Podcast of "Boat on the Sea" (MP3)
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b
Romans 10:5-15
Matthew 14:22-33
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
This week has been so hot that I’ve been reminiscing about Christmas, particularly the Chrismons, the symbols that hang on our tree. There are loads of them and each of these symbols has a meaning for the faith. There are doves and fish and letters and crosses and triangles just for a start. There are in all a couple dozen designs that go on the tree.
The triangles represent the trinity. The crosses represent the crucifixion. These are pretty obvious. The letters that look like a capital X and a capital P are the Greek letters Chi and Rho Ark.
There are a whole bunch of chrismons and they all mean something different. There is a traditional Chrismon that we don’t have on our tree though, the sailboat. The sailboat represents the church.
After the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus made the disciples, the twelve apostles along with other believers, go to the other side of the sea, shipping them off in a boat while he saw off the rest of the masses.
This is the first time in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus sends the disciples off on their own. For the disciples, they must have felt like kids being sent off to camp for the first time-apprehensive but excited. For Jesus, it must have felt like being the parent-apprehensive, excited, and maybe probably glad to have a moment alone. No wonder Jesus went off to pray.
So later in the evening, early in the morning really, the boat was being buffeted by the waves. Headway was difficult and the sea was dangerous. Jesus didn’t promise them an easy trip, he just told them to get going.
The sea holds special meaning for Matthew’s readers, the Jewish disciples. To them, the sea was a place of danger and uncertainty. Several of them knew the dangers of the sea first hand; but all of them knew from the creation story that the waters were the place of chaos. The waters were a place of danger and death. Swiss theologian Karl Barth pegged ancient Jewish feelings about the waters saying, “It is a representative of all the evil powers which oppress and resist the salvation intended for the people of Israel .”[1] They were in the midst of their worst known and unknown fears in that pre-dawn darkness.
Without Jesus their lives were in the chaos, and they feared dying without him. Still, they weren’t terrified… yet.
In their rain soaked wind battered vessel, suddenly they see someone, something, walking toward them on the water, and then they were terrified. Scripture says they asked “Is it a ghost?” Now I just can’t imagine a bunch of terrified men having a chat, discussing whoever or whatever it is that has power to walk across the churning sea, and asking questions like “Is it a ghost?” like they’re a debating society.
Instead, I imagine a bunch of scared men, some experienced deckhands but most of them landlubbers deluxe, losing their battle against the world of chaos that seeks nothing less than their lives, seeing something that looks like Jesus but can’t possibly be human. As scary as the storm is for them, the vision is what terrifies them. They know the sea as a place of death, so it can’t really be Jesus walking on the water; it must be some kind of phantom. Scripture says “they cried out in fear.” As for me, I would be screaming like a little girl.
Jesus responds, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
That’s the way it reads in English, but it’s not what the people heard him say. What they heard was Jesus taking the Greek version of the name of God for himself. They heard him boom over the roar of the storm “I AM,” not “It is I.” That just might have been even scarier than seeing a ghost.
Jesus tells the disciples not to be afraid. Fat chance, eh? Jesus tells them He is who he is, as the Lord God told Moses I AM WHO I AM. So Peter, the Rock (and with a nickname like that, we should have seen what’s coming next), he says, “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Jesus says, “Come” and Peter does.
It’s all good for a couple of steps; but when pummeled by the wind and the rain and the waves; the chaos of water and life overwhelm Peter and he begins to sink. He cries out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reaches out to Peter saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
The traditional reading of these last words of Jesus on the water is that with a little more faith, Peter would have made it to Jesus. Imagine my surprise to find one of my commentaries says this isn’t what this passage is about.[2] The commentary says this passage is about the Lord and the church. The church is represented by the sailboat, just like with the Chrismon. So like I said earlier, the sea is the chaos of all creation and now the boat is the church. This makes us the boat on the sea.
Getting back to the narrative: As usual, Peter has his own ideas. He sees the Lord on the sea and says, “If it is you, then command me to come to you,” and the Lord replies “Come.” People see Peter’s subsequent sinking as a sign that his faith isn’t strong enough. With just a little more faith, Peter could have made it to Jesus and they could have walked together in victory to the boat. Well, that’s not what I think anymore.
First of all, the command to come is not Jesus testing Peter’s faith. This is Peter testing Jesus. Let me say that again, this is Peter testing Jesus. Let me rephrase what Peter said to Jesus: “You have just said you are not a ghost. You have just identified yourself by the name of the Lord God. So if it is you, command me to come to you.”
Jesus won’t tell a lie. He’s not a ghost, he is the Lord, it is he, and he is who he is. Jesus answers Peter’s question, “Is it you?” the way Peter asked it be answered, “Command me to come!”
You gotta give it to Jesus; he answers our prayers even when it makes us look foolish.
So Peter leaves the relative safety of the boat and tries to get to Jesus on his own. And when he does, the treacherous world drops on his head and he begins to sink. Begging for salvation, he is plucked out of chaos by Jesus, the gracious Lord who takes Peter by the hand and returns him to the boat.
In the broader symbolic sense, Peter not only leaves the boat, he leaves the church and tries to get to Jesus on his own. He tries and he sinks, and so it is with any of us. When we try to get to God on our own, inevitably chaos overwhelms us. When we leave the church to find God on our own, the church which is the body of Christ, we ultimately fail miserably and find ourselves sinking in the morass.
Peter’s little faith is not that he couldn’t get to Jesus. His little faith was that he thought leaving the boat, the church, was the way to get to Jesus. His little faith was that he thought he could walk across the sea, across the chaos of creation, to get to Jesus. His little faith was that he thought it better to walk through the chaos himself without his comrades in the faith than wait for Jesus to make it to the boat.
Peter’s little faith was depending on himself and not on the coming of Jesus, the grace of God. Is there a more dramatic example of grace than Jesus coming to the boat? Than Jesus coming to the Church? While we were sinners, while we were still fearful, while we still thought nature had domain over our lives; Jesus comes into our lives. Jesus comes and picks us up out of chaos. Jesus comes and saves us. Jesus comes to the church and stills the storms of our lives.
Peter’s little faith was not in the loss of sincere belief or brave action; he had lost faith that Jesus would come to the church thinking it was up to him to go on his own. He placed too much faith in himself and not enough in Christ the Lord.
I know that this is not the usual way of interpreting this scripture. The traditional way of looking at this passage has us seeing Peter and his faith. The way this scripture is traditionally interpreted, it’s all about Peter. Now that I have looked at it differently, I don’t want to go back to thinking about Peter. Scripture is not about us, about humanity, it’s about God. This rendering, brings us closer to that. This rendering has this passage about the church and Christ, not about personal shortcomings, and that’s important.
The Word of God is about God. It’s about God’s work. It’s about God’s sovereignty. It’s about who God is, it’s not about us.
God’s sovereignty is found in Genesis when the wind, the breath, the Spirit of God, sweeps over the waters and in a word God said “Let there be light, and there was light. We find evidence of his sovereignty when God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters,” separating the waters of chaos from the waters of life.
Our reading brings Jesus demonstrating his sovereignty over the waters of chaos walking across them and stilling them. The response of the people showed what should always be the response of God’s people, bowing down, worshiping, and saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
We find the sovereignty of Jesus affirmed in the words of Paul in Romans when he writes “there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Paul would have told us to be like Jesus, the one who ate with prostitutes, tax collectors, scribes, Pharisees, and other sinners. He would have reminded us God is our refuge and our strength. He would have told us the world will know we are Christians by our love. Paul would have told us all not just to get on the boat as Jesus commanded, but stay in the boat. He’s coming.
Jesus not only saves us individually, as he did with Peter, but more importantly as the church when he came aboard and the winds and seas stilled. This was the fruit of Peter’s little faith.
Jesus sends the church onto the chaotic sea of creation. As then, we are called to do the work the Lord has sent us to do. We are to faithfully live our vocation as the people of Christ. This has been the call of the church since the days of Moses, since the days of Jesus, and this is the call we are still called to fulfill today.
Hear now this word for the body of Christ: “Stay in the boat, Jesus is coming.” He is in the Word and in the world. He is sovereign and he is in charge. He may not be coming quickly enough to suit us. The ride is going to be bumpy, but that’s the way it is on the sea. Still Jesus tells us to take heart, be courageous, do not be afraid. The promise remains; in the Lord Jesus we receive eternal life.
What better example of God’s grace is there than Jesus coming to the disciples, coming to the church, during the storm that would take their lives if he let it. Let’s all be here when he comes aboard. For when he comes, as happened two thousand years ago, those in the boat will worship him saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
The boat is on the sea and the sea is dangerous. Stay in the boat; Jesus is coming. Share in the grace. He shows us his grace and his power as he walks on the water to the vessel. We don’t have to leave what he has ordained; the church which is his body. Let’s all, all of us stay on the boat. Let us stay in the boat especially while it’s out on the dangerous sea. Jesus is coming, the Word is coming.
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