this view, Peter is not the sceptic who habitually doubts, but the faithful follower who becomes overwhelmed by the circumstances surrounding him, the wind was howling remember, who begins to lose their nerve, vacillates when they discover the odds stacked against them, but who from Jesus finds a steadying, delivering hand.
In this story of Peter, the journey of all disciples, ancient and modern, is told. We are able to see ourselves and to take heart. We find courage from his daring response to Jesus’ command and from Jesus’ gracious move to secure his faltering faith. At the end of the day faith and works are not that far apart . . . but Christ is there.
Just to summarise – yes, there can be miracles with small things – mustard seeds, yeast and a couple of loaves and fish, but this kingdom of God really depends on the disciples – those few disciples in the boat. It will occasionally be stormy in that boat – Jesus will not be physically present. Believe, however; Jesus will not leave you alone, God Immanuel – Christ will be with you. But more than that, be prepared to respond to God’s call, God’s challenge – that act of obedience will be the measure of your faith. Faith here was not getting the words right – you are the Son of God; but responding to Jesus who said, “Come”.
