Aboard - A piece of lumber that may be used to repair your boat.
Adrift - A method of moving across the water when nothing on your boat works.
Astern - A type of look. Your spouse gives you astern look when you attempt to buy things for your new boat.
Bow - This is what you do in front of your banker when you are asking for more money to spend on your boat.
Bridge - Something you cross to get to the other side of a body of water when you do not have a boat available. Can also be used for removing masts of sailing vessels.
Compass – A navigational aid that accurately points to the largest metal object on your boat.
Crew - This term refers to the people working on your boat. They are usually friends or acquaintances that do not find out about the "work" part of the ride until you are away from the dock.
Deck - This is what your spouse will do to you after discovering how much money you have spent on the boat without first obtaining permission.
Hatch - A device similar in nature to a mousetrap, in that it will drop down on your head or hand without warning. Also an opening for admitting water into the boat.
Keel - A stopping device for your boat. It works by contacting the bottom of the water body you are in, thus inhibiting forward motion.
Line – What you feed your spouse in order to obtain funding for additional boat-related purchases.
Mess – A term indicative of food, more indicative of the way shipboard galleys usually look.
Overboard - The final resting-place for anything expensive dropped while on board a boat.
Wave – A unique feature of water that enables it to gain entry into your boat.
Yacht – When discussing boats, if the other is determined to be smaller than yours, it is then customary to refer to yours as a yacht.
Ministers, who have often spent a lot of time and money going to seminary, often feel a need to prove that they got something from that whole experience. This is one of those times for me. I wrote a paper on this passage in one of my classes so now every time I read it I think about that paper. Please indulge me for a moment while get that out of my system, and then I promise that I’ll get around to preaching a sermon.
The question that my paper addressed was, “Is the Narrative of Jesus Walking on the Water a Displaced Resurrection Narrative?” So what is a “displaced resurrection narrative” anyway? The notion is that the accounts of some resurrection appearances were placed by the writers of the Gospels, or by later editors, back into the life of Jesus where we read them out of place and time. This claim is often heard concerning the transfiguration, sometimes the feeding of the five thousand, and often related to this passage.
I can imagine a narrative being placed, on purpose or by accident, somewhat out of order. Maybe two events that illustrate a similar point or occurred in the same location might be presented next to each other instead of in strict chronological order. Still, it hardly seems reasonable that an event that occurred after the resurrection would ever be placed earlier. While I don’t think that there really are any displaced resurrection narratives, I can see why some would reach that conclusion about this passage. Imagine reading this passage totally disconnected from any context. Where would you put it?
First, there is a certain superficial similarity to that odd resurrection appearance in John 21. We read it earlier today. Sometime after Jesus death, the disciples are in Galilee. Peter decides that he wants to go fishing so he and the others spend all night on the lake and catch nothing. The next morning, when they are ready to quit, a stranger tells them to lower their nets one more time. They net a huge catch. Peter recognizes the stranger on the shore and jumps in the water to swim to him. You see the common elements. The disciples are in a boat. Jesus makes a miraculous appearance, and Peter ends up in the water.
More significantly, our passage just sounds like a resurrection story. The disciples are huddled alone in the dark. Jesus appears and is thought to be a ghost. There is doubt and fear. Finally, Jesus is recognized and worshipped. Do you see the similarity to some resurrection accounts?
There are some very real questions about this passage that cause some to wonder. Does it make sense that Jesus would send the disciples ahead while he stayed behind to pray? How did they think that they were going to get together again? And at the end of this story, the disciples worship Jesus and declare that he is the Son of God. Is there anywhere else where Jesus allows himself to be worshipped prior to the resurrection? And this recognition that Jesus is the Son of God comes before Peter’s confession in Matthew 16 that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. What makes that confession so profound if all the disciples had already made a similar confession?
As I said earlier, I don’t think that there is anything such thing as a displaced resurrection narrative. My own theory is that some people have grown very uncomfortable with the whole notion of the miraculous. Consequently, they spend a great deal of time explaining away miracles and telling us what really happened. These folks see all of the resurrection stories as non-historical faith expressions. In an odd way, classifying some narratives as resurrection stories makes them seem less miraculous. If you do not begin with their premise that every miracle needs to be explained away, you don’t reach their conclusions.
But still, there are valid questions here. What is going on?
For the next several weeks, the gospel readings in the lectionary come from a section in Matthew where Jesus is revealing his nature and his mission to the disciples. This section actually begins with the execution of John the Baptist in Matthew 14 and ends with the Transfiguration in Matthew 17. In this section we have the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus walking on the water, the story of the Canaanite woman, the feeding of the four thousand, the Pharisees demanding a sign, Peter’s confession, and Jesus’ first prediction of his death. Prior to this section in Matthew, Jesus is a great teacher, healer and miracle worker. After this section, Jesus is the Messiah on a path that leads to the cross. The execution of John the Baptist changes the tone and foreshadows the inevitable end.
In our passage, Jesus has just fed the five thousand. We often miss the impact of that passage because we focus on the miracle. The key element is actually a revelation. There was a common Jewish belief at the time that when the Messiah would come he would slay leviathan, the sea monster who swallowed Jonah, and would host a great miraculous banquet in celebration. This miraculous feeding of the five thousand is a subtle revelation that Jesus is the Messiah. Unfortunately, it also becomes a symbol that many will follow the Messiah when their bellies are full, but few remain when the way becomes difficult.
Jesus often secludes himself for prayer. Do you remember back in chapter 4 of Matthew when Jesus was revealed as the Son of God at His baptism? On that occasion he spent the next 40 days in prayer. Now, he is being revealed as the Messiah. It is not at all surprising that, after this very public miracle and its deeper meaning, he would want to spend a few hours away.
We should stop and take notice here. If Jesus thought it important to spend significant amounts of time away and in prayer, what should that say to us? Do we have less of a need to spend time in reflection and meditation? Do we have less of a need to align our purposes with the purposes of God? Are our schedules packed so many more important things to do that we can’t set aside time? I mean, Jesus was only here to save the world from its separation from God. We have really important stuff to do, like meeting this quarter’s quota. Is there no time in our calendars for time away with God?
Given the crowds, Jesus probably sent the disciples away as a sort of diversion. Perhaps the disciples believed that they would be returning to pick him up, or maybe they assumed that he would catch up with them on the other side of the lake. Jesus had begun his public ministry a couple of year’s earlier in this same area. He had friends here, including Zebedee, the father of James and John, who could have taken him across later. The disciples were not leaving Jesus alone in some strange and hostile place. This was home. If Jesus wanted a break, well he deserved it.
The passage does not explain why Jesus ended his prayers and went to meet the disciples. Possibly the storm was the reason. Jesus knew that the disciples were frightened and in danger so he went to them. As he did, he demonstrated something else. He showed that he had power over the waters, over the waves, over the wind, and over the storm.
This story of Jesus walking on the water is told in Mark and John, but neither of them includes this next part. Peter gets out of the boat.
Let’s think about this for a moment. Throughout Scripture, boats represent safety and refuge while large bodies of water represent danger and the unknown. Think about Noah and his family seeking refuge in the ark while the world is destroyed in a great flood. Think of Jonah. There the boat represented the apparent safety of running from God’s call to proclaim a message of salvation to the people of Nineveh. Jonah thought that he was safe, but another storm forced him out of the boat. Jonah had no choice but to face the unknown and fulfill his calling.
In early Christian preaching, boats were often identified with the church. The church is a refuge of safety and salvation in a storm tossed and scary world. There is another story in Matthew, Mark, and Luke (the Matthew passage is Matthew 8). In that passage, Jesus is and the disciples are on a boat in a storm. Jesus is asleep. The disciples are afraid so they wake Jesus who calms the storm. Early Christian preachers saw this as a lesson about the church that has lost its purpose – a church in which Christ is asleep. Such a church is threatened by the storms around it, but is saved when it awakens its sleeping faith.
The thing that makes Matthew’s version of our passage this morning unique is that Peter gets out of the boat. Now, Peter getting out of the boat is not unique that happens on 3 occasions.
When Jesus first called Peter to be a disciple, what was Peter doing? Fishing of course. On a boat. That boat represented the safety of his familiar a comfortable life. Now it was not a easy life. And it wasn’t a fulfilling life. But it was what he had done all his life and what his father had done before him. But Jesus asked him to take a risk = to get out of the boat and become a fisher of men.
In the resurrection appearance in John 21, the one we talked about earlier, Peter gets out of the boat again. On that occasion, the boat represented the safety of returning to the old and familiar once Jesus was no longer there to lead them. On that occasion, getting out of the boat meant continuing to proclaim the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection in a world where such proclamations could lead to an untimely death.
But what does getting out of the boat mean in our story. Here I think that the boat symbolizes the church. This is a church without Jesus, so instead of being a place of refuge and safety, which was the intent, it is a church that is buffeted about by all of the cares of the world. It is a church that is on the verge of sinking. But in the midst of the storm, Jesus comes to save his people. The strange thing is that Jesus is not found in the church. Instead, he has been at work in the world.
Now did you hear what Peter said when saw Jesus? He says "tell me to come to you on the water”. That is different, isn’t it? Peter does not wait for Jesus to call him, the way he did when Jesus first called him to be a disciple, and he doesn’t just hop into the water as he will after the resurrection. Peter here takes a middle ground. He is ready and willing to get out of the boat, but he isn’t sure if that is the right thing to do, so he asks Jesus to tell him to come.
We know the rest of the story. Even outside the boat, in the midst of trials and tribulations, Peter could prevail as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. When he lost focus and began to look at the storms around him, he made himself vulnerable to that which he feared. Only the extended hand of Jesus saved him.
So where are we? We sit in this church. It is a refuge from the cares and troubles of the world. Yet, if we are honest, we would admit that we too are being tossed about on stormy seas. And worse, the ocean outside our little boat is raging. There are troubled souls out there. There are people whose lives are broken and who feel alienated. There are those who are simply adrift. They are existing, but not living because their lives have no meaning and no purpose. There is a sea of trouble raging around us. Will we huddle in fear?
But look, out on the horizon. Do you see Him? It’s Christ - the same Christ to whom we dedicated our boat. What is he doing out there among all those hurting people? Why isn’t He in here with us where we need him?
So know comes the question – are we willing to get out of the boat. Staying in here seems safe, but the harder we try to avoid any risk, the more we condemn ourselves to a slow and purposeless death. But the alternative means giving up our safety right now. Those storms could kill us. In fact, they are almost guaranteed to be overwhelming. The only way that we can possibly survive is to keep our eyes on Jesus and walk hand in hand with him. What was it that Jesus said? Wasn’t it something about having to loose our lives to find them?
There is a reward if we take the risk. God does not promise that we will be successful. He promises that he will be with us.
Just as our passage today ends with the disciples recognizing Jesus as the Son of God wand worshipping Him, we will also come to know God in a profound way. We worship God when we know Him. We know Him when we follow Him. We follow Him when we are willing to take the risk and get out of the boat.
